Fees negotiation?

[sallythesheep73]

Ds1 is keen to move to a private school. We have chosen the school. It will be a very small class and so they are keen to get extra students. They have offered us 1 term free as an incentive.
We also have DD1 who we hope will follow him in 2 years. However I think once she sees all the lovely things her brother is doing I fear she we will want to move sooner. DD1's class is also very small and i suspect they would welcome additional pupils.
Should I ask for 1 term free for DD1? Do I do that now or when she is moving? Or should I try to get a % reduction?
Anyone had any experience of this?

As a teacher in a private prep and a parent of privately educated children...if they are offering you that kind of "deal", they're probably stone broke and desperate for the cheque. There is a prep near me which literally has 14 in one year group - 7 per class - I doubt very much it'll still be standing in a couple of years.

Just to say we moved him. 4 Weeks in he is v happy :-).academically more challenging. Writing and enthusiasm have improved massively. Lots of extra curricular activities.
Meanwhile the school he left 2 more children have just left so economic viability of that not looking too great (circa 55 students)...

Glad you moved him!

I hadn't seen this thread before but individual deals are not uncommon and not necessarily a sign the school is in trouble at all.

Thankyou. My chum who teaches at a prep school said they are open to negotiation ;-).

There are 4 prep schools near us and we could get into them all.

This is what is worrying a lot of us. Private schools can and do shut pretty much over night. So I would strongly advise you to keep a careful watch on how the school is doing financially, if pupil numbers are going up or down, and any rumours about: head changing, redevelopment plans close to the school etc.

I would echo each the need for caution. I've seen two private schools near me collapse in the last few and both were clearly struggling with numbers and very flexible on fees. When the they did collapse there was not much notice and then there was a mad rush for everyone to get places elsewhere. The stronger schools were not at all flexible other than the usual scholarships.

Going coed can be one of the warning signs that a school is in trouble - they need to double the potential pool of students easily... (Not always, of course, there are many other reasons to make the change)

The school has a senior school and is part of a national trust with thousands of students. It's the biggest of the schools around here. Some of the schools have circa 200 students between age 4 and 18 so I figure they are more vulnerable.
When I say 4 schools we could have gone to that's within a 30 miles radius with the nearest school 40mins away and the furthest 60 mins away.
State primaries near us have between 21 (!) And 67 students so I am well versed on school closures.

It's quite normal where we are in the South West - we were offered quite hefty bursaries in three different preps, two of them have had drops in numbers and are trying to build them back up but the third is very successful and offered an even bigger bursary than the other two. They said they had a weighty bursary fund and they're actively trying to extend this so that more families can benefit. So it's not always a sign of a struggling school. Think times are just changing.