Marie*, 36, has had a rough couple of years. Based in the West Midlands, she has been teaching for a decade. In 2024, she joined a private all-girls’ school as a PE teacher after, she describes, being “lured away from my job at a lovely state secondary – the new role was a dream job!”
While she quickly fell in love with the ethos and dedication at her school she, together with her colleagues, spent her time waiting for the other shoe to drop. The then-chancellor Rachel Reeves had officially confirmed the policy to add VAT to private school fees in summer 2024, which was coming into effect in January 2025. And the teachers could see that they were likely in financial trouble.
“It was becoming rather strange around school,” she says. “Rumours flying and senior leadership started getting unwell. We all continued to work hard, doubling our workload with new starters, making sure everything was the best it could possibly be – then the roof leaked, the Microsoft account wasn’t renewed and bills started to take a long time to be paid,” she says.
After a year of uncertainty and constant stress, the school was finally announced to be closing for good this summer. And the experience, she adds, has taken a toll.
