Independent school - did you get lockdown fee reduction

[Teddyandsuzie]

We have been charged full £5,500 for Spring term for Y3 child. Despite the fact he was at home for all but 2 weeks of term.

School ran online lessons for everything except French and games.

Normal school day is 8:25-4:30pm. Lockdown school day ended at 2pm. Support staff were furloughed.

I don’t understand how they can charge for snacks, lunches, printing, utilities, support staff, games etc when none of this was offered.

Am interested to know whether other independent prep schools charged full fees for the Spring term where they offered online lessons, or offered a reduction.

[Skedall]

We got a 15% discount for those weeks we were at home. I think for some schools it has been difficult particularly where they have had a lot of key worker children in school. A discount may push them over the edge financially

[Beecham]

Be careful what you wish for. A prep school near us was pressured by parents into fee reductions and has subsequently closed.

Not really sure how much they've saved in the past lockdown given the number of key workers kids in school.

[SirusTheVirus]

First lockdown we were automatically given a reduction (it was either 10% or 15% I can’t remember)

This time you had to apply. We chose not to as I found that the remote learning was excellent and I also wanted a school to be there for them to return to.

[Alfaix]

We got 20% off the following term’s fees first lockdown. This time it was 10% for us as DS was in school under critical worker arrangements.

[Eesha]

We got 10% for period closed plus meals refunded. The lessons were till 3.15pm, 80% live i would say.

[pico1234]

Fee reductions this time around seem few and far between in my HMC/IAPS circles. In our area, at the schools I’m a governor at (one prep and a indi day) we offered nothing for this term/lockdown. Our fee reductions for summer term last year we’re similar to other schools at 10-20% depending on age range.

Apart from refunding school trips/school food/coach services, I do not believe a reduction this term is required.

In fact the indi I work with, Including the other two local competitor schools, invested heavily in both COVID safe provision (for our school this comes in at circa £220k for this year) and lockdown learning provision (this has come in at around £110k) for September 2020 to date. The latter was used to buy laptops and devices for teachers and much younger pupils (who wouldn’t normally get one), new camera and conferencing equipment for classroom broadcasts, including everything else we needed to make sure our offering was top-notch, to keep us competitive, etc. All in all we’ve almost wiped out our surplus for this year and will now be delaying a significant investment in facilities that was due to start this year until we can (Responsibly) afford it / know what the financial outlook will be.

The benefits of an independent education are what draws us to it (including the posters above), when you invest in it you have to take the rough with the smooth (99% It’s smooth!). COVID is no-ones fault and further fee reductions do nothing but damage or limit independent school’s abilities to provide the quality education we expect.

[bookgirl1982]

We got 15% plus lunch costs credited against the summer term bills. It's about half what was given last time round but there were far more 'key worker' children in school so fewer staff on furlough this time.

[vinoandbrie]

In lockdown one we got a 10% fee reduction for that term.

In lockdown two (ie this term just gone) there was no fee reduction, just a rebate of most of the amount charged for school lunches.

Not great, but added to the mix they did not up the fees for the 2020/21 academic year, which was something.

[modgepodge]

The prep school I teach in did not offer a fee reduction this term, though I think lunches were not billed for (they’re charged for separately). We were not able to furlough anyone as TAs were in running key worker provision to allow teachers to focus on teaching lessons. There wasn’t much money to be saved as the building was still being heated. A little on coach hire and photocopying perhaps. But the biggest expense in any school is staffing, so assuming the majority of staff were working as usual there isn’t much to be saved.

Last lockdown all TAs were furloughed, as were office staff, as we had no key worker kids in. There was a discount, about 25% in the lower years, 10% in the upper years.

Our fees also remained the same this academic year as last, when they’d normally have gone up a couple of percent.

[Smartiepants79]

Well I would suspect that ALL staff were working as normal in some capacity - did your school not have keyworkers in? So they’d still be paying them.
They shouldn’t be charging for food of any kind.
My dds school have frozen fees, so no increase. We had a reduction for last summer term but not for the last jan-March closure. I was happy with that.
They’d provided as complete a timetable as they possibly could. Done their best to provide suitable alternatives for things that were impossible such as team games and swimming etc. The closures were not their choice or due to their incompetence.
Can you not understand that it’s unlikely that the schools own costs will have decreased over this time so they need the money to stay solvent.
If you can afford it then I think you have to see it as a long term investment in the stability of your child’s schooling. That’s how I see it anyway. I would much rather pay the money (that we already committed to this anyway) to ensure the school continues.

[Kishkashta]

No discount in our school and I know most of them worked harder than in normal time, especially the teachers. I am happy to pay full tuition, they deserve it.
Not charged for uneaten lunches.

[Froggie456]

Lockdown 1: 20% and freeze on fees
Lockdown 2: 0 and 5% increase in fees

Full online programme in lockdown 2. It’s the cheapest private school by far in the area and parents are still complaining because another school where fees are 1/3 more are offering a 20% refund.

[snowballer]

Lockdown 1: 25% discount, fees frozen for following year

[snowballer]

Posted too early...

Lockdown 2: 12.5% discount, fees frozen again for next year. Was very surprised by that TBH and was expecting a bigger increase than normal to compensate for the losses over 2020/21

[Zodlebud]

15% discount first lockdown. Small rebate for lunches and trips included in fees in second lockdown at DC2 prep school. Nothing at DC1 secondary school other than a rebate for flexi boarding.

Apart from the catering staff no staff were furloughed this time around as there were so many key worker children in. Plus heating bills etc through the winter months needed to be paid, not to mention the costs of sanitiser, hand washing stations etc. We had a full online programme.

Do I feel like I got thousands and thousands of pounds worth of the same educational value whilst online? Nope. But these are unique times and I want my schools to survive.

[Tooshyshyhushhushioi]

Zero reduction in fees for any of the lock down periods. School trips, lunches and school bus fees were refunded.
The fees for 2020/2021 were frozen but they have now announced a 5%increase for 21/22 school year.
The school put a lot of funding into providing laptops to every pupil and has got their act together during the 20/21 school year with online learning. I believe that they have offered discounts to those who have been impacted financially as opposed to just blanket reductions.

[Esse321]

Can't remember if it was 10 or 20% first lockdown, nothing this time but lunches etc were credited back to next term's bill

[DonGray]

Lockdown #1 - 20% fee discount - woeful live lesson provision

Fee increase of 4% for Sept 2020 was deferred to Jan 2021

Recent lockdown - variable discount - if you claimed keyworker/vulnerable status your discount was reduced by days your child attended - I believe it was between 7 to 14% - slight improvement in live lessons but still poor compared to local alternatives incl state

[toffeebutterpopcorn]

15% for time at home.

[IMNOTSHOUTING]

We didn't have a reduction this time but there was an option for people who had been impacted by covid to apply for a bursary. The school was open to keyworker children so their outgoings wouldn't have been reduced (if anything there would have been increased costs to make it covid safe when the kids returned). Many schools wouldn't be financially viable with a fee reduction and I'd rather the school remained open personally.

[Loushome]

I do know of one school that increased their fees in the first lockdown significantly (15%) due to the increased planning that had to be made, then a further 3% this Spring.
Home Counties.