Private school parents - fees for next term....

[STST]

So, you're already part of the tiny percentage of people who can pay for their children's schooling.

You've committed and planned to pay for schooling for 15 years (age 3 - 18).

One terms fees out of 45 is a drop in the bloody ocean. Seriously. You've committed hundreds of thousands to this. You've essentially chosen to work several extra years of your life to pay for this. That is a very very generous thing to do for your children's future.

And now people get gripey about paying for a service that THEY demand.

You CANNOT decide not to pay your fees. The gardeners, cleaners, matrons, secretaries, teachers, support staff are paid through your fees. By not paying, they don't get paid. It is really simple. If you don't pay, other families have no income.

If you are still receiving your full salary, you owe it to the school to pay your fees. In full. Without complaint. That's if you want a school to go back to when this all ends, fully staffed by dedicated teachers.

Those staff, ALL OF THEM, rely on their income to provide for their families too. You should pay. That is what you signed up to.

If everyone pays their full fees, then there is a cushion to help those who genuinely can't (job loss etc). If you are still being paid, then you should just bloody pay up.

I can't bear this quibbling over getting money off. Fucksake. What about the bloody staff at the school? They don't get to decide if they want to pay Sainsbury's for their shop, or Halifax for their mortgage. Because they commit to paying for a service that they want/require. And so should everyone else.

You chose to pay for private school. You want that facility there. So bloody pay for it. In full.

We have children in private school. We have not lost our jobs. We will pay, even if our children do not spend a second in the school between now and god knows when. Because that is what we committed to, and there is no way I could sleep at night knowing that by not paying, someone through no fault of their own might lose their job or not be paid.

Why are private schools different then any other buisness?
You will want a refund for holidays you are not going too..you don't feel you owe the airline to keep them in buisness...
If private school is not providing what they are there for, they should not expect to be paid.

decent private schools will provide education though - just not in the classroom. Ours has a full morning of zoom based lessons, plus some afternoon clubs (zoom). primary school btw, and kids loved ot last week

Why are private schools different then any other buisness?
You will want a refund for holidays you are not going too..you don't feel you owe the airline to keep them in buisness...

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Most people, I hope, feel more an affinity for their children's school than they do EasyJet et al.

I’ve paid for next term, I wouldn’t dream of not doing.
I am hoping that school use technology to teach DS from home, using video links to see his teacher etc. At the moment we are doing workbooks school have set.
I think a weekly short FaceTime with his teacher would be helpful too.
If they use technology to still teach him as well as possible next term, it will be worth the fees.

If a holiday company goes bust, you use a different one. You won't get a less good holiday, have to sit on someone's lap on the plane or share a hotel room with strangers because there's less capacity. If private schools go bust, you diminish capacity and those kids, who need to go somewhere (unlike a holiday) will be metaphorically sitting on the lap of the state school kids whose chairs are already full.
And yy to the person who said state school teachers are awesome and not to assume they are crap, but most private school teachers these days are just as qualified.. When I moved to the sector in 2002 that may not have been the case but it is now.

Well, a lot of private schools will be offering a discount next term so not sure why the OP is getting quite so angry.

Lots of pupils will be withdrawn as parents won't be able to pay fees any more. And a lot of grandparents who pay fees out of investments - well paying jemima's prep school fees may not be exactly top of their priorities any more.

The teachers are generally better qualified, better managed and have far more up to date teaching methods.

Fizzysours - better qualified and better managed and with more up to date teaching methods than whom? Us crappy private school teachers who just shamble in off the streets with our chalk and blackboards? Because if so, just fuck off with your ridiculous inverted state school snobbery. Or perhaps you can provide some, say, actual evidence to prove the truth of your tired stereotyping?

Serious question! Why does everyone have such an issue with private education?

I was privately educated. I am thick as shit. I had NO advantage over my friends who went to state schools. I didn't do A-Levels (too thick) and certainly didn't go to University!

Why does everyone who is anti private education think it's an advantage going to private school? I genuinely don't understand. Unless I really am that thick.

I was privately educated. I am thick as shit.

@bulletjournalbilly you might not be highly academic (I have no idea) but you learnt decent sentence construction, spelling and grammar from somewhere. 😀

because fees pay for more than teacher's salaries. Electricity, lunches, after school clubs, sports equipment, facilities equipment usage and depreciation, daily cleaning, daily maintenance, stationery and much much more.....none of these are being used during this period so they should be removed from the fees, obviously.

@Lobsterquadrille2

So here’s a problem I don’t give a monkeys about!
Rich people - pay or don’t pay, no-one else cares, the rest of us are worrying about survival here.

A huge amount of cleaning and maintenance is going on at my school because it's empty. The clubs and facilities are not costed or charged for separately nor are we paid extra for running them, they are all fixed costs. We will be losing income from the private hire of those facilities and the functions and Easter hols residential courses we run to keep the fees as low as possible. Someone upthread said they are extortionate. No. They are expensive as a % of most peoples net income, but extortionate suggests we are charging more than we need to and basking in the profits. I can assure you, we are not and most indie schools other than a dozen or so really famous big ones with ancient benefactions and loads of land and property are the same.

All the local independent schools round here are running full online lessons with lots of love sessions during the day.

So they would argue they are providing an education, which warrants being paid for.

If you can at all keep paying I would do so. If you want the school to still be there come September or whenever you need to pay.

If you are struggling speak to the bursar. If necessary you may need to give notice (though that may well still mean paying for next term unless the bursar can offer a reduction) and begin the process of looking for a state option for next term, or hope you can get your place back afterwards.

At the end of the day an independent school is a business, albeit with charity status, and they still need to pay their staff we .

If the private schools shut round my way, the only available state school is the poor one. The rest are all full with waiting lists.

@Fizzysours not a dig, but my children were sent home with a few print outs in a folder from their (outstanding) state school. I have no issue with this, but there doesnt appear to be any plan from their teachers to do anything else to help educate them. My friend who works in a private school is giving daily lessons by Skype or whatever. The private schools also seem to have a much higher percentage of SEN children, which reduces the pressure on state.

We're still waiting to hear what our school is going to do re fees. If teachers salaries can be covered by the government 80% furlough scheme then I think that discount should be passed on to parents, as well as the cost of food.

I think if you're a key worker and your kids are still going to school you should be charged the full fees. But if not then there should be a discount assuming the school can claim from the government. So far all the learning my child has done has had to be supervised by me, so because I work and I have two younger children, so has amounted to little more than an hour a day.

My dh's job is OK for now, but the business we run has been affected by covid already and we're not eligible for the govt pay out. We've also lost money on investments.

Private schools and parents need to work together to shoulder the fallout, neither should be taking on all the burden.

My children are in a state school. They have all been following a full timetable including a pe lesson each day delivered by the pe teacher on YouTube.
The head has given a morning assembly each morning on YouTube.
Yesterday it was achievement assembly with each class teacher filmed saying which children have ‘certificates’ this week.
They have their class teacher and ta on google classroom and the kids can ask questions about the work. They reply immediately.
Each child will get a phone call at least once a week from their teacher either voice or video.
So no it’s not just a ‘pack sent home and get on with it’ at every state school.

Our excellent school has provided a discount and broke it down for usl The discount takes into account school lunches, school trips, elcticity etc but does not incldue the full amolunt for teachers salaries.

Our school was brilliant last week. tehy had seen the writing on the wall and we had a packed and varied programme. The teachers worked their arses off, as they always do.

At our school we have an extended school day anyway- 8 to usually 5 with after school clubs. There are evening programmes and saturday programmes. The pastoral care staff last year offered a educaiton psychology series of seminars for parents in the evening.

I am in awe of how hard our teachers work. The committment and enthusiasm they show.

We're still waiting to hear what our school is going to do re fees. If teachers salaries can be covered by the government 80% furlough scheme then I think that discount should be passed on to parents, as well as the cost of food.

They should have a buffer, but I would imagine that the vast majority of a school's operating costs (outside of staff) are fixed. (apart from food).

My dc’s school has been sending home work daily (separate emails from the various teachers) but no online lessons yet. Perhaps that will change after the Easter holidays. This week’s work has meant a lot of work for me, on top of wfh, it’s not viable long-term.
If they don’t introduce some sort of online lessons I would resent paying the fees tbh.

We have been offered a 20% discount, which I'm very happy with. DD1's independent school is providing an amazing service, with a full online day. Work is being submitted, marked and returned. Whole class lessons are taking place on zoom. Saying that, DD2 is at a grammar school and they are also providing a fantastic service, more than I would ever expect from a state school and not hugely dissimilar to DD1.

If teachers salaries are being covered by furlough they won’t be allowed to work.

So who will be teaching And setting work for the children?!

Re @bulletjournalbilly , @Lobsterquadrille2 has hit the nail on the head. You might be thick: but your paid-for education ensures you don’t look it - at least in writing. I’m sure the same can’t be said for thick as shit state school pupils. And it’s that privilege and inequality to which people object.