Kate Hatton, a mother of two, said she has to pull both her sons out of private school after the cost to send them both increased by over £8,000 a year.
Of particular concern is her eldest son, who has additional needs and is neurodiverse, and thrives in the private school space.
Kate, a criminal barrister, told The i Paper: “Our eldest son spent two terms at a state school and it was disastrous on every level. At one point he was thrown to the ground by another child. The other parents were not welcoming and the teachers were not in control. It was like a den of iniquity.
“I saw him go from being a confident and happy child to having no confidence and being unhappy. His additional needs were also, in my view, not met. I could not continue to watch this happening.”
It comes as the number of children in private schools across the UK fell by 30,000 since January 2025, according to data from the Independent School Council.
Since the start of last year, private school fees, including tuition and boarding, are subject to 20 per cent VAT, whilst private schools have also lost their charitable business rates relief.
Kate, 49, lives in Warwickshire with her husband, 46, a car parts purchaser, and their two sons, aged 16 and 13.
Kate and her husband moved their eldest son to a private school when he was five, where Kate feels his additional needs are met. The couple’s youngest child is at a different private school where he is thriving academically.
Their youngest son’s school fees cost £23,000 a year, while their eldest’s cost £21,000 a year.
Kate said: “Since the VAT changes, we are paying more than £4,000 a year extra for school fees for each child annually – more than £8,000 a year in total for the two children.”
The couple’s eldest son recently completed his GCSEs and will be leaving his private school to go to a state school this year. Kate said school fees for their eldest had become “unaffordable” since the VAT change.
Kate said: “It is heartbreaking and we are devastated our eldest son is leaving a school he enjoys. But financially, we cannot keep paying the school fees. We’ve got no choice. I have sobbed about this decision.”
Kate said she was “anxious” about her eldest son going to a state school as his previous experience with one went badly.
The couple’s youngest son will also be moving to a state school once he finishes his GCSEs, again for financial reasons.
The children already do not go on school trips as the couple’s finances are too strained. “We simply can’t afford extracurricular trips, which is soul destroying as they are missing out,” Kate said.
Kate told The i Paper she uses credit cards to pay for her children’s school fees and works every hour she can in her job as a criminal barrister.
Since the imposition of VAT on school fees, Kate’s husband sold his car to help pay for the children’s school fees.
Kate added: “For six months after the fees were hiked my husband and I ate one meal a day to ensure the children could continue eating three meals a day.
“The children sacrifice Christmas and their birthdays. My husband and I are both only adding the bare minimum to pensions and we are on an interest-only mortgage, so that’s not getting paid off quickly. More than my salary is taken up by school fees.”
Some people assume parents of children at private schools are always wealthy and jetting off on multiple holidays a year. Kate said she believed “assumptions” such as these were “ignorant”.
She added: “Most of the parents I know with children at private schools are working multiple jobs to try and do the best for their children. More children will be leaving private schools as they are being priced out.”
Michelle Daniells, who runs AFIS: The Association for Families of Independent Schooling (AFIS), said: “The VAT policy was presented as a way of targeting privilege, but the families most able to absorb the additional costs have often been the least affected.
“The greatest pressure has frequently fallen on families who were already making significant sacrifices because they believed a particular school was right for their child.”
Michelle said she regularly hears from parents who have reduced pension contributions, taken on second jobs, cut back on household spending, postponed retirement plans, borrowed money or refinanced mortgages to ensure they could keep paying their children’s school fees.
Michelle added: “If more state schools were consistently able to meet the needs of more children, fewer families would feel the need to make significant financial sacrifices to pay for independent education.”
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