to not pay 1st term fees for a school my DC is not going to?

[staranise]

Bit of a long story but...

DC didn't get into any of her state school choices in April. After a few weeks of panicking and getting nowhere with the LEA, we reluctantly registered her private, paying a deposit of £1000+. A couple of weeks later, the council acknowledged they'd calculated our route wrong etc and we got a place in our first choice state school. I emailed the private school saying that DC would not be going there, though we had paid the deposit, they migth as well keep the place open for her (they are not full, indeed are undersubscribed so we were not taking up anyone else's place), though we didn't need home visit/induction/uniform details etc.

Now have jsut received an invoice for first term fees. According to them, we had to give a term's notice in writing - though we only registered her half-way through the summer term anyway, and thn told them she wasn't going two weeks later.

Are we at all liable for these fees? We've already lost the deposit, which is fair enough, but it never occurred to me they might pursue us for fees as well. Are they likely to seriously expect us to pay them?!

oh poor you. This happens a lot round here too (a few of our friends applied to lots of private schools and had to read the terms very carefully to avoid this sort of thing).

I agree with katiedd. Be honest with them. Tell them you really didn't understand the terms properly and you're willing to come to some sort of agreed settlement. They can get you to pay for the whole term but hopefully, if you are completely honest and have a face to face conversation with the bursar, they may lower the fees for the term. I think it's your only hope.

But you see, we thought we had given notice...confirmed by them acknowledging that DD wouldn't be coming in September. I thought that meant they had accepted the notice. It never occurred to me it didn't. I didn't question them re, the fees because I didn't think there was any confusion. DD wasn't going and therefore we didn't have to pay, as fees were due first day of term....or so I thought...

If you have it in writing from them saying they are sorry your dd will not be attending then this could just about be a teeny leg to stand on

p.s. I have no experience of private schools at all...was just adding my tuppence worth

Could there have been any misunderstanding that you might have been planning to send her later during the year and that was why you wanted the place kept open ie to defer, not that you were n't planning to send her at all ?

I don't think so but will see what they say.

Needing to give a term's notice is very standard. I don't think it matters, really, that you asked them to keep the place open, you didn't give a term's notice. No, you didn't have time to give a term's notice, but contracts don't work that way - they aren't about what you can't and can't do, they just set out the rules.

I guess I'm just used to DD's (private)nursery, which has the same terms and conditions but is much more relaxed about them - or at least, they've never enforced the terms in this way before. And of course, it's on a scale of £100s not £1000s, so less important I guess.

Still think they could have at least mentioned that we would still be liable for fees when I told them that DD would not be coming. Just feels that the world is that little bit meaner than I had assumed. Excuse melodrama but we are skint and I am pg so feeling rather emotional at the moment!

if you are skint, how were you planning on paying the fees?

i appreciate you don;t want to pay as your DD is not going, and i hope the school are willing to negotiate with you

best thing to do is to be honest and upfront with them

sounds like a lot of parents have tried this tack and it has come back to bite you on the bum unfortunately

we would have sent her for one year until we could have moved and/or a state school place would have come up, family would have helped. we were desperate as the LEA kept telling us there was not chance we would get a state school place within 2 miles. we should not have believed them. Feel like the whole school thing has been nothing but a nightmare for months.

Thaks for all replies, had better get with some work.