Independent school fees and Coronavirus

@Rosesarere , nurseries are being helped by the fact that the Govt has confirmed that the EEF funding will continue so they will receive a payment in the Spring.

My children do not attend free paying school but are in a private day nursery, while I would continue to pay the fees if there was guarantee of them. Being open at the end of this, how do we know of they will open again in September, if they will go bust seems pointless me paying fees over the summer when I could be using them to pay my own bills as I will not be getting paid at all over the summer, this is a genuine question

My daughter is in Year 11 - I am prepared to pay but want to know what I will get in return. I accept that the teachers may be busier preparing online work - but equally I think it reasonable that the school provides some education in return for fees paid. For example- they could begin A level syllabus.

I think my post went on the wrong thread. I didn't mean either of the comments above.Oops.

Reading one of the comments above - not all - I honestly think (some) teachers live in a bubble. So many of us aren't working due to this crisis or have had work cancelled because we're freelance and we're without any protection whatsoever. There's no salary for us to fall back on. We don't have pensions worth a dime either!
I actually think if students are being taught remotely and marked; getting feedback etc then some fees should be payable as the teachers will be working. I'm not sure about a discount for loss of things like PE and the extras but that should happen if they're doing reduced hours. But I strongly believe that the boarding element of any fees should be refunded.
We are now paying for food and accommodation and not the school so the starting point has to be the day pupil rate. That part of the refund has to happen.
On top of that, mine eat like trojans and I can't find the basics on the shelves. All the things the school did while I worked I now have to do. It should be refunded with no quibbling.

I think you will still have to pay. A colleague of mine (nhs) sends their kids to the local private school. Apparently the majority of kids at this schools have parents who are doctors (it's close to a major hospital), so I would expect that private schools will have to make provision for those parents, like the rest of the schools do.

Most schools could argue that a full year's fees are actually due in September, but they allow parents to spread the cost over three terms. We will be paying for the summer term.

Following with interest as I have a DD in Y13 and all the remote teaching was towards A Level exams which now won't go ahead. We're rather left wondering what is going to happen now.

I expect we'll hear something from the school by the end of the week as they've been communicating on a daily basis.

Most of my daughter's fees are paid from a government Dance & Drama Award. She is still enrolled as a student and some kind of online teaching is being organised. I assume I will have to pay for next term.

The staffing costs are the biggest cost for a school.

If you ask for a reduction in school fees you are effectively asking for teachers to take a pay cut or potentially for some of them to lose their jobs.

It's true there won't be sport, drama, music in quite the same way - but this is temporary. It won't last. It could be just the summer term if we are lucky. Perhaps a whole year if we are unlucky.

You have to keep hope that things will get back to normal and that this is just a blip. If they get the testing of covid19 done properly then we will find out who has had it and who hasn't and those who have had it, will be able to return to work. S Korea is doing really well with this regard www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/south-korea-coronavirus-lessons-quick-easy-tests-monitoring-200319011438619.html

Sadly for us, we have not approached things in the same way.

Yes if you want the school to survive then you need to pay. Problem is, not everyone maybe able to do this (if their own jobs are cut). So worst case is you pay and school goes bankrupt anyway.

We are working more hours than usual to teach kids in school and online at once. Next week we'll be teaching online, marking and being available. Converting all our resources to be online suitable means we are working extra hours there as well. We will no doubt have to do a lot of admin over assessment to make up for cancelled exams = more work. So of course you need to pay the fees!

Annoyingly our school switched to an "opt-in" rather than an "opt out" for our school fees insurance.

OP I imagine you'll just get a partial refund for school lunches.

Absolutely parents must pay their fees. Unless they are thinking of withdrawing their child.
Our HM emailed us outlining the school's fixed costs and other outgoings. 80% is staff salaries. I want my kids' teachers to keep teaching. Virtually for now and in person as soon as possible.

No of course you shouldn’t get a refund ( DD is at Private school)
I would be embarrassed to even suggest it

DD1 is on massive bursary/scholarship, and has been home for past week, as one of the pupils was exposed to a positive case of Covid 19.

I am working from home and she is doing assignments that have been set for her.

DS1 who goes to local comp is also doing online assignments.

I look and they have both been set assignments on the same online resource.

After we get through the next few months, am going to reconsider.

Just pondering this now as my DC is in independent. We're lucky we will (hopefully) be able to continue to pay fees but there are many families I can think of who run successful leisure businesses and shops who are facing ruin and presumably losing their school place. We all pay a small premium along with fees to insure against long-term absence if your child is unwell but I doubt it would cover this.

Of course you have to pay.

If you want a school to go back to you’ll need to keep up your payments.

The business interruption insurance only covers a small % of income. Parents must pay fees or the schools will go bust, the wage bill is around 70% of fees income in most schools, the wages need to be paid from April to August so Summer term fees income is critical.

as I said on a different thread, some of these schools run on extremely tight budgets with high fixed costs (salaries). If people start to ask for money back they will go bust

Those who bought those interruption policies will be pleased they did I suspect most of us didn't.

Do you not want your children to be part of the remote learning?

We are in the same boat, we will be paying our fees as we want our children to go back to the school. Otherwise you need to give your notice. The school won't exist if all the parents pull their kids out. However, it may be that they miss a whole term of education. I am hoping they give online lessons as my DC are in exam years.