Withdrawing from School - 14-day cooling off period?

[Mum80Hampshire]

Hi there,

I have recently enrolled my DD, who was being homeschooled, into a local school in London, to start in January '21. I know that for schools generally, we need to give a full term's notice to withdraw, i.e. if I give notice now then the earliest I could withdraw her is AFTER the Lent term.

I'm now concerned about the rise in Covid cases at school (incl the school we're looking to join, where there's been a big outbreak), and may want to defer her going to school until the Summer of 2021.

I know that in most industries, there is a 14-day cooling off period during which you can cancel a contract. Does anyone know if I'm able to cancel my contract with the school therefore, or do I have to lose a term's fees now if I don't want to send my DD to school? The contract does not mention this 14-day cooling off period, but wanted to know if it's something we're legally entitled to.

Thank you,

Concerned Mum

Where did you enter into the contract OP? You only have 14 days to cancel if it's a distance contract.

But honestly anyway, let her go to school. Unless she's vulnerable it's not an issue for children and the social benefits are enormous.

The contract was emailed to us and also returned via email. We appreciate your advice and agree with regard to the social benefits, it's not so much the children we're worried about but the adults as we have elderly grand-parents staying with us who are high risk. Hopefully it's not much longer however before she can return to normal schooling.

My understanding is that 14 day cooling off periods only apply to distance selling I.e. something you bought online or over the phone without seeing it first.

If you have visited the school then I doubt this applies and you will be liable for the fees. Most independent schools have some sort of online provision available to pupils as well as face to face currently due to self isolating. You may be able to request that your daughter participates in classes this way until you feel more comfortable.

I agree with the previous poster though that unless you have family medical reasons for not sending her then the risk to her health is extremely low. In fact, she stands a higher chance of being involved in a road accident than being severely affected by COVID19 if she had no underlying health issues.

When you say you signed her up "recently", do you literally mean in the last few days or a few weeks ago?

Also, was there any competition for the place or was there space anyway and no-one else applying?

Do you want your daughter to start at the same school after Easter or somewhere else?

If you've literally only just signed up and you haven't made the school turn anyone else down AND you want to come anyway, then just phone them and ask if they will agree to that. Schools do stick pretty rigidly a lot of the time to notice periods but if it's mid-year, you haven't taken a place from someone else and you want to come in the summer, you'd hope they would see the bigger picture.

I would speak with the school. Depending on how oversubscribed they are they may actually be happy to defer her place on the basis that it's better to have a student paying fees for years to come than one terms fees and a damaged relationship with a family.