Bank holidays -are these paid for preschool

[tinypumpkin]

I have just paid for Term 5 for our preschool and only just noticed that I have paid for a session on Bank Holiday Monday. Is this normal? I am green about these things and would prefer to check here. :)

[insancerre]

totally normal
they still have to pay wages
you book a place and you have to pay whether it is a bank holiday or your child is poorly or on holiday or is excluded because of illness
standard practice

[tinypumpkin]

Thanks, just was not sure about bank holidays. The rest I was sure about. Cheers for reply

[tinypumpkin]

Replying, my phone got carried away.

[dontyouknow]

I disagree - I've never been charged for bank holidays and would be really annoyed if they tried to.

If you are on holiday or your child is ill the place is still available, you are just not using it.

On a bank holiday the place is not available so why should you pay? The agreement is surely that you pay money in exchange for a place for your child being made available to you. I don't see how the argument that they have to pay wages means that you should pay for nothing. Surely the wage bill for the year is considered when calculating fees, and the bank holiday closures should have already been taken into account.

I think some nurseries average out the fees over a year and you pay the same each month, so it may look as if you are being charged for a bank holiday when you aren't. If the charges are for each specific day and include a bank holiday I don't think that's right and would certainly query it.

[ALifeOfPie]

Our preschool never charged for bank holidays or inset/closure days, but some do: it varies so check the contract - it could be a mistake but could just as easily be policy.

[tinypumpkin]

Thanks, I have been slack about asking as I assumed that it was my error. I will ask on Tuesday. We are charged per session as far as I am aware.

[SueDNim]

Our nursery charges per session, so no charge for bank holidays. And they do occasionally forget and have to reinvoice.

[ceeveebee]

Our nursery charges for bank holidays. If they didn't, their daily rate would be higher so it shouldn't really matter.

[ALifeOfPie]

It only "desn't matter" if all places are 5-days-a-week. If some children only go some specific days in the week, any child whose days include Monday is paying significantly more per hour of childcare than other children because they are losing all the monday bank holidays.

[tinypumpkin]

See this is the issue. DD3 goes two sessions only and one of these is on a Monday. I will check.

[doodledotmum]

Our school nursery doesn't. Every private nursery I looked at (about 10) did