Independent school fees and Coronavirus

I hope Cognita don’t make a further loss as if they’ve made a significant loss in good years (last accounts 2018) then future years seem surely challenging. beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/09669246/filing-history

My son is at a Cognita school and despite the some of the concerns raised I've had a positive experience with them recently and prior to the CoVid situation.

First and foremost we have to understand that Cognita is not a not for profit organisation, its a business.
We also know they provide some of the best education otherwise we wouldn't be sending our children to their schools.

Benchmarking the fee reduction we have received against some of the other private independent schools in the are we have been offered a very good discount

Key thing for me at present is that the school doesn't fold in the current economy, My son loves the school, teachers and his friends and this is something money can't buy and am not sure what we would do without.
Fortunately my wife and I are working so we can still afford to pay fees, I understand not everybody this luxury but the school in question has mentioned it will provide assistance where required financially.

As mentioned the school has offered a discount and I suspect they like most others will be running at a loss for a few months but can probably absorb this within reason. The schools and children I do worry about are the other schools not backed by a large organisation who may not be so lucky in this environment

Delta1, some countries have very strict travel rules especially to abroad and my home country is one of them. They are not sure when they are allowed to travel back to UK and parents do not want to pay money to schools where their children cannot attend for unknown period. Even children are able to return to UK in the future, some measure will be remain anywhere in the world and there are possibilities that children and their family have to be self isolated for two weeks each time when children return home from UK and people do not want to do that.

Probably if children go to prestigious schools like Eton, parents think differently but if not, parents might prefer to keep their children beside them and send to local good private or international schools in this uncertain situation.

Sorry @pippap1 didn't tag you properly

2. For boarding school, foreign students returned their countries and some of them will never return.

Why do you think that @pipap1 Genuine question. I don't see why the vast majority wouldn't return - other than those in final years obviously

I’m really surprised at the people who think that paying the fees is optional. If you agreed to send your child to the school then you have to stick to the contract. The alternative is that the school folds and you send your child to a state school - if any have spaces left. Up to you.

We've had a 10% reduction but great teaching online - quite happy. My DC are occupied fully through the day which means I can do my job wfh, DH is a key worker so out all day and I'm very grateful I can get my job done

As a company director, I understand that schools still need money to maintain their business although they furloughed a part of staff and teacher.

1. They do not have regular income such as from venues hire, holiday camp, summer language school etc.
2. For boarding school, foreign students returned their countries and some of them will never return.
3. They have ongoing payments for what they had done in the past such as new building construction.
4. There are other regular payments including gas and water.

My DC's school offers 20% discount and the quality of online learning is great but there are still subjects which have poor quality such as sports and options. (Just watch YouTube and do the same thing in the garden alone). But l am happy to pay.

I think most independent schools have furloughed actual teaching staff, not just TAs. This explains why some of the online teaching is inadequate.

And at secondary level there won't really be TAs. At DS's school even sports and music teachers are still teaching, so the number being furloughed is pretty small. Plus, the schools will be losing (or at risk of losing) huge amounts in other ways, such as fewer parents taking up places next year. And even relatively small discounts cost a fortune. DS's school is offering a pretty modest discount of 10% for day plus much more for boarding, but even that must be costing them way over a million in income, and that's just for one term. You'd need to furlough a lot of staff to pay for that.

@Rainie130, yes the schools can furlough the staff not needed but the teachers and mgmt are the real expense and they are needed to keep the school going at the moment - ie teacher is @£35 an hour plus massive pension contribution all paid from fees income while a furloughed TA is £11 per hour with tiny pension contribution that the govt is paying.

Re the staff being furloughed.
Will independent schools be eligible to apply for 80% of staff salaries through the governments furlough scheme?
If so, why are these schools still expecting such a huge commitment from parents at a time when many of them are possibly struggling themselves.
I agree that if you want a school to go back to, you need to make payments, but if government help is being given schools could pass on more of a discount.

@Chickpeees ah yes I can imagine.

Not recently but I withdrew a child from a cognita school, I don’t really want to go in the details of why publicly but I am not surprised at all at their stance on fees.

@Chickpeees do you know much about Cognita?

@redheughs yes. @Such a sad situation and so upsetting. You would think that they'd be sympathetic during this difficult time but they just seem to care only about profits. Is anyone else from a Cognita school on here?

I am not surprised about cognita and sorry for those in that situation.

@Cognitapatent1 are you at HGS? I am also one of those parents? This is so stressful and it it upsetting as in the long run it is about the children but Cognita want money and profit but when we have no income and just trying to survive makes me sick to my stomach, 😭

You guessed!!

Yes it's Cognita. Despite writing to the CEO and asking for his assistance, nothing. Just all about the profit, they are a business after all. Many of us have been loyal customers for years but none of it matters to them. It's actually quite upsetting

Fleurchamp, lol.. Thanks, didn't even read the username, just copy and pasted.

@silverback I imagine it is Cognita!

Oh, and we get 1 live lesson per subject per week, plus work set for all the other timetabled lessons of the week - including games and practical subjects. There are Form times or assemblies and sheets of links to enrichment activities to access at home.

It's not the same as in school. It's not what we signed up for and paid for in previous terms. It's not what the school planned to offer either. It seems a good balance of live contact with some flexibility about doing other work and seems to be taking the children all day to do it and theyvar exhausted. Isn't it much harder being online and working alone some of the time than in class. Isn't a lot of time actually 'wasted' at school - moving around, setting up activities etc etc - I suspect they can do a lot at home in a short space of time.

Primary children in particular probably spend very little of each school day actually writing or doing maths. There is lots of other stuff that is important socially and emotionally for them, but the actual reading, writing and maths tasks might be quite short, so if you do them in 45 mins at home,nit might not be very different. No-one expects children under 7 to spend 5 hours a day at the computer doing online learning surely....or is that needed to give a feel of value for money?

I'm happy to pay the 90% we have been asked for, partly because I don't just see the fee I pay this week as being related to this coming terms education, but to what the school will be able to offer next year and the years to come....and I want my children to have a good eucation at the school for several years to come. I understand that the school has been able to save some money but that is pretty limited because most goes on teachers. Therefore if there were a big discount, I would actually worry about the future ability of the school to provide the education I want for my children, even if it might be nice this week to fork out less.

Isn't it the struggling schools which are actually giving the big discounts? If they lose just a few families they will really struggle, so are trying to avoid that....although it makes their longer term furs even more precarious. And it's actually often those with lower fees who are having to offer the bigger discounts and where the parents seem more irrate about paying and demanding.

Cognitaparent1, can you say which corporate/chain of schools this is?