Autumn school fees. How do you feel about paying them if they are not back in full capacity.

[Jkslays]

The work sent over lock down has been great. I can’t fault it. Live classes, zoom assemblies ect.. I’m sure you’ve had the same. Paying full summer fees were a bit of a kick in the tits but hey ho.

But I don’t know how I feel about paying again for Autumn if they are not back fully. The kids ( lower junior) have lost their steam with it over the past couple of weeks and whilst the home work is good it’s just not the same as a class room environment.

We’re moving to a new school in September and whilst they are open now for reception/Y1 &Y5 they can only commit to saying ‘we’re sure we will be back to normal by then’

Which is fab but what if they are not.

The old school we was at are open to the same classes and have said if they reopen to other years it will be part time and only for play and socialisation. Learning will still have to be done on line at home

Have your school reduced fees and Have they committed to opening fully?

I would be a lot less impressed with a school that is claiming they can commit to opening fully. that means that either the people in charge aren't intelligent enough to understand the reality we are all in, or they are prepared to open before the science supports that being safe.

we are due to move from state to private in September. the school we are moving to are making no commitment to be fully open because they have no power to predict the future that well and we don't expect them to. they say they will provide a combination of as much physical classroom learning as they safely can, supplemented with learning via Teams at home if the circumstances don't allow them to provide the full curriculum with all pupils on-site 5 days a week (I imagine they are considering a part-time on-site rota to reduce the volume of bodies if necessary). that seems to me a darn-sight better than a foolish commitment to be fully open whether or not it is safe, and I am confident that it will be better than the best state school can manage because the fees I and other parents will be paying ensure the school has the resources it needs, rather than being chronically and ridiculously underfunded as the state sector is. I have no problem paying for it.

Did you not get any discount for summer term? All schools I know of offered one.

Not sure about autumn really... If this situation continues I see a number of schools closing, sadly, so probably a lot won’t want to offer further money off.

Assuming we’re back in some form I’m ok to pay but that’s a big if isn’t it? I’m not a big fan of Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

We didn’t get a discount but the online learning has been good. Back at school for 3 weeks from Monday.
If they can come back now, they should be able to in September so I will happily pay full fees.

Agree with everything Yinu says.

DS1 and 2 (different schools) were offered a 25% and 30% discount for this year's fees respectively and a fee freeze for next year. There are parents who chose to pay the full fee and their extra fees have been put into the hardship & bursary fund at each school.

My view is, if we want the schools to be there when they are allowed to open, we have to keep paying the fees. There's no question that the schools are desperate to open to as many pupils as soon as they can, but their hands are tied by government guidance and their insurance. I will say that one school is distinctly more cautious than the other, but I think both are sending the strong message that they will maximise the students returning as soon as they are allowed.