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.

@mummy1800 are those online lessons live? Do you know how many live lessons a week the are planning to have, if any? Like one on ones with the teacher. I know it is tough for Reception children, but still paying considerably so I would expect plenty of tailored interaction.... we are getting a 20% discount across the board for all years. So the parents of the younger years are really scratching their heads.

They’re going to have three short, live lessons a day and then have other work set for them. One on ones haven’t been mentioned.

We are battling my children’s independent school as the online offering is non existent and both my husband and I have list our jobs do no income, our school is owned by a massive private company who owns schools all over the world, their response has been to threaten the parents and not help. I am unable to pay the full amount but could pay something but not 100%

It's ridiculous, the fees we are being charged for such a reduced service. Ultimately, independent schools are a business and we are the consumer. We pay for a service and if that service is reduced (as is the case with our school) then I do not see why we should pay over the odds. I am happy to pay a fair price for what we do receive however, schools seem to have an issue with being fair. Small independents, I can understand parents want to help the school stay open but other schools owned by big corporates who clearly have reserve funds but still try to squeeze every last penny from parents is pretty disgraceful.

Many parents at our school have come together to pressurise this particular corporate.

Cognitaparent1, can you say which corporate/chain of schools this is?

I'm happy to pay the 90% we have been asked for, partly because I don't just see the fee I pay this week as being related to this coming terms education, but to what the school will be able to offer next year and the years to come....and I want my children to have a good eucation at the school for several years to come. I understand that the school has been able to save some money but that is pretty limited because most goes on teachers. Therefore if there were a big discount, I would actually worry about the future ability of the school to provide the education I want for my children, even if it might be nice this week to fork out less.

Isn't it the struggling schools which are actually giving the big discounts? If they lose just a few families they will really struggle, so are trying to avoid that....although it makes their longer term furs even more precarious. And it's actually often those with lower fees who are having to offer the bigger discounts and where the parents seem more irrate about paying and demanding.

Oh, and we get 1 live lesson per subject per week, plus work set for all the other timetabled lessons of the week - including games and practical subjects. There are Form times or assemblies and sheets of links to enrichment activities to access at home.

It's not the same as in school. It's not what we signed up for and paid for in previous terms. It's not what the school planned to offer either. It seems a good balance of live contact with some flexibility about doing other work and seems to be taking the children all day to do it and theyvar exhausted. Isn't it much harder being online and working alone some of the time than in class. Isn't a lot of time actually 'wasted' at school - moving around, setting up activities etc etc - I suspect they can do a lot at home in a short space of time.

Primary children in particular probably spend very little of each school day actually writing or doing maths. There is lots of other stuff that is important socially and emotionally for them, but the actual reading, writing and maths tasks might be quite short, so if you do them in 45 mins at home,nit might not be very different. No-one expects children under 7 to spend 5 hours a day at the computer doing online learning surely....or is that needed to give a feel of value for money?

@silverback I imagine it is Cognita!

Fleurchamp, lol.. Thanks, didn't even read the username, just copy and pasted.

Yes it's Cognita. Despite writing to the CEO and asking for his assistance, nothing. Just all about the profit, they are a business after all. Many of us have been loyal customers for years but none of it matters to them. It's actually quite upsetting

You guessed!!

@Cognitapatent1 are you at HGS? I am also one of those parents? This is so stressful and it it upsetting as in the long run it is about the children but Cognita want money and profit but when we have no income and just trying to survive makes me sick to my stomach, 😭

I am not surprised about cognita and sorry for those in that situation.

@redheughs yes. @Such a sad situation and so upsetting. You would think that they'd be sympathetic during this difficult time but they just seem to care only about profits. Is anyone else from a Cognita school on here?

@Chickpeees do you know much about Cognita?

Not recently but I withdrew a child from a cognita school, I don’t really want to go in the details of why publicly but I am not surprised at all at their stance on fees.

@Chickpeees ah yes I can imagine.

Re the staff being furloughed.
Will independent schools be eligible to apply for 80% of staff salaries through the governments furlough scheme?
If so, why are these schools still expecting such a huge commitment from parents at a time when many of them are possibly struggling themselves.
I agree that if you want a school to go back to, you need to make payments, but if government help is being given schools could pass on more of a discount.

@Rainie130, yes the schools can furlough the staff not needed but the teachers and mgmt are the real expense and they are needed to keep the school going at the moment - ie teacher is @£35 an hour plus massive pension contribution all paid from fees income while a furloughed TA is £11 per hour with tiny pension contribution that the govt is paying.

And at secondary level there won't really be TAs. At DS's school even sports and music teachers are still teaching, so the number being furloughed is pretty small. Plus, the schools will be losing (or at risk of losing) huge amounts in other ways, such as fewer parents taking up places next year. And even relatively small discounts cost a fortune. DS's school is offering a pretty modest discount of 10% for day plus much more for boarding, but even that must be costing them way over a million in income, and that's just for one term. You'd need to furlough a lot of staff to pay for that.

I think most independent schools have furloughed actual teaching staff, not just TAs. This explains why some of the online teaching is inadequate.

As a company director, I understand that schools still need money to maintain their business although they furloughed a part of staff and teacher.

1. They do not have regular income such as from venues hire, holiday camp, summer language school etc.
2. For boarding school, foreign students returned their countries and some of them will never return.
3. They have ongoing payments for what they had done in the past such as new building construction.
4. There are other regular payments including gas and water.

My DC's school offers 20% discount and the quality of online learning is great but there are still subjects which have poor quality such as sports and options. (Just watch YouTube and do the same thing in the garden alone). But l am happy to pay.

We've had a 10% reduction but great teaching online - quite happy. My DC are occupied fully through the day which means I can do my job wfh, DH is a key worker so out all day and I'm very grateful I can get my job done

I’m really surprised at the people who think that paying the fees is optional. If you agreed to send your child to the school then you have to stick to the contract. The alternative is that the school folds and you send your child to a state school - if any have spaces left. Up to you.