"...not because we want to buy a head-start for our children, but we want them to have as good an education as we can get"
Paying more for better education is literally buying them a head-start.
He doesn't want to buy them a headstart but wants them to have "as good an education as we can get"...... which given that most children can't get one, is buying them a head start. Maybe the money raised could be used to support SEN within state schools Xander?
A small issue but if you’re claiming to be extremely poor, maybe don’t have your photo taken wearing a silk cravat while sitting next to a very large and fancy lamp.
hahahaha we all really like Pointless, Xander, you could have just kept your sobbing about having to pay VAT on your kid's education to yourself, I promise.
“We’re not trying to buy a head start for our children, we just want to give them the best education. In order to give them a head start. Which we have bought.”
My 10yo has SEN and the state has been amazing. He has an EHCP which describes the accommodations he needs and gets funding for that in the state system. The local private school doesn't even have a SENCO.
We should tax them even more.
Having read a number of articles by these desperately downtrodden parents sending their kids to private school, I have come to the conclusion that it is basically impossible to defend it and not sound like a privileged, disingenuous, dissembling, out-of-touch berk.
Look, I try not to comment on people’s appearance but wearing a cravat (actually nothing wrong with it) while screaming about how poor you are feel like some upper class gentleman from the Victorian period trying satire.
It is unsurprising to learn that Armstrong lives in a house (a very big house) in the country. Maybe he should consider downsizing to somewhere more affordable.
Or perhaps his wife will have to go to work as well.
Oh dear, so a guy, worth millions who was educated privately but didn't send his kids to private school to "get a head start" is feeling extremely poor because of VAT being applied. Poor fella, he'll probably have to do another advert for AirBnB to make up the difference.
Does he not know he can just send the one kid to the school that’s more accommodating to their needs, send the rest to a state school and use the money saved to hire a 20something student to teach them music for the price of their private school uniforms?
You could give me a century and the finest educators in history; and I think I'd still fail at teaching Alexander Armstrong that the reason the comprehensive doesn't teach music any more, and would struggle to make an environment conducive to his child's SEND, is him and his peers actions.
I live with a child who goes to an independent specialist school (the child is in foster care, and I'm not privy to any specifics of how that's funded) and yes, the state schools couldn't help them much, but by god did they try!
I'm married to an Infant school headteacher. Her school works its socks off to give SEND children the best education possible. This is despite there being not enough money, funding takes too long, the pay for the specialist staff you need is terrible etc.
Fortunately, Britain already has a useful metric to establish which beloved entertainers have fallen on hard times and are desperate for work, and it is called Death In Paradise.
Cuts to the heart of why private schooling is immoral at its core, tbh, because you sort of can sympathise with the Partridge-esque "you can't muck about when it comes to your own kids" sentiment, since everyone wants the best for their children, but clearly it's unfair, so it simply shouldn't exist
That's the wild thing! This isn't even about whether that advantage should exist - it's about whether the companies selling that advantage for profit should pay VAT on their product! He should be pissed off at the swimming-in-cash school for immediately passing that cost on to customers!
Armstrong (the Pointless host - 😉) always reminds me of those annoying kids in class, straining with their hands in the air shouting 'Me, Sir! Me, Sir!' (or in my case 'Miss') Always ignored.
BBC and Classic FM must be very bad payers if he's so poor.
Our 13yo does not attend a private school, but is learning guitar and piano, and regularly takes part in music concerts. There are also services at his school to support children with SEN. I can only assume Alexander lives in an incredibly deprived area if none of his local schools offer similar.
There is OVERWHELMING support for this policy. It's one of the only vaguely bold policies this new milksoppy, Reform-appeasing, Trump-cuddling Labour government has brought in. You'll ONLY get sympathy from your own echo chamber crying about it in The Telegraph, son.
Even the "good" british journalists can't manage to wonder out loud why this subject gets more coverage than increased bus fares or even the business NI rates
'Private school is the only pace available for our children to learn music' is so telling like 'none of those povvos in state schools could ever conceive of playing music'...the arts are the preserve of the rich as ever
I have sympathy for the SEN argument, but it's selfish to say that the only solution is to send them to private school, rather than arguing for more robust investment in SEN services within state schools.
One might even dare to hope that the VAT income from parents who can afford private education for their kids (SEN or otherwise) could be put towards improving state provisions for the children of parents who can't afford it (particularly SEN).
I don't think the idea's ever occurred to him. Probably sat at home grumbling about having to do an additional episode of Pointless to make up for the extra outgoings!
Of course, an alternative would be to ban private schooling altogether and force the wealthy and powerful to get invested in improving state schooling. I doubt he'd prefer that.
"Private school is the only pace available for our children to learn music, without me sending them to normal schools and simply paying for private music tuition."
Fixed that for, you poor lamb, down to your last few million.
"We're not buying them a headstart, we just want the best we can afford, which happens to be roughly 10x what anyone else can, coincidentally this would give them a headstart but I swear we are being FORCED to send our children to St Edward's school for posh boater hat wearers"
I'm rather liking that he hasn't bought a headstart for his children, he just wants them to have the best education possible, which obviously means better than what the peasantry get.
What's the difference between 'buying a head start' and 'wanting the best education' exactly? And do people with kids in state schools not want good education for their kids? So many levels of privilege.
Nobody else gutted that this plonker running his mouth is ruining one of the last great bastions of joy in this country? He should have had a gag clause as part of his Duggee narrator contract 😭
Hearing a minor member of the aristocracy tell me he's feeling 'extremely poor' as he argues against taxes on the private schools he can afford to send multiple children to when there are actually people in the country who are struggling to afford food kind of takes the piss.
I despise the special educational needs argument. As the parent of a young woman with sen I have no doubt that she'd have fared much better at private school, it financially wasn't an option, no matter the number of 'life style' changes I could have made.
I'd go further and ban all private schools. I went to one, it was excellent but why should anyone get that extra headstart just because of £££?
Also, private music tuition is widely available and cheaper than school fees.
I love how they run straight into the point and still miss it: private schools shouldn't offer any benefit over state schools, the fact that they do so at all is a failure that should be corrected, not a reason to support them
I assume he campaigns on behalf of all those kids with special educational
needs who aren’t surviving in the state system and their parents aren’t rich. He is, by most definitions, rich.
Comments
...mainly, that it doesn't and shouldn't exist.
Paying more for better education is literally buying them a head-start.
Bored of your wealth and privilege ?
Have you tried the latest hobby all the upper middle classes are into .?
yeah how dare people hate the idea that we have a two-tier education system based on how much money you have
We should tax them even more.
Or perhaps his wife will have to go to work as well.
https://www.hellomagazine.com/homes/733177/alexander-armstrong-farm-bledington-wife-children/
Glad you had the choice.
Let’s not look up how much he earns doing Pointless…
THAT'S LITERALLY THE SAME THING JUST USING DIFFERENT WORDS.
BBC and Classic FM must be very bad payers if he's so poor.
Coz I’m certainly not
(GC not DM)
Fixed that for, you poor lamb, down to your last few million.
Actual words spoken on record by an actual person.
Imagine if all their energy and indignation was instead directed at driving up the quality of state education, so they didn’t ‘need’ private schools🙄
Also, private music tuition is widely available and cheaper than school fees.
Need we go on?
needs who aren’t surviving in the state system and their parents aren’t rich. He is, by most definitions, rich.