Independent school fees and Coronavirus

[Creamegg11]

Our prep school closed on Tuesday due to the Coronavirus situation and the school has given the children some work and also some online learning via an App to do at home.

A parent on WhatsApp mentioned whether parents will get some refund on school fees especially as we don’t know when the children will return. I suppose no one predicted this was going to happen and it’s not the school’s fault but it had me thinking.

No discount here. Online classes are being provided and for yr11 pre A level work will start. Open for key workers children which will be a reasonable number.

Email received saying direct debits will be taken as normal but get in touch with bursar if financial difficulties. 10% of pupils already receive some degree of bursary so not sure there will be much wriggle room.

20% off but still, the most incredible online learning. I'm thrilled that we're part of such a fantastic school.

Sorry for the delay, sending to people that have asked now

20% here but for ALL pupils and my DS is in the last term of A Levels. No further assessments, testing etc will be taken into account so why do them?

Can I challenge and what happens if I refuse to pay?

Are you expecting any help with UCAS or a level grades given?

Not sure what you mean by help? I have already gone through university entry with older son. Predicted grades have been given, mocks have been sat, reports including one a few days ago have been issued. My DS cannot do anything more so what are we paying for?

I am truly not sure what else the school needs to do bar putting the grades in for their pupils.

@Oneliner why such a sweeping statement?

10% Summer Term discount and a fantastic online learning provision.

Plus, in lieu of exams they have created a completely new 'Bridging Programme' for Y11 and Y13 (I have one in each!) to either give them seminars/workshops in their chosen A Level subjects (for Y11 students) or any areas of academic interest on offer according to the units of work the staff have prepared (Y13s). They are offering university tutorial style learning and assignments and trying to teach the pupils some study skills for university.
Hopefully for those who might be considering sitting their exams in the Autumn there will be ongoing support for that learning too.

We have 30% for DS2 (boarding) and 10% offered for DD (day) but they are asking for those who can to pay full whack so we will. DS1 is fully caitered in college and we will not have to pay fees for summer term which we are pleasantly surprised at.

Mumsnet have asked me to try different browsers for better quality - so i am going to do 2 more upload. Please let me know if this works (or doesn't)

2nd browser

We've been asked to buy Peloton to complete D of E.

There are no words 😂

Elephant, neither are clear for me.

Elephant also neither clearer. Fewer lines per page? Thanks for collating & trying !

That is hilarious @happilybemused. I actually have a peleton so maybe I should get eldest on it for his d of e which I had just assumed would be cancelled

@sunglasses123 we're in the same situation. However DS's school has told him to keep working 3 hours a day in case they can use further internal assessments as evidence for their grade submissions. DS says this is simply so they can justify charging a proportion of fees for next term. Surely it wouldn't be fair to take any more work as evidence as he would have access to computer, and not every student nationally would be able to continue home learning. What do you think? I really don't want him spending time working for nothing.

I keep telling my DD that to continue working as if for the exams is less about what may or may not be taken into account, but for her own personal resilience/part of keeping on the path she would have been on and thus being that bit more prepared for university by going through as much of the process as all other students have.

That said, the school programme of elective seminars in the Summer term actually seems to be offering us better value for money than study leave/sitting examinations and then coming back for a Speech Day event. and there's no outlay of exam fees (presumably - THAT would be a difficult pill to swallow given there are no actual exams!)

I am frankly livid with regards to school and my 10 year old child. School wrote to say there will be no discount as in their view they have provided or are providing an equivalent education.

There has been no live lessons and most of the work on firefly has taken dd half an hour to complete. She has had nothing for many of her lessons. Contact with teachers has been zero.

Older children has been much better and I don't mind as much although an acknowledgement of the fact we are definitely not getting the same would have been nice. Its the arrogance and lack of reality check that upsets me. Most of the parents find themselves in a difficult position and many will be losing their jobs or have Had all income stop, so their attitude feels like they are inhabiting a parallel universe.

There is no way that any school can assert they are providing the same level of service through online learning. Most schools will be able to make some form of savings next term and may need to be reminded that parents should be benefitting from those savings.

Schools need to tread a fine line. If they claim that the current service they are providing is as good as normal, then parents should really be questioning whether that service is worth paying for when the school is back open! But if they charge a much lower fee then they're going to be in big financial trouble. I think they're better to be honest and say that they're providing the very best education they can in the circumstances, that they realise that it's not nearly as good as normal school, but that they can't reduce fees too much because the school may no longer be viable if they do. And that parents in financial difficulty should contact the school for help. That's pretty much the line that ours is taking. For what it's worth, I doubt that any schools are making genuine savings in this situation, even those that are furloughing staff. Once you factor in costs they would have incurred last term (eg cancelled events, cover for staff off sick), plus some pupils giving their notice, plus possible impact of withdrawn applications for September and beyond, plus financial support for families in difficulty, I suspect that they will all make a loss over this. Any fee reduction to parents is going to be an additional cost, not a result of savings.

I can tell you absolutely there will be no savings. Someone had the audacity to suggest we should refund stationery costs to the parents! As if we have a daily order of exercise books that we should just cancel as one cancels the milkman! So many things on school budgets are annual costs paid for or committed to up front.

Even the furloughing of staff gives no cash for now- hopefully some back in time of course but if you furlough all support staff and then divide that cost among 1000 odd parents then the amount each gets back is nowhere near the discounts parents are asking for.

At the end of the day it is about whether you want the service to be there in September or not. Look up your school's accounts on charity commission - should be very clear if they have huge reserves and can afford to refund parents or if they will put the school at risk in so doing.

We are definitely being refunded food and exam fees. Not sure what else yet.

Some schools won't survive this but a lot of businesses won't either.

It is going to be very dark times for the independent schools sector over the next few years.

This is interesting:

www.isc.co.uk/media/5479/isc_census_2019_report.pdf

It shows among many things where the clusters of independently educated children are and the percentages of international students. Regardless of schools folding there will be disproportionate impact on state education provision in some areas due to volume of children who are entering state schools who were at independents.

Wow, there's some really interesting data in there. Thanks for posting.

Do you think a sort after indie would give more time for someone to see how the economy / job situation pans out before they'd become liable for the Autumn fees if that date was still in the future?