Best Schools - Labour private school plans ‘an attack on parents’, says headteacher

Labour's plans to effectively abolish private schools represent an "attack" on parents who choose to spend money on their children's education, a Shropshire headteacher has claimed.

Martin Stott, headmaster at Old Hall School, in Wellington, has hit back at the Labour Party plans, which were agreed in a motion at its conference last month.

Mr Stott, whose school is a 4 to 11 co-educational day school, said parents paying to send their children to private schools are effectively paying for education twice.

The Labour Party motion supports policies that would take away charitable status for private schools, would add VAT to fees, restrict their pupils’ access to higher education, and redistribute their endowments, investments and properties to the state sector.

Mr Stott said that private education is one of the country's most successful 'products' and that it would make no sense to scrap it.

He said: "The abolition of private schools by integrating them all into the state sector is surely simply an attack on those parents who choose to spend their money on their children's education.

"Many parents work incredibly hard and use much of their hard-earned income to give their children what they believe is the best possible start in life.

"Not all independent school parents are rich and in fact many parents make serious sacrifices to send their children to independent schools and shouldn't be pilloried because of their choices. Independent schools, many of them charities, also offer support to thousands of children who receive bursaries which enable them to attend.

"Many other parents choose to spend their money on different priorities and are not criticised for that. Will the next step be the banning of private medical care? After all, why should individuals be allowed to pay to improve their own and their families health just because they can?"

Lancing College Chapel - the world’s largest school Chapel to be finally completed after 153 years

Lancing College and the Friends of Lancing Chapel have recently launched a fundraising campaign to complete the West End of Lancing Chapel. With 70% of the target already raised, the campaign seeks to raise the remaining £350,000 to complete the work in 2020.

It is just over 40 years since the Chapel’s west wall and rose window were dedicated by the Archbishop of Canterbury in the presence of HRH The Prince of Wales. The final touch to this Gothic masterpiece will be an elegant three-arched porch for the west front which will provide shelter for new glazed doors at the entrance to this Grade 1 listed national monument.

Work will start on the project in October this year and will be completed by the end of 2020 with a service of dedication planned for the summer of 2021. Lancing Chapel is known for being the largest school chapel in the world and the fourth tallest ecclesiastical building in the British Isles.