Private school bursary people please help!

[reallyconfusedmostofthetime]

My daughter has been unhappy at her private prep. She's due to move to the senior school this sept. She was promised she could move to her preferred house. Instead she's been put in a house with girls she finds intimidating.
At the 11th hr we've found her a new school.
Her current head is asking for us to pay her notice period at full fees. We have a bursary so this is double what we would normally pay.
We don't have to pay full fees if she stays at the school for her notice period.
She's pretty upset that she can't move with everyone else at the start of the year.
I'm considering selling a kidney 😬
Her current school is a super shiney successful popular growing school.
I know it's not the end of the world and we'll get through it but is he being a dick or is it actually reasonable?

you have moved her before she’s even started because of house allocation?

All private schools have a 1 term notice, it will be in the contract you signed!
At secondary you will most likely get a wider cohort due to pupils who haven't been to the prep therefore prep friendships tend to quickly dilute over the first term of Yr 7.
Can I just ask, slightly off topic, will the bursary cover VAT on her fees or will you have to pay it? That will be a 20% uplift on what you are paying now.

Your dd hasn't even started yet, and you are giving up !

Wouldn't it be better for her, to persuade her to try it and see how she gets on?

Friendship groups change massively at senior school and she will have a much wider choice of friends. Surely this is just a bit of pre-new-house nerves and is completely normal.

I'd be bolstering her confidence, not selling a kidney.

Why will there be VAT on a term's notice? If OP gives notice now that's the autumn term.

It is normal to give a term's fees in lieu of notice. Did you have any deposit to offset it? Would they accept instalments? Be aware that schools talk and any debt you leave may affect your new school place. There is also a chance similar girls will be at new school so a bit of resilience is needed.

We haven't had this situation but I think that its reasonable that you would pay a notice period at full fees - bursaries are for supporting students who are at the school and she won't be.

Is there a history of contact regarding her feeling unhappy? Was there any written agreement about the houses? Or any email trail of you intervening to try and get this changed? Was there bullying or anything like that which wasn't addressed by the school which has led up to this? Is there anything in the contract about what to do if you are unhappy with service and have you followed it?

I think that your best bet is to argue that the school change was done last minute due to the school's lack of support with the situation and ask them to waive the notice period as a gesture of goodwill.

The full fee is the cost to the school of the place. Check your t and c - people can give their opinion but the contract should be clear.

No but there will be if she stays, also if she is moving to another private school

It isn’t clear if OP has a bursary at the new school.

Write backt o the head explaining the promise was not honoured. If the promise is honoured would she stay? If so then say you wanted to stay but they've let your daughter down by not doing what they said they'd do

very little is clear from the OP!

My expectation (not an expert) is this: the school never actually charges OP the full rate for the service. So they simply charge certain pupils £10k a year ( say) and the others £20k a year. The VAT is on the fee charged not the “theoretical” fee, so no one pays it, it just doesn’t apply.

Exactly, which is why I asked. Not clear whether she is planning on moving to state or private

See my answer above.

If I am a law firm and I give a 20% discount to charity clients, say, then they pay VAT on the fee they actually pay, not my full hourly rate.

I think this should work the same.

Surely the answer is to talk to the new school and raise your concerns about the house with a view to her moving houses either now, or later if it really doesn't work out? I think it's a strange message to give your DD to not go to the school at all because of a few girls. How does she know there won't be any girls she finds 'intimidating' at the other school?. Term's fees in lieu of notice are set in stone at all private schools - I know a few people who've had to stump them up.

Yes a term's notice is standard I'm afraid. I'm very surprised though that a school would let you leave over something that is quite easily resolved by changing house. Is it a very over-subscribed school? At our school, if something like this became a retention issue, they would switch houses with no problem.

Except they obviously have to invoice for VAT at some stage OR they advise that the bursary covers VAT because legally a company has to charge VAT once registered. They can't choose to waive VAT
Anyway that is digressing and derailing

I'd make her stay and the private school she won't get an opportunity like this again.
Also do you think the problem is deeper routed than the school.
It seems to me that it's a problem with your daughter and school not the actual school
1: The private school not getting on there.
2: Doesn't like the house so needs another school.
Personally I'd make her stay at the private school and get her some counselling, maybe she has some sort of anxiety around school and not being with you or something.
It seems to me once she's been at this other school she will want to leave there too.
Letting her leave a private school with such a successful school with great opportunities is madness, when she already then doesn't want to go somewhere else because of a house change.
You are also not making her do her notice period, she is a child and she is running the show, you are going to let it cost you thousands of pounds rather than make her stay her notice period.

I’m a former headteacher and I think there’s a very good chance you can resolve this with her current school (senior following on from prep), and either achieve a change of house or a waiving of the full fees in lieu. The biggest difficulty may be achieving the discussion at this point in the holidays.

In the meantime, do help prepare your daughter to be ready for any social situation. The girls she now finds intimidating may have grown up a bit (let's hope so!) but there will probably always a few who will be challenging, whatever the house, whatever the school. I'd hold onto the kidney.

Re VAT on fees, it’s a challenging time for schools at the moment, causing more late withdrawals of pupils than usual and threatening financial stability. This might be behind the school’s (misguided and unnecessarily rigid in my view) demand for full fees in lieu. It should also mean that they will really want to keep your daughter and to negotiate a solution with you.

Good luck and I hope she can enjoy the summer without worry.

Yes, I know that a company has to charge VAT once registered. I’m not an idiot.

My point was that it is up to a company whether to give a discount to certain customers. If your plumber gave all customers of over 10 years a loyalty discount of 5%, you would pay 20% VAT on the 95%. No one would pay 20% VAT on the 5% that was never charged.

I don't understand why you aren't having a conversation with the current school about the issues which are causing you to withdraw her? And if you are, and they have no interest in resolving things in order to help your daughter then I would definitely be withdrawing her regardless of the cost although, if you have evidence that they promised to put her in her requested house and have failed to do do, one could argue they are not providing what they agreed to and that therefore you are not liable for the fees.

This.

If they have failed to sort out bullying issues then I would be arguing they have breached their contractual obligations and the notice period doesn't exist.

neither child has attended the school yet
so no bullying at this school whatsoever

I think the OP's DD is moving from the prep school to the senior school of the same school.

Exactly this.