Private school fees

[IrisAnon]

I have one DC at grammar school and another at prep school (Y6). Since the schools closed the grammar school has definitely worked hard to switch to online teaching and I rarely saw my older DC - all taken care of. Very happy with what they were able to produce at short notice. They have said they are offering a 10% reduction on fees.

The prep, not so much. A home learning pack emailed to parents with the expectation we supervise and oversee the work they have set. Various projects and presentations to prepare in different subjects. Parents horribly stressed as many are also trying to work from home. No online support at all other than being able to email a teacher if we needed help with a question. Letter from the head stated that it was unreasonable to expect 'schools should be using technology or online teaching from 'day one' and expectations were too high'. All very self-congratulatory about how well they have adapted and how hard the teachers have worked (!) (don't get me wrong - I like the teachers but in seriousness - no real contact or lessons for 2 weeks). They offered 20% off fees for next term.

Just wondering what your schools are offering and if you feel what you're being offered is fair? Of course, parents at our prep school would rather die than discuss this with each other as it's apparently 'just not done'.

15% if you need it.

10% here, DD is secondary (year 7) and has had a full timetable of lessons 8.40am until 3.45pm delivered online though. When school first closed there was no discount, they changed it to 10% at the weekend. We have just lost DH income though so even finding 90% is going to be impossible.

Nothing at all here! Been told that if we don’t pay up, our children will be removed from the role at the end of April and never allowed to return!

Another private school fee thread! cant you just look at the other 3 or 4 that have been up over the past few days

Read this
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/3863486-Private-school-what-fee-reduction-have-you-been-given-for-the-summer-term

My kids state schools managed to have online learning ready from day one

Playing devil's advocate here a bit, but few points occurred.

1. What about cost of getting children laptops, as parents may need theirs for work.
2. Many parents are hocked up to eyeballs to cover fees, if a schools buildings are owned why could they not take out commercial mortgage ?
3. Seems that the pain of all of this needs to be shared more equally. Seen a very well argued letter recently circulated and signed by many parents at one school respectfully requesting a cut in fees of 1/2. All costed out within letter by parent who had gone meticulously through schools accounts.

We are in a similar situation. Given a pathetic 15% discount and given a Seesaw app to basically spend 40 mins, five times a day with our children doing a teacher's job. A lot of parents have come together at our school and we are paying the school for a higher discount. We have managed to get it up to 25% for the lower years but it's still not reflective of the service being provided! Our school is owned by a larger corporation and we intend to push this higher up the chain. It's just pure greed on the part of corporation and we will not stand for it.

We are (hopefully) getting lunch money back!

10% off, last term of 6th form. DD was only at the school 18m.

It is a tough time, certainly for those paying high fees and uncertain about their future income stream.

I recall a story my cousin told me. Her husband chose to send their son to a good state school and invest the private tuition fees elsewhere because he did not want to reach a stage where he could no longer afford the fees and have to pull his son out of private school. They were well off, and her husband is quite savvy when it comes to investing money. Every year he would add to the investment the equivalent amount of private school fees so he would not feel guilty.
His son was a bright boy, and eventually achieved good grades and went to a very good university. He mixed with kids that went to many of London's top private schools all their lives. They graduated, and he began working for a large consultancy firm along with one of his colleagues from Uni who had been privately educated. Two years into their work, the privately educated young man was sadly still in debt, and paying rent and loans accumulated during his university days. They were also both on the same salary. However, my cousin's son was not in any debt as his father's investments over the years had comfortably paid for his university education. Not only that, but this investment had now grown into a very handsome 6 figure sum. He was able to put a huge deposit on a 2 bedroom apartment, whilst his other colleague was still paying his debts.
We all want the best for our kids, but I guess the moral of this story is to highlight that there are no guarantees in life, and sometimes what might appear to be a 'lesser' route, turns out to be the more fruitful.

Good luck to you all ! x

@KayMumLondon That’s great but my DS2 struggles with noise and large groups of people. If you know of any good state primary schools within commuting distance of London which have less than 20 children per class, please do drop me a line.