Private school - what fee reduction have you been given for the summer term?

[BunsyGirl]

I would just like to get an idea of what (if any) fee reductions people are being offered for the summer term. We have been offered £150 discount per child to cover lunches. I am not particularly happy as our fees cover 8-6 wrap around care. I have been told that another local private school is offering a 10% reduction and their hours are shorter as after school care is an optional extra. I don’t want to get into a debate about whether we should get a fee reduction or not. I just want to get an idea of what fee reductions are being offered.

Coach and lunch deducted and there will be a fee reduction but not been told what is yet. Think they might keep next years fees as for this year.

@allinit2gether I have kept of this thread for a while as it was getting a bit toxic and not good for my mental health. Things have deteriorated regarding my DC’s school since I originally posted. They have made 150 members of staff redundant (including every TA). The whole situation seems to have been mismanaged on an epic scale. Every other local school is retaining their staff, albeit furloughing some of them where possible, and then offering discounts of between 10 and 25%. Our school gets rid of a third of its staff and offers no discount (presumably because it has a large redundancy bill). Everyone is really angry about the situation. I am heartbroken. Some of those TA’s have taken such good care of my children over the years. They didn’t deserve this.

Why in the world would they make anyone redundant? There’s a great scheme in place to ensure this isn’t necessary. That’s just bizarre.

@bunsygirl I'm not surprised you feel let down. The government introduced furlonging to avoid redundancies and the school could have chosen to top up to 100% of salary. What are they planning on doing come September? Sounds like there will be no school.

I'm very worried. We are not in London and apart from the medics and lawyers the majority of parents are small business owners (up to around 30 employees). Lots of families with 2 or 3 children in the school. The government has already announced a relaxation of wrongful trading which is basically an acknowledgment of the 1000's of co's that are already insolvent. And it has only just begun.

Small business owners are also likely to have given significant pg's for their co debt which means business debt can hit personal assets hard in an unforeseen way. I know that my husbands invoice finance company is not paying out on legitimate invoices (against his contract with them) but he's not allowed to collect them in either. Time is not on our side. I'm not sure schools and teachers realise the very real pressures being faced by small business owners many of whom are going without income to ensure their staff are paid.

@Wheresthebeach It’s crazy. I am a loss for words over the situation. Trying to hold it all together for the sake of my DC’s who have no idea about what’s going on.

@allinit2gether I am seriously worried about there being no school in September. This is a school that has been around for almost 400 years and has 1300 pupils. The last accounts showed that it was in a very healthy position. There is absolutely no reason for them to have taken this course of action.

You seriously don't know what 'mothballed means ' 🙄🙄🙄?

* So, right now, when hardship is affecting many families, the school is suggesting the discount parents choose not to take is being put into the hardship fund for use in the future, when this is all over, and IF a family at the school suffers the sort of hardship you describe?*

I think this sounds brilliant.
It avoids the hardship fund being obliterated (and many not even receiving help because the number of parents impacted by corona will be much more than the hardship fund!)

And those that don’t take the discount offered are obviously very very comfortable

And the hardship fund builds for children at the school who lose a parent or parent diagnosed with terminal / serious illness etc

That was a question, not a statement, Bringring My point was that nowhere in the communication from school has it been made clear that money donated now, because of fee reduction due to CV, will be used to help those in need, due to CV.

Maybe, in that case, bursaries should be offered along the lines of, "if you can't afford the fees, we're happy for you to pay them over a longer period", because that's what's being offered to parents who may well have paid full fees for years but now find themselves unable to pay the next term 's fees, through no fault of their own.

I really do struggle to understand your point. Probably just me. Hope your school get your point

@BunsyGirl that sounds a very extreme reaction. Have you looked at their accounts at company House? I think there were a fair few preps in this area that were already struggling and 2 had taken serious measures to address pupil shortages. I think it will be a case of those that can hang on the longest will be ok as they may scoop up some of the pupils from the schools that don't.

@fridgeraiders. They had a £3 million cash reserve at the end of July 2019.

Redundant? When it could be avoided and save money not spend it?

That’s a very odd choice. I’d be looking at accounts and checking for secured lending. And considering a move.

Perhaps if a large number of parents have already given their notice to leave in that would make sense? They may have been looking to make savings (although not sure why with that surplus) and this has been an excuse to cut costs.

Hello, parents have been offered a 20% discount but encouraged to pay full fees if possible. One week of very disappointing online learning, which took the form of tasks being emailed. No virtual lessons, podcasts, or student connection. Promise to up there game after Easter hols with use of Teams. Personally expect bigger discount.

Just heard today DD’s school are reducing fees for the summer term by 40%. I’m so relieved, DD’s dad is a self employed upholsterer and currently has zero income so can’t pay his half

Just heard from Ds's school - prep and nursery. He's in year 3. For summer term they've said

Year 3 - 6 25%
years 1 and 2 30%
Nursery and early years 80%

That will have to be reviewed if this carried on into the Autumn.

And a request that anyone in severe difficulties contact them to see if they can help further and also that if anyone is willing and able to pay extra then that will be put aside for those really struggling.

Sadly they've furloughed some staff. DS has a boy in his year with a brother in year one and a sister in nursery so their parents must be extremely relieved at the reduction.

Just hope school will survive this though. They are a fairly old prep but not a rich one - they've got reserves but not massive ones.

I love DS's school. They've been running high levels of online teaching since day one, the head does a morning assembly and he even did an end of term prize giving video!! We've been extremely lucky.

@cottonwoolbrain it's not sad they have furloughed staff. It's sensible and will mean that those staff have more chance of actually having a job once all of this is over. The school can pay the 20% shortfall if they have the money to do so. I wish our school would take a more pragmatic view and look to furlough those staff that aren't fully utilised. The economic prospects for the country as a whole are pretty dire right now, lots of private schools are going to go bust regardless. My children's school has pretty big reserves and is the most academically selective locally so I suspect they will be ok but fees will no doubt be going up significantly once this is all over and many families that just scrape by are going to have to rethink their educational choices and that will have an enormous impact on survivability.

@madamjosephine is that across the border or particular to your circumstances?

Apparently they will be talking about this on LBC tonight.

@allinit2gether it’s for everyone. He did say that in the unlikely event the school reopened after half term he would add 10% back on though

Not using a private school but nursery. I think worth keeping up the pressure - our nursery reduced fees from 100%, to 40% and (after about 10 days) nothing as presumably lots of people complained and they realised people would just terminate their places. We didn't get round to complaining as we had a toddler to manage plus (nearly) full time jobs, but clearly others did!

@Alsoplayspiccolo

How did your discussion with the school go?

I feel we are really over a barrel. DS’s school has not offered any discount at all, even for food, etc.. We are going to pay the whole amount (son is full boarding, so it is a huge chuck of our savings) as he is in GCSE and we cant afford to let that influence their “expected grades” they are submitting to the exam boards, (he is a very average student and may not get the grades required to do A-Levels) or the threat of withholding references and/or grades. We will be giving notice.

@BunsyGirl, is the school in Essex? I know someone who works at a school in Essex which has done this (and they have been made redundant). It seems utterly crazy at this point!