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.

In our household we have had one great experience (virtual classrooms, excellent correspondence and 35% off fees next term), one lousy experience (worksheets sent out, poor comms and no reduction so far), and one in the middle. All senior schools.
It has rather focused my mind on where my loyalties will lie if I have to make my own hard financial decisions in the course of time.

bunsy are we the same person?!

DD is 6.

we have an online learning app/website - which has crashed and no longer functions.

we are now emailed a link to a google drive every evening with the work for the next day. the timetable is intense. 8-230.

there's a welcome video, a lesson plan for the day with registration, warm up exercises (this alone takes half an hour) and then each actual lesson has a number of videos to watch and then work to do.

child has to complete all of this each day and we have to submit work to teacher via email.

there's two languages that i don't speak, that we are supposed to teach.

we are trying to manage this whilst both holding down extremely intense and demanding full time jobs at home. i am typically on video calls 8-9 plus hours a day. i'm working harder than ever trying to prove my worth and keep my job.

Whilst at the same time having to teach and oversee everything.

the school is clearly piling on this insane amount of work and pressure to prove their worth and to justify the fees. And constantly chasing us for next term's fees too!

Therefore should not be profit-making?

Most do, DS school is always hinting about “donations”

Lots of charity events, and favouritism to the childrens parents that basically give the most money.

@soberfabulous Sounds really familiar. I have a 6 year old DS though! DH and I are spending hours each evening taking pictures of work, emailing it back, printing out work for the next day. Then there’s the supervision during the day whilst DH tries to keep his business afloat and I WFH in a very stressful job. I honestly thought I was going to have a heart attack the other day.

@DreamingofBrie My DH’s former colleagues were given a 20% pay cut this week. They are still doing the same job and the same hours. This is happening all over the place. So, yes, when you have a music teacher doing nothing whatsoever and a PE teacher uploading a couple of videos a week, I think it is naive for all teachers to expect full pay for the next three months!

bunsygirl me too. I cried whilst on a video call with my mike and camera off. Trying to supervise yet another lesson that couldn't be done alone.

My daughter's school is part of a large group...Makes unbelievable profits. We are both self employed and watching our income disappear...they could well afford to help parents but instead they continue to pressure us.

@Randomnessembraced I have already paid next terms fees so I don’t need to be worried about “bad references”. This thread is not about non-payment of fees. It’s about showing empathy with parents. Private schools cannot expect to carry on regardless whilst parents are struggling. If you read the thread you will see that plenty of other schools are offering reductions of between 10-25%.

@soberfabulous I am sorry. I have cried this week too. I spoke to another mum today who said she has spent half the week in tears. My DC’s school is a faith school. They sent a letter to all parents saying if you don’t pay the fees, your children will be removed by the end of April and will never be allowed to return. WTF!!

To be fair @LisaSimpsonsbff I pay because of the extremely small class sizes, incredible pastoral care offered and the extra curricular activities ie sailing, horse riding, music lessons that aren't offered at our local state schools. So for me personally I am not getting the benefit of any of these, but still paying full fees. I'm happy to pay a reduced rate but I don't feel they should be expecting full pay when they aren't offering even a quarter of the services. And there is a good reason I didn't become a teacher as I'm finding out now

No fee reduction. We went to Italy for half term so neither have been back at school this entire term, and next term looks out too.
Online learning is ok. One if using google learning (or something like that) the other is using zoom... one is hugely independent and in the most competitive set, but they seemed to have standardised lessons across the year and he’s clearly bored.
The other one using zoom isn’t motivated. Isn’t doing the lessons. Takes constant instructions. And you basically can’t work when they are here. We also have a two year old.
Partner has taken a 20% paycut, I’ll be asked for a salary reduction shortly (week after next). We’re still paying our nursery and our nanny (wrap around care but was doing full time before the lockdown at an additional al cost)

Next week is our 8th week of no school.
We’re not surviving. Send help.

For my DC at secondary we have had roughly a 15% discount (plus no transport/extras) and promises about fee freezes and caps for next academic year. They have been excellent and run a full timetable remotely and very effectively. I am very happy to pay for this as I can see they are doing all that they can to provide the best education in the circumstances and have given good reasons for the number. Friends at one of the other private secondaries have had 20% and a similarly good experience and are similarly happy.

For DC at primary it has been a bit more inconsistent. Quite a few really committed teachers providing really good work for each lesson with clear work to hand in and swift feedback. But the school also has some who have just sent our a generic list of vague things to do and told us to contact them if they want feedback. Obviously I can see that some might have illness/caring responsibilities I know nothing about but there doesn't seem to be any oversight/stepping in to cover those issues. So far nothing but a vague statement that they are looking into the fee issue.

We have had an email this evening with a change in policy, we now have 10% discount on the summer term fees. (I replied earlier up the thread saying we had no discount but full timetable of lessons delivered remotely). Our school is part of a bigger family of schools so I think a lot of parents will have received the same email this evening.

But @BunsyGirl, can you show me where on this thread teachers have said they are expecting full pay for three months please? I can't see it anywhere.

We won’t pay for transport and wrap around care, otherwise as normal. full online lessons though, so its fair!

I work in a private school, my children attend the same school and we pay the fees. We have got online learning where the children have the same lessons they would of had at school on their timetables (2 different ones here as one DC in yr6 and the other DC in yr3), I'm also having to work during this time so I completely sympathise with parents here. Especially when children dont settle at home like they would at school, everything takes longer and the work keeps coming. In regard to still paying fees, if they furlough staff- when the school does reopen, theres going to be little staff left. Meaning your children will be off for longer until staff back on board. The fees pay for staff and if the fees aren't paid the staff wont be, meaning again, no staff for your children to return too. I know it's hard work but your keeping your childs education going, they will fall behind otherwise and surely you would rather they provided work for children to avoid this? After reading through comments it seems the schools cant win- they provide work but it's too little or too much, they offer reduce fees and take off lunches etc and it's not enough but I'm assuming your all expecting the schools to all be open when this is over? For those who would like more reductions/no fees issued etc, are you also expecting work/online classes to be provided? It's a tough time for everyone, especially for those having their wages cut. You should speak to the school and express your concerns.

20% and a superb letter from the headmaster and bursar who I have such enormous respect for. They are delivering outstanding online teaching and all communications have been pitch perfect and timely. They have insisted that all music and extra drama lessons go ahead online as they aren't prepared to let the peripatetic teachers lose their livelihood.
The other school - atrocious distance learning provision, a terrible understanding of and approach to IT systems and no communication on fees yet - it's our last term and their poor attitude and approach makes us much less interested in supporting them ongoing. The contrast is remarkable.

The thread is interesting because different schools are taking very different approaches. Our schools have taken token amounts off lunches/coaches/one 10 pc of fees but have promised to help those parents with a fund who are really struggling. I am happy with that. If our school took 50 per cent off for everyone and couldn’t pay all the teachers and gave those who can still afford the fees as they are still being paid in full such a big discount I don’t think that would necessarily be “more fair”. Our schools are also looking after key worker children rather than sending them to anonymous hubs- we have lots of doctors and so glad they are getting some help in this time. Schools are not just a business just because we pay fees! Many teachers and other staff at independent schools are trying their best and working their socks off for our kids. It seems the OP’s school wrote a very poor email though threatening parents. That is not supportive.

Pru24, I'm in the same situation as you - parent and teacher at the same school, so we are also hit by the fees situation. School have promised nothing yet but have committed to making as many savings as they can (temporary redeployment of catering staff, looking at furloughing of non-essential staff etc.) - some of the lunch fees (ingredients, not staff salaries) have been promised already, and setting up of a fund that parents facing financial hardship can apply for.

I've stopped engaging with the parents apart from on a purely professional level now, and a handful whom I count as genuine friends. Things are too fraught at the moment and a lot is being said in anger. Best to remove myself from those conversations completely as I will end up teaching some of these children so I don't need to hear their parents slagging me and my colleagues off! (of course it would not affect the way in which I teach these children). I do know that myself and my colleagues are absolutely busting our guts to provide the best learning experience that we can for our students, given the circumstances.

DS is in year 4 at a 0-18 school. So far we have had 5 minute video lessons daily for maths. And a video from the speech teacher. Son sent home with 3 blank exercise books, no textbooks or workbooks despite them using Maths no problem scheme. School curriculum lead said it was impossible for us to have their personal maths workbooks as teachers have no access to school.

Multiple PDFs per subject to read and print daily , from multiple emails accounts, not on a cloud drive and no guidance as to which pages to print from a 20 page document. No interaction with their class teacher. Work set for double maths took my able son 15 mins to complete including watching 5 min video. No extension work that he does daily. Other subjects' commercial worksheets are aimed at small group work. Very dry, and highlights to my son that he is not at school with his friends. Frustrated I looked on bbc bitesize and school radio and found some interesting links in about 5 minutes. But I shouldn't have to be doing the looking. Everything to go in exercise book for the teachers to check when they go back.

School is still open for essential workers' children which is absolutely necessary and I'm grateful for, but also means the staff haven't time to make their lesson plans suitable for home schooling.

Contrast this with friend's similar aged children at neighbouring indie - all textbooks and workbooks sent home, learning pack, work submitted daily for marking, taught online lessons. This is similar to our senior school.

I appreciate this is new and stressful territory for everyone but the lack of foresight to send their books home is incompetence. Fortunately as a SAHM, I am able to supervise but am not even able to do simple household tasks or reply to our village's COVID support emails while he is working.

I was quite prepared before school finished to pay full fees for next term as I don't want the staff to suffer. I love teaching him and helping him investigate. He is interested and motivated to learn (as long as it doesn't involve much handwriting 🤣). However, unless the offering improves dramatically, we will be giving a term's notice and I will homeschool while I investigate the other local indies. This is not going to be a one off lock down and school closure for a few weeks. This is the way we will live for the foreseeable future.

Can I also ask - if staff are furloughed, does that mean that they are not allowed to work? If that was the case, I am guessing that no work would be set, and that schools would not be open to supervise the children of key workers?

Independent secondary, Year 10, day school. No discount on fees next term, just not being charged travel or lunches (unless school restarts). Implied they would work with and look kindly on those in difficulty if they contacted the bursar. I've checked our contract wording and this type of event is covered so wasnt expecting it to be anything else.

We are happy with what the school has provided so far, given the extenuating circumstances and short amount of time they had to prepare. Work set over Firefly for all subjects (admittedly problems getting on at start of week due to demand but understandable and don't blame the school who were very hot on communicating about it). Teachers respond very quickly to messages DS sends through, work is marked quickly with very good level of detailed feedback as usual.
From start of next term moving to virtual classrooms on MSTeams.
Provision still being provided in school for children of key workers.
The level of individual attention and continuation of education is definitely a step above what I'm hearing from local state schools.
I'm not sure the school costs that much less to run without students present. Majority costs will be staff, fixed costs and contracts that they won't be getting out of for just a term.

I'm very pleased with it, even if it's not everything DS was getting before.

No teaching staff should be furloughed

I’ve read this thread with interest. My cousin works at a small country prep (struggling to survive anyway) which has furloughed everyone, all teaching staff included, for the Easter holiday. Staff are still expected to prepare all of the online teaching for next term, and also expected to ‘volunteer’ to be on the rota to keep the school open for key worker children. The school is traditional - long extended day for everyone - and they have just sent out bills asking for full fees. It all seems a bit odd. I suppose furlough is designed to prevent redundancy, so in that sense it’s good, but it just seems an odd use of the system.

@tulipsrus If they are still teaching, they should not be furloughed. If they are not teaching as their discipline is impossible to teach remotely, then schools need to have a serious think about furloughing them. Also, there are huge numbers of non-teaching staff many of whom will be doing nothing now. Again, schools will need to think about furloughing them.

For those people commenting that schools will struggle to find staff when they come reopen, they must be living on a different planet to me. Unemployment will increase dramatically. There will be plenty of people who need a job.

@DreamingofBrie You don’t need teaching assistants, sports coaches, cleaning staff, receptionists, librarians, laboratory staff, security guards, cooks and other catering staff, midday assistants, grounds staff, marketing staff etc. to set work. Do you actually have any experience of a school? You seem fixated by teachers and setting work. No one is suggesting that teachers shouldn’t be setting work but there are clearly lots of other staff who are not needed right now.