Catholic Education Service attacks government over VAT on private school fees

The measure has unsettled pupils whose parents can no longer afford fees and especially disrupted the education of pupils with Special Educational Needs.

Paul Barber, Director of the Catholic Education Service, said Catholic independent schools educated more than 30,000 pupils but a combination of the pandemic, VAT on fees, business tax, rising costs, as well as declining birth rates meant “the number of these schools in England has reduced by almost a third in the last six years from 116 in 2019 to just 79 today.”

Barber added that Catholic independent schools provided “for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), many without local authority-funded education, health and care plans (EHCPs), and who will have had their education disrupted as a result of displacement with parents unable to afford the VAT-induced increase to fees, or due to the closure of their school.”

The Association of Teachers of Catholic Religious Education (ATCRE) is urging all its members to contact their MPs to reinstate the bursary for Religious Education. The Department for Education announced it would remove the £10,000 Initial Teacher Training (ITT) bursary for Religious Education (RE) from September 2026. “This is a short-sighted and deeply concerning move,” said Dave Legrand, chair of ATCRE. “Catholic schools rely on well-trained, specialist RE teachers to deliver a curriculum that is both academically rigorous and spiritually enriching.”

Meanwhile, teachers will soon be able to gain Chartered Status based on Catholic Social Teaching through a new professional accreditation programme.  In April 2026 the Chartered College of Teaching is set to launch the Chartered Teacher Status Catholic Educator specialism, the first of its kind, developed by the college and the Formatio partnership of Catholic dioceses, multi-academy trusts and universities.   Paul Barber said: “To achieve Chartered Teacher Status rooted in CST is a remarkable opportunity for our sector, to help provide pupils in our schools with the very best Catholic education.”   

A Liverpool school is deploying an AVI robot in the classroom to help students whose health problems mean they cannot physically attend school. They may access the robot – which sits in their chair in the classroom – via an app and thus interact with teachers and peers. Lynnsey Crowley, senior assistant headteacher at St John Bosco Arts College in Croxteth said the robot was “already proving to be a game changer for our students.”

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