Value Add in the Age of Value Added Tax (An alternative Christmas Message)

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and schools were bereft, For VAT had ensured not a penny was left.?

There’s a peculiar charm to British bureaucracy: it can take something as seemingly benign as Value Added Tax and turn it into a source of existential dread for an entire sector. This year, independent schools have found themselves squarely in the VAT crosshairs, with the government’s decision to remove their tax-exempt status causing tremors throughout the education world.??

However, like the Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry tongue-twister, if you say a phrase long enough, it has a tendency take on new meaning. And so here, through all the explanations and endless rhetoric, a moment of realisation found in the over repetition and segmentation of the phrase. Value. Added. Tax. If to "ignore" the 'T' – inconceivable as that is right now - do we surely not arrive at the purpose of all schools in the first place??

And so whilst accountants and headteachers huddle over abacuses and wrangle over budgets, to misquote Monty Python, it is about time to hear something completely different. Now is the time to consider a different kind of value — the responsibility towards what we actually add to children’s lives, the real "Value Add".?

To do so, let us dust off our history books. For centuries, schools weren’t about league tables or performance metrics. They were about shaping individuals, preparing them for a world far more challenging than any Ofsted/ISI inspection. The medieval grammar school had little interest in percentages or pie charts; its mission was to instil discipline and knowledge, often through a liberal dose of Latin and corporal punishment. Education, in those days, was an act of formation — building minds and character, however misguided some of the methods may now seem. Take, for instance, the practice of making left-handed children write with their right hand — a sure-fire way to instil discipline, frustration, and illegible handwriting all at once.??

It wasn’t all bleak; even the ancient Greeks, with their rigorous focus on rhetoric and philosophy, understood that true education involved nurturing the soul as well as the mind. Of course, they also insisted on rote learning entire epic poems, which might have been inspiring back then but today would likely result in ChatGPT confidently "explaining" that Homer was actually a 20th-century cartoonist, leaving teachers questioning both education and existence.?

Over the past 50 years, schools have undergone a transformation that would leave even Mr Dickens scratching his head. Post-war Britain saw education becoming a political football, kicked from one end of the ideological spectrum to the other. In the 1960s and 70s, there was a push towards egalitarianism, with comprehensive schools aiming to level the playing field. By the 1980s however, the pendulum swung back towards competition, spurred on by Margaret Thatcher’s reforms that brought market principles into education. League tables were introduced, and schools began to look suspiciously like businesses, judged not on character-building but on output.?

The recent decades have seen successive governments tinker endlessly with the system, often with the zeal of a teenager trying to MOT a car but without the manual. Targets were introduced, scrapped and reintroduced. — like the "Every Child Matters" initiative of the 2000s, which promised sweeping reforms to put students at the centre of education but mostly resulted in a glut of paperwork that left teachers questioning what actually mattered.??

Curriculum changes came and went, often with little regard for the teachers and students left to grapple with the fallout. And let’s not forget the relentless parade of Education Secretaries, each with their own pet project to leave a legacy — or at least a headline. It’s reminiscent of the Roman Empire, where every new emperor felt the need to commission a grand monument, often with little thought to whether it might collapse under its own weight.?

What has all this tinkering achieved? On one hand, access to education has widened, and technology has enriched classrooms in ways unimaginable a century ago. But on the other, the relentless focus on metrics and rankings has reduced students to data points. The rise of league tables, like many modern inventions, promised clarity but delivered neurosis. These rankings, adorned with percentages and out-of-context statistics, purport to show the “best” schools. But as Benjamin Disraeli once famously quipped (or at least is said to have quipped): there are three kinds of lies — lies, damned lies, and statistics.?

The issue isn’t that data itself is bad; it’s that it can be cherry-picked to tell whatever story suits the teller. If you want to argue that a school is outperforming its rivals, you’ll find a metric for it. Equally, if you want to criticise, there’s always a number waiting to back you up. It’s a game, and the children caught in the middle are its unwitting pawns.?

The irony is that whilst schools busy themselves with league tables, employers and universities are beginning to look beyond the numbers. They want thinkers, communicators and innovators — traits that don’t always correlate with exam results. The question we should be asking isn’t, “What grade did this child get?” but rather, “What difference did we make in their lives?” In education-speak, this is called “Value Added”: the measurement of how much a student improves academically and personally during their time at a school. Done right, it’s a concept that takes us back to the heart of what education is meant to be.?

By tailoring education to the individual, fostering their unique potential and offering a supportive environment, it’s possible to see transformative results. We are all used to seeing these sorts of good news stories, but it is important to recognise quieter victories too — like the student who improves from a fail to a pass, a change that might not make headlines but can transform a life just as profoundly. It’s a moment that encapsulates what happens when education becomes about the person, not the ranking.?

This is not to say that exam results don’t matter. They do and I by no means diminish the extraordinary work of schools up and down the length and breadth of this country. It is merely to suggest that, at a time where we liberally throw around the term "Value Added Tax", that we would do well to take this moment to re-reflect on ensuring we truly focus on adding value to students, of all abilities, moving them from pawns and seeing them as Top Trumps (for those old enough to remember the game), where every student has different ability ranges versus another. Our fixation on league tables often obscures these proof of concept examples.??

The VAT saga may be a thorny issue, but it also presents an opportunity to re-evaluate priorities, and this applies to the Independent and State sector alike. It is a shared responsibility, from those who are adversely affected by this and from those benefitting from it. Tinker or Tailor, instead of worrying about what percentage of parents can still afford school fees, let’s think about what we’re giving to the children in our care. Every generation faces its own challenges in education, and this moment is no different. It’s a chance to rethink how schools add value — not just by tallying grades, but by making them places that equip students to thrive in an ever-changing world. Because at the end of the day, a true education isn’t measured in grades or rankings; it’s measured in lives changed. And the Value that this sector can Add is immeasurable.?

What would Christmas be without an opinion.?

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.