Any international schools offering discounts due to Coronavirus?

[DebratsEtiquette]

Our international school closed mid-March, offered no online teaching (despite all pupils having the regulatory device) until after Easter, then offered 2/3 lessons maximum per day (usually a case of teacher spending 20 minutes doing a register, then setting work to be done offline), zero homework, little checking of work done. We have no discount. On here I read about UK independent schools offering full time, interactive teaching AND a discount. Are any international schools offering discounts? How has your school handled this situation? In place of school lessons we’ve signed up for services like Atom learning, and will probably need to supplement with a tutor going forward.

Where abouts are you? We have online classes and there ‘may’ be a discount - but the fees cover a whole years teaching, and staff are still being paid/buildings maintained etc so it’s probably going to be a max 20% refund at the end of the school year.

We are in Europe (don’t want to be more specific) and would be delighted with a 20% discount. The offering from the school has been terrible, but we don’t have the option of another international school (and they know it!).

Our school was initially going to offer no discount - but there are a lot of parents who are lawyers, and apparently some contacted the school. Is there no alternative school at all? If they thought people would move their children they might reconsider?

Have you paid this terms fees?

We have just received a reminder for this terms fees, I had been waiting in case they offered a discount. Many parents have their fees paid by employers and so it doesn’t really impact them either way (again, the school know this).

Have you spoken to the bursar? I’m amazed they haven’t considered the fact that dealing with expats in uncertain times may well mean families being recalled or facing redundancy.

We have had an email conversation (well, a copy/paste effort) and they are under the impression that they are providing a very good service!

It it seems like they are just not al all. I’d ask for clarification as to what services they are providing. Obviously you can’t refuse to pay but technically you entered into a contract with them - service for payment.

Thanks Lord. I’m really sad at the lack of teaching/learning over the last couple of months, and having the fee reminder has just hit a nerve today. I’ll try to reach other self-funding parents, but there aren’t many that I know of.

Has the school sent out any communications regarding teaching and organisation for the rest of the year? I would ask them to outline exactly how they are engaging with the students, organising classes etc (and if teachers are still employed).

Our school isn’t brilliant at communications but sent out a load of information on what each year group would be doing and how teaching was to be carried out. DS is doing end of year classes now (he should have been sitting exams now) and the school has organised a load of online subjects and activities (and work) to keep everyone busy.

How frustrating for you though.

I'm in Thailand and many schools are offering discounts, though in many cases the discount is off NEXT year, so term 1 of 2020-2021. Initially the schools all agreed together that they wouldn't offer discounts, but they folded pretty quickly once parents started making noise. There are so many schools here that parents can easily move if they're unhappy, so they have a lot of power.

However, most schools have done a really good job of offering online learning. I'm a teacher and my school was really well-prepared for this. We teach all secondary classes live and primary have a lot of contact time but they don't do everything online, they have check-ins and then some independent work (to prevent excessive screen time). Even Early Years kids have a slot to chat to their teacher and a small group of classmates every day!

I think a discount is fair even in our circumstances. In yours, with a poor online offering, I would expect a significant reduction. There is no reason why an international school, with students who have devices and internet access, cannot provide really decent online learning for an ongoing period. It isn't ideal and we would all far rather be in a classroom, but we can do a good job remotely, too. We are very lucky in this regard, as many schools obviously can't assume students have the resources to work online.

Thank you for your input, I have so far found one other parent who pays their own fees (the school has around 2,000 senior school students), apparently many who pay their own fees have left over the last few years. In fairness, the school offering is generally poor, and their handling of this situation has just highlighted their inadequacies even more. On our own we stand no chance, so I am trying to find other similar parents. The tips on looking into the communications is a good one. It would be really good to get some more responses on other schools too.

Our school is doing a full day of online zoom teaching, we have had meals, trips and bus fares refunded. They have also returned the increase in fees for next year.
I can't complain they have done a great job.

My DD's school closed at the end of Feb and had one school day to get online learning fully up and running. They run a regular timetable online for secondary students. Very recently we've been notified of a discount, it's very small and will be applied to 20/21 year invoices unless leaving this summer in which case it will be paid now. It's a not for profit school so not sure if that makes any difference to the willingness or not of discounting fees. DS's UK boarding school have given a 5% reduction on all day fees this term and charging no boarding fees. Both schools have committed to no fee increases in the 20/21 academic year.