Nice people thread part 6 - thrice by twice as nice :)

zagubov

michaels wrote: »

They are starting to get more flexible now but before with teaching salaries being highly regulated all teachers would like to teach in the best schools, preferably where housing wasn't too expensive hence these schools would be able to take their pick of the best teachers leaving the less good or less experienced to teach in the more challenging schools when surely common sense would suggest it should be the other way around?

There must be quite a few threads exploring how house prices change when schools become good. Inflated house prices in good state school catchment areas becoming a substitute for school fees.

In the last borough we lived in all the houses we looked at in the good school catchment area had a school photo on display or a school uniform hanging on a door! I think we did the same when we sold our house.:cool:

silvercar

CKhalvashi wrote: »

We pay £8k a year, per child, however it's tax free for us as the company claims it back as a charitable donation. They're trying to close this loophole now.

CK

chewmylegoff wrote: »

Erm. Your accountant sounds dodgy.

Id get a second opinion if I were you because that sounds like tax fraud on at least two levels to me.

Very dodgy - either you are getting a benefit in kind and so should be declaring that on your P11D or the company is making payment on your behalf and it should be subject to income tax. I know this because we inquired if it was possible and was told that this loophole was closed in the 1980s!

vivatifosi

Doozer was asking yesterday about L shaped houses. I've seen one that I like. It's kind of L shape if you ignore the bump at the side. But I like the vibe and the terraces and the big windows. Unfortunately it's in Australia:

http://www.metricon.com.au/regional-victoria/homes/addison

silvercar

chewy wrote:

Further if one of my parents did need to go into a care home, and they got NHS funded care, I would still want their money to be used to top up that care to get them into a better home, because let's face it, the cheaper the care home the worse it's going to be.

Compare that to education, if we were to introduce educational vouchers, it would be unacceptable to most that those vouchers could be used for private schools and parents allowed to "top-up" and pay the extra for private education. And we couldn't say the more poorly funded, the poorer the education because the lower ranking schools are given greater funding to bring them up to scratch.

michaels

I clicked on virtual tour and I am now quite dizzy

CK I think you need to stop !!!!!-footing around. Resign from your company after doing the work but before billing for it then when the money comes in ask the company to 'lend' it to you interest free on a permanent basis...

vivatifosi wrote: »

Doozer was asking yesterday about L shaped houses. I've seen one that I like. It's kind of L shape if you ignore the bump at the side. But I like the vibe and the terraces and the big windows. Unfortunately it's in Australia:

http://www.metricon.com.au/regional-victoria/homes/addison

michaels

What if a private provider was willing to provide schooling for the amount the state pays per pupil, any reason why we shouldn't contract out the whole thing?

silvercar wrote: »

Compare that to education, if we were to introduce educational vouchers, it would be unacceptable to most that those vouchers could be used for private schools and parents allowed to "top-up" and pay the extra for private education. And we couldn't say the more poorly funded, the poorer the education because the lower ranking schools are given greater funding to bring them up to scratch.

LydiaJ

zagubov wrote: »

The figures I've come across suggest that a year of state school costs £6k per year (of course private schools can spend, and charge, double that, and get better outcomes).
Educating someone at Uni costs £12k per year (and students pay £9k of that themselves or via a government loan).

Mind you about 40 years ago about a sixth of the population went to uni, now it must surely be closer to a half.

CKhalvashi wrote: »

We pay £8k a year, per child, however it's tax free for us as the company claims it back as a charitable donation. They're trying to close this loophole now.

CK

Yours are only little ATM, CK. Private secondary schools are much more expensive. £20k+ a year is not unusual.

zagubov wrote: »

There must be quite a few threads exploring how house prices change when schools become good. Inflated house prices in good state school catchment areas becoming a substitute for school fees.

In the last borough we lived in all the houses we looked at in the good school catchment area had a school photo on display or a school uniform hanging on a door! I think we did the same when we sold our house.:cool:

They opened a new comp up the road from my parents a few years ago. The area's fairly affluent, so the school had the advantage of an intake who were likely to do well, and has rapidly built itself a good reputation. It's done wonders for the house prices, from the POV of the people who own them.

vivatifosi

michaels wrote: »

CK I think you need to stop !!!!!-footing around. Resign from your company after doing the work but before billing for it then when the money comes in ask the company to 'lend' it to you interest free on a permanent basis...

Jimmy Carr is soooo going to have the p*ss taken out of him for that little move. Good.

LydiaJ

silvercar wrote: »

Compare that to education, if we were to introduce educational vouchers, it would be unacceptable to most that those vouchers could be used for private schools and parents allowed to "top-up" and pay the extra for private education. And we couldn't say the more poorly funded, the poorer the education because the lower ranking schools are given greater funding to bring them up to scratch.

Socioeconomic background is still the biggest predictor of educational achievement. So it makes sense to put extra resources into the schools that educate the poorest children. The equivalent for the elderly would be to allocate bigger vouchers for those in worse health, not for those from poorer backgrounds, because there isn't the same direct link - although there is a correlation, of course.

michaels wrote: »

What if a private provider was willing to provide schooling for the amount the state pays per pupil, any reason why we shouldn't contract out the whole thing?

Depends what you mean by a private provider. In some ways, this is what academies are, but they are still led and run by teachers. There have been some experiments in getting private companies to run schools along the lines of "normal" businesses, with a leadership of business managers rather than teachers. I believe they have not been very successful. Education is just not quite like commerce, and different skills and experiences are needed to lead a school from those needed to run most kinds of business.

michaels

I finished the John Grisham and looked for something on the shelf I hadn't read. Most of our books are still in the shed and not being able to face Nicholas Sparks I picked up Chocolat. I have been trying to read it surreptitiously on the tube and fear I am really enjoying it - I feel I need to go out to the pub and shout at the football to make up for this little transgression....