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.

I think it might help if everyone understood that furlough does not equate to redundancy. It equates to full salary for a (currently) indefinite amount of time while your employer works out if they need/can afford to keep employing you. It is not a bad thing.
Of course in the long run we’re all going to be paying for all of those furlough salaries...but right now it is absolutely something schools should be doing to protect staff they cannot use.

If schools are able to furlough staff (and claim 80% of the cost of those staff from the gov) then I fully expect to see some of the saving passed onto parents

Oh and PE teachers (I'm not one but feel the need to defend them) don't only teach practical lessons. My school offers GCSE and A level PE and those teachers by definition are among the youngest and whizziest when it come to theoretical lesson teaching, sometimes with a clientele who can find academic lessons more challenging. And guess who is getting called in disproportionately to cover the key worker kids because they have the skills to keep them happy and occupied (and distanced!) outdoors? If the school furloughs them they can't use them.

Sorry - I should have said - furlough is 80% of salary. If employers choose to they can top it up to full.

It stands to reason that if PE teachers are being used they shouldn’t be furloughed. But if they aren’t - they should. It might be a school cant still justify keeping a whole PE department.

BiscuitsNeeded whilst schools may still be paying staff, they may be furloughing some non essential staff. Also utilities are not being used much -heating, electricity etc. After school clubs, other activities that are included in fees, materials and equipment are not being used, consumed, potentially some insurance may be able to be put on holiday. Lots and lots of things are not being spent. Just think of all the costs that are NOT staff.

Isn’t it often the case that staffing costs are 60-70% of total costs in private schools? Everyone just needs to be sensible. If parents are overly pushy they may well not have schools to go back to. If schools dig in their heels about fee reduction they may well not have enough pupils to be viable when their buildings can reopen. They need to find a middle ground that shows each respects what the other is coping with and means the school can survive.

We have received a full bill. I was a bit shocked. DP’s income will likely drop about 50 %. DS’s school is boarding, and they haven't even deducted costs of food, laundry, electricity savings etc. (Son is in year 11 and eats like a horse.) They even included a bill of £315 for exams! LOL. TBH, I think school could fold (over 60 % of boarders are from abroad, mostly China, Thailand etc.) we are looking at local state 6th form options.

No reduction discussed however children are having remote lessons inc pe and pastoral support. If no remote lessons and full fees expected I wouldn't be happy.

Has anyone come back to say what mothballed means, I would like to use that word, its fab!

It means that the offices, refectories, kitchens and classrooms are closed down, the swimming pools are drained and the boarding houses locked up.

No heating, no lighting.

Mothballed - to store away, put on the back burner, postpone, pack away until it’s ready to use again. To stop work on a project but to leave ready to come back to.

@likeamum I would agree lunches etc should be deducted but for everyone to be aware, exam fees (if not bundled in your existing fee structure) are still being charged by exam boards. For dealing with the data and awarding the certificates in the summer I guess. So something to take up with Ofqual, not the school)

Well I got a phone call today to say I am furloughed (I’m a TA). I was expecting it really and I’m ok with it.

@SpokeTooSoon I think we are at the same school. I agree it's entirely tasteless and it's being spearheaded by some of the families with the deepest pockets!

@Rubarbisevil schools are still providing care for key workers so our buildings cleaners etc are not all closed down! We're shut ... but we're not.

One school has offered a third off, which I suspect is thr boarding fee. However they are providing most lessons in zoom and a full timetable. The other school... We haven't heard but I suspect they won't provide a reduction.

Very very different provision than child 1,eg mainly work set on firefly and not in every subject, mainly maths and English. If we are charged full fees I would expect a steep improvement... Online lessons would be a good start.

Those schools offering money off how are they wording it? Is it for the entire term irrespective of when they go back? Or is their provision to charge full amount if they do go back for some of summer term?

GDST - a wealthy trust has offered 10%. GDST justify this by providing basic online learning which doesn’t match the offering of our local under-funded state school. They have handled the situation badly focusing mostly on their needs and finances. What is more disappointing is that there has been minimal advice or concern shown about the girl’s mental health and general well-being during this period of uncertainty. In contrast, my son’s school has sent regular letters which show genuine concern and have links to resources for supporting the children’s mental health and well-being.

Glad I’ve found this thread was feeling increasingly aggrieved with the way my daughter’s private school have handled the thorny issue of fees thus far. We’ve been getting really quite rude and unsympathetic mass emails from them stating that full fees would be due regardless of the situation - incidentally we hadn’t even contacted them yet to discuss. We’ve been thrown lifelines of them having waived the term’s notice should anyone’s financial situation have changed meaning they can no longer afford the fees, lunches not being charged for and no annual increase (for now) !!!! And made to feel that we should be grateful for that and ridiculous for expecting anything more. My major issue is that my daughter is in reception and receiving no distance learning. We were given 4-5 small tasks per week for four weeks in printed sheets and one or two extra tasks added on the home link portal. We are encouraged to upload things and there have been 2 weekly videos from the teacher and a couple of log ins for online resources to use but to be honest I really do not think this justifies full fees and feel insulted to be expected to accept it does. I’m not saying full on virtual classroom set ups would work for this age group but think if they’re going for full fees more should be offered for those in a position to facilitate it such as scanning reading books, mini phonics tutorials or maths tasks - just a bit more directed learning. I actually thought such discussions re fees would not take place until it became clear as to how long exactly the children were likely to be out of school. I would have also been more inclined to give them a chance to perhaps get more sorted in terms of learning had they not come straight out and set their stall out re fees. I just feel very strongly that everyone is having to take a hit on this and are all having to view things differently than we normally would and it has all left a very bad taste in my mouth. Fees aside I also think reception is such a pivotal year they are all just learning to read/write all the foundations are being laid so it seems a shame to not try and be more creative and try and keep them more engaged - otherwise I can foresee huge problems when they do go back. As far as I am aware there are only a couple of children from key workers across the two classes. All in all I think they’ll have to expect a lot more questions if they’re going to stand firm on full fees! I’d be interested to hear any other example of the set up for this age group and how it’s going. We’ve been very happy with the school so far, adore the class teacher and have had no other reason to complain about anything it’s such a shame.

Where we are fees have been reduced and staff who can’t currently work/won’t be needed next term furloughed.
KS1 children have had 1 week of home learning. Definitely no shortage of work sent home but it was a bit overwhelming to be honest. I know that age need supervision but it felt very full on. Lots of fun suggestions and things to do outside which would be great on a ‘normal’ holiday but when I’ve also got KS2 children to help and am trying to work from home myself I found it too much. I’m feeling v daunted about next term. I have to prioritise my own work (money and all that) and I have to work during the day. There seems to be the expectation that the children will have 1:1 really active help for hours a day. I can see myself feeling very inferior and struggling because my kid won’t be able to do it all. Zoom is also going to be complicated if 3 people in the house need to be Zooming at once.

Having just read this through I think we are in a good position, our school is furloughing as many staff as possible, TA's, catering, reducing cleaning and ground staff to minimum, but keeping on teachers to deliver online (sounds like it will be available flexibly rather than live via zoom etc) and fees reduced to 60%. school have said that they can save money on utilities, catering, transport to matches etc.

There was another thread on this, but as this one seems more active, I'll post what I said there yesterday:

Just been told by DSs' school that they are reducing next term's fees by £800, plus not charging for lunches (£200 or so). In total, that's about 17% off. They are also not going to increase fees in the next academic year.

DD is at a different school which (at the moment) have billed us for full amount next term. But we shall see...

gemini70, we feel exactly the same, re GDST. Absolutely no communication from the head of DD’s school, no pastoral support (DD is one of the year’s that has just had exams cancelled) and no teaching as such - just a small amount of work set and no feedback.

I was even less impressed that the CEO has tried to claim that years 11 and 13 will actually be getting better value for money than they would have done in a normal exam term.

As for the hardship fund - we wrote, asking for help as we have lost all our income, and the response has been that we will be given a payment holiday until June only, after which time, we’ll be given a payment plan.
Not sure where the hardship fund is going, in that case. 😒

When I received the email from the head of DS's school I thought we were pretty hard done by TBH he is Y13 and boards, the school have offered a 50% reduction straight off the mark,(although the head did say in the letter if you feel you could pay the full fees it would be appreciated!!), fees are just under £16000 a term, , which initially I thought was unfair as we would still be paying for boarding when they aren't there, but reading through here it seems better than most here, no mention of online teaching etc. so may just bide our time a little to see exactly what does happen.

Obviously even finding £8k is going to be a struggle given my online business has completely stopped, no orders in 3 weeks, but its an amazing school and I wouldn't want to see it close for others children.