school in financial difficulty?

[heyhoplaydough]

Have just heard that the prep school we chose for DC is now waiving the fee deposit, usually paid on accepting a place. I must admit this has made me concerned about the school finances and, or potentially having only a few classmates for DC. should I be sceptical? Or should I see this as a positive helping hand for parents, in light of the recent economic climate?

Can you name the school?

I'd rather not name them. The school website advertises the fee waiver, as a 'one year only - special promotion', to help parents, in these difficult times. According to the school, they have filled about half of their places for this September, and that this is usual for them, at this point in the year. The promotion will run from April, so although I was about to send in my own deposit and acceptance forms, I am now inclined to wait .

Surely this policy would potentially put the school into financial difficulty. By April parents are also obliged to pay a term's fees if they cancel the place so do the dates perhaps tie in with LA allocations ? It may be false economy to wait if you want to secure a place before the rush and usually the deposit is offset against the final term's fees anyway, so you'd not lose out overall.

Some even good schools are having difficulties filling their places at the moment, I wouldn't worry.

I am no expert in this but my guess is that the school is fine financially (otherwise they would be desperate for the dosh). But may be they are trying to arract people who might otherwise be worried about finding the deposit. Is it a huge deposit, they vary from a few hundred to a few thousand in my experience. Also is the deposit against the first term or is it refunded on leaving?

Thanks for the responses. I was probably worried over nothing.

The deposit is a few hundred, rather than thousand. It was previously deducted from the final term of Y6 fees. The school are advertising the new promotion as a saving to put towards the initial term fees instead. The promotion is timed to commence a week after the local authority primary school places are allocated.

Look up the school's accounts on the Charity Commission website. That will give you the information that you need I suspect.

Prep schools are either set up as charities or companies and must file their accounts with the charities commission or companies house. If you are concerned take a look on their websites for their accounts (you have to pay a small fee for companies house, but it's only a few £).

One word of caution though many schools are set up with several companies, so you need to check all the companies in the group to get the whole picture.

I would be concerned.

I would look at the accounts, as Red Gruffalo suggests, sounds worrying.

Ds's school does this, they deduct the deposit from the first terms fees. The school's 600 years old so I don't think they are in financial difficulties.