Independent school fees and Coronavirus

Our youngest child is in U6. As far as I can see there is nothing planned for summer term beyond the 'do some moocs, get the reading list for your potential uni course' .
Of course teachers will be involved in the grade assessment process, but other than that we will really be getting nothing for our summer term fees.
I presume we will just have to suck it up - even though DH's business has more than halved in revenue as a result of the crisis (and we are not entitled to anything from the government).

We're not super-wealthy, so we will inevitably end up making cuts from somewhere else - holidays, cars, house repairs etc. But I know many are much worse off, so I won't complain.

I also wholeheartedly agree with wombat

Absolutely agree with Wombat's post.
A longer term view is necessary.
👍

@WombatChocolate that is such a sensible post and certainly the approach we are hoping most of our parents take. If you can pay then please do so so that there is a school for your child to return to in September. If you can't pay due to loss of income then speak to the Bursar as one would anyway. Ours is planning to be as flexible as possible.

I think that as parents we will have to take a slightly longer term view and also be a bit pragmatic in our thinking.

I'd imagine schools are shitting themselves about the fees at the moment and burdars are rapidly calculating various scenarios.

If we withhold fees, some schools might have to lay some teachers off or send them off on furlough. This means they cannot work at all. Lots of staff are probably already ill or will become ill, so exactly what impact will that have on the online teaching experience our children receive.

If we withhold fees, some smaller schools might go under and there won't be a school in September or in January. Other schools might struggle on but run bigger classes or have less resources meaning the future quality of the education we pay for isn't as good.

I agree that it's hard to pay for something which isn't quite what we signed up for. We've talked about it and agreed that we will pay (haven't had the bill yet ) as we want the school to be there as close as it can be to how it was when we left it, when our kids return. We can afford to pay. We would rather not pay £7k for a term of online learning, but we know the school needs to pay its teachers and we expect they will be telling us how they are saving on costs where they can.

If we couldn't afford to pay (as opposed to not wanting to pay) we would approach the school for a temporary bursary or some kind of payment plan. We know they do that for families in hardship. I would expect them to be sympathetic to that request and that they will expect more requests for that. I would think they can cope with that, especially if people will pay when they can. I think it would be much harder to deal with people who could afford to pay just refusing.

I agree that the way schools phrase their fee letters is important at this point. Being pompous or demanding doesn't help and acknowledging the difficulty does. However, I expect quite a lot of schools will find their letters annoy parents in the circumstances. The Q is whether people then really feel they shouldn't pay.

And personally, I think we have to give them a bit more time to get the home learning thing sorted out. Just 8 days ago, the children were in school having normal lessons. 2 days later a new regime had started. It's hardly surprising if it's not instantly perfect is it? I'm prepared to bear with them a bit and give them the benefit of the doubt for a while and try and take a longer term view. If I'd lost my job I might feel a bit differently though.

Summer is a very short term for most private school, both my DCs break up a few days into July. Because of all the exams, end of year silliness/enrichment etc it is the least productive of any school term so I doubt if many parents will be too concerned about paying for this term. If it continues into Autumn term that will be another matter. I appreciate that some parents will be unable to pay but that will be a minority and enough will pay for the schools to see this crisis out. Anyone with problems needs to contact their bursar.

Both schools are providing extensive schooling through online lessons and to date teachers have been very contactable to pupils however both DCs are on Easter holidays now.

If any private school is reducing pay to teachers then now is the time to move back to the state sector, there is always a shortage of teachers.

@Alsoplayspiccolo , the problem is that the wage bill takes most of the fees income, an efficiently run school that is full will operate at 70% of fees income on wages, an inefficient school with too many teachers or not full classes can be looking at 80%.
The private schools are looking at furloughing non teaching staff, claiming on business interruption insurance, pausing other costs like facilities hire, if this can be done then the saving can be passed on to the parents but they still need to pay the teachers to prepare the distance learning for the summer term and that wage bill has to be covered by summer term fees income.

Hyperhippo, I have every sympathy for your teacher friend, but her situation is part of the same picture; she's had a loss of income parents have had a reduction/total loss of income, and schools aren't functioning in the same capacity as before. So why is it expected that parents alone have to soak up the loss?

That's what I don't understand - some schools seem to be passing the loss to teachers and parents, without wishing to shoulder any of it themselves.

@vinoandbrie Gosh that’s quite a privileged bubble mentality. Yes there are many families like ours, who have to scrape & borrow from term to term to keep fees covered. This has all panned out somehow up till now, as while the money regularly rolls in and we can keep a check on things, it’s become a way of life. But now we are down to one salary, and that salary has been cut this week to try and save the business. What do you suggest people outside cosy bubbles should do?? Suck it up and sell our home?
I also agree, it seems to be the ones who can better afford it, or have family helping out with fees..that are protesting the most.

just telling parents to suck it up isn’t the right move

If it goes on and on, they can’t do this

Our 5-year old is at a private school. We've been paying into a Fee Refund Scheme that covers infectious diseases - either of the pupil or at the school. However, the school now claims that there is no infectious disease at their school and that they are only shutting down because the government told them to...

I am a little torn when it comes to fee payment. I want to continue to pay some of the fees as I love the school and teacher, and I don't want the school to go under. But I would like the fees to be proportional to the amount of support we receive with home teaching.

Year 1 and above have full timetables and pretty comprehensive online learning set up, but for Reception (my son's class), there's been very little this week. On average, we completed the school work that was set in about 45 minutes! Apparently, they are aiming for half a day's learning after the Easter hols. So I feel that a reduction in fees needs to be offered, taking into account the fact that my son's year group receives a lot less support than the older children do. And what we've received so far has been basic - Twinkly printouts, mainly! I can download them myself!!!

The school are not responding to my enquiries and all communication that has come out has been generic, for all year groups.

From the other side...
A friend who teaches in a rural prep school that struggles slightly with numbers has had her pay cut by 20% while they are off because so many parents are requesting school fee refunds. Some genuinely in need, others just don't want to pay.
It is the kind of school which has to completely bend over backwards to all parent requests, however unreasonable because their survival depends on good PR and parents recommending the school.
Meanwhile she is also delivering full days of learning via online platforms and going above and beyond to support all the different needs in her class from a distance by sending tailored resources, giving various parents specific advice etc.
She is in good spirits, says she will do what she has to do to keep her job.

Some independent schools in my area have announced reductions in fees for next term - around 20% for day and up to 50% for full boarding. They are managing to do this by looking for cost savings and then passing on those savings to parents. They have also told parents who are suffering particular hardship to contact the bursars. This approach seems to have gone down really well with parents...on the other hand some schools are offering nothing and the parents are up in arms. I think there needs to be a bit of give and take on both sides and just telling parents to suck it up isn’t the right move.

I think many parents scrimp and save to pay private school fees and, as it has been for many well run businesses, this is a huge shock for them. Almost no one will have contingency plans for an interruption to their work of this nature affecting both partners and share portfolios and making it impossible to downsize in property terms.

I'm a teacher and I am baffled by the union advice! I can't imagine following it, and I'm not really sure I understand why it's so draconian. Um - if I'm not setting work, and marking work and teaching, why the hell should I be paid?

Plus, having spent last week remote teaching, I can hear how baffled and confused and lost some of the students feel, and how much some of them are relying on the security of me (and their other teachers) being a constant presence in a world which has changed overnight. I know that some believe that us independent school teachers are only doing anything so parents still pay the fees but that's not the case for me at least. I genuinely care for my kids, and am absolutely gutted for my U6 classes who have had the world turned completely upside down in a matter of days. They are heartbroken.

@vinoandbrie I am a single parent to 2 and I live very much month to month and my youngest is at a private school due to special needs, she couldn’t access education through (multiple) state schools. I have borrowed money to pay the fees and am lucky that my wages will be secure throughout coronavirus

I don’t think it’s ‘irresponsible’ so much as, no other choice in many cases. I don’t suppose most people are as comfortably off as they wish they were

vinoandbrie, thanks for your judgement. 😐

We intended to pay future school fees with income, plus money from selling shares and a property - my crystal ball didn't tell me the value of the shares would be all but wiped out, we wouldn't be able to sell the property, and we'd lose all income overnight.

Following your train of thought, all schools should have reserves in place to be able to cover a term's costs.

My son attends nursery in an independent school. I am happy to continue to pay full fees: his teachers are all working their socks off. I had an email today saying there will be a reduction in fees though.

I want my children’s teachers and all other staff to be paid. There’s no question that I wouldn’t be paying the fees. I want a school for them to go back to.

I’m astonished by the number of parents I know who are better off than us sending up a hue and cry about having to pay next term’s fees. Are people who genuinely feel they can afford private school living on such a month to month basis that they find themselves unable to pull together next term’s fees. Amazingly irresponsible if so.

We've just had a few letters from school saying not very much in a lot of paragraphs. The fee bill is arriving this week, but they won't charge us for lunch or the planned trips. No other discounts mentioned.

They are struggling to get refunds from the insurers for our Spring trips, so no refunds there yet. (I seem to have had a lot more success with our own holidays, so I suppose the money will arrive eventually).

I would like the school to consider applying for the government funding for all the staff that aren't working ( the school employs an army of cooks/librarians/cleaners/groundsmen/games teachers).

That union article was a bit of a shock, but I think our situation is very different to teaching in a big (key-worker area) secondary school that has been expected to cope with a lot of stressed teens who don't really want to be there.

Mini rant over. Time to track down DD and find out why schoolwork only seems to have taken her 30 minutes this morning.

Thanks for the link..wow..

We're in a similar position and initially
I was surprised at the continuation of fees but the more I've thought about it my feelings are similar to some other posters

A) we love the school and would be devastated if it went under because of this. We want it to be there when this is all over.

B) teachers are still working, for key worker children and remotely for the older ones (we're only in the infants but school goes all the way up to seniors). They will now be working over Easter too when I'm sure they were all looking forward to a well earned break then.

C) it's still such early days, they were hit like a ton of bricks with this totally unprecedented situation and are doing as much as they possibly can in the timeframe they've been given to deal with all of the changes. They need to be given the space to work it all out and decide what to do.

We're in a position (at the moment) to keep paying. I totally appreciate that some people absolutely won't be and would hope that the bursar would deal with each family on a case by case basis and help those who are really struggling.

www.nasuwt.org.uk/advice/health-safety/coronavirus-guidance/operational-advice-during-partial-school-closures.html?utm_source=Scotland+all+Mar+2020&utm_campaign=7345e54e47-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_03_22_09_32_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c1a3b7cfc1-7345e54e47-172164285#Online%20learning

I am amazed that in some schools theyve stopped gaining evidence for years 11 and 13,they do not know what the cut off date is,it may have passed ,it may not but surely best practice would dictate that you continue until told to stop.If unions really have issued that advice then they either know something no one else does or they are letting down an awful lot of children.
My two in years 11 and 13 are being kept very busy with a full programme.(private)

I’ve read elsewhere that one of the teaching unions has told teachers they shouldn’t be marking work, nor lesson planning.
If that’s true, how can online learning be said to be the same as school education?

I’m in no way blaming teachers for the situation, or criticising what they’re doing for their students; I’m simply questioning why we’re being told one thing, while they are being told something else.