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.

We have been told the children can blur their background too.

I don't live in a castle, so with four children most of them will have to use their own bedrooms. I Don' t have 6 reception rooms (one for each child and one each for dh and I who have to be separate as our companies are direct competitors and there are ethical walls etc).

I have had no communication from my son’s independent school although they stated in the newsletter that they would be organising online learning. In terms of fees, I am no lawyer but I cannot imagine that they can make people pay for a service that is not received and therefore, they should be telling the parents what service they can provide and how much payment they will be requiring in return. That said, I’m sure schools will have the right not to re-admit any pupil in September they don’t want back for any reason they choose - including parents not paying.

I think prep schools, like every other business, should consider what prices it can reduce, and what savings it can make, and what of these can be passed on to customers. Otherwise we will all go bust together! So eg what staff can get to 80% as per government offer, and how does that pass on to parents. I think all employees - and all employers! - need to be kind to everyone; employees need to think very hard about accepting agreed salary reductions from employers who plainly are in trouble right now (is that not everyone except supermarkets?! And maybe IT people?!!). Banks need to be kind to people asking for loans, landlords and tenants need to be kind to each other - etc etc. We come through this together or we all suffer.

My daughter has full schedule of remote learning until Wednesday this coming week, Easter break for three weeks, then back to remote learning. Key worker kids will attend and my daughter says she'd volunteer to attend too if she could. Plan is to extend the school year to end of July (normally would end first week of July).
So not ideal of course and some teachers will be better prepared, and more hands on subjects like the sciences and DT will be tricky, and she is particularly worried about math as she struggles and the teacher can't exactly look over her workings there and then to see where she's gone wrong, but they are fully committed and so are we.

I work in a private school and we are taking key worker’s children and staff are in on a rota. My dd goes to the same school and they are running a virtual school for them all whilst they are at home. No idea what they will do about fees or if I will have a job when this is over.

Someone above made a very valid point that we are customers of a school, to whom we pay for the provision of services. Parents do not collectively employ a group of teachers and hire a school building bearing all costs for its operation and maintenance. I have paid for my child to attend the school out of house, to be educated, supported and looked after 8 till 4. That includes art, games, PE, DT, drama, lab work and other subjects which require physical presence of both the child and the tutor. So if all of this is not provided, then I should not be paying for it.

I am very happy to pay for the online learning which is provided instead. So let the schools cost that fairly and bill me for that.

I think there will be a lot of people suddenly looking for state school places, which won't be available in the most desirable schools, if fees remain unpaid. Also, there won't be any (good) independent schools who will touch families with unpaid fees from another school - they always check. I'm waiting for our last term's fees for DC1 and will be reluctantly paying.

My dog wants us to think about taking my dds out of private school after this - they will have had a big break anyway

Dog? Dp that was

DDs school are doing live lessons online so I’m happy to keep paying
Not planning on paying for school dinners though, which are listed as a separate item on the invoice

Our prep is thinking over what they are going to do regarding fees. I don’t expect to pay full day fees when my children are only doing 8.45-12pm every day and while I except that we are in a unique set of circumstances, I wouldn’t charge a client (I’m
Freelance) an on site full day rate if I was working remotely for a half day and I don’t expect the school to either. I expect them, as a business to have taken out the adequate insurance or business protection to cover this.
I have lots of friends who are teachers and yes, they are working very hard, but so are the parents that are working full time and trying to juggle looking after our kids/childcare

I personally know that my child’s boarding school has insurance on this sort of thing so I guess we will be getting a refund

But does the insurance cover pandemic? We had annual travel insurance but pandemic was excluded so we can’t reclaim either our UK trip we were due to be on now or our holiday to the EU in May

I wouldn't dream of not paying the fees, our school have pulled out all the stops and are working day and night to ensure that education can continue. If I stop paying, then the staff don't get paid and ultimately there will be no school left to go back to. In the same way as I am still paying my cleaner even though she can't come. She has to live!

Clearly if you lose your job and circumstances changes dramatically then that's another matter, but my feeling is my life is continuing as normal from a financial perspective, so why would I not continue to pay others?

I'm more concerned about what will happen once the dust has settled. Our school is very small and I don’t really like the others in our area. We could move closer to where I work but the schools around there aren’t as good either. State schools aren’t even an option. Pretty much all of the families at the school are either new money or professionals and I doubt they’d all be able to weather an economic crisis (I’m not sure that we could either for that matter). I’m not sure what we’d do if the school was forced to close.

@After8itsgrownuptime most insurers are refusing to pay out, a lot aren’t even answering phones at the moment.

CountessDracula, I'm self-employed and unable.to do my job at the moment, but there's no way my clients are still paying me, not would I dream of asking them to.
Plus, there's a bit difference between a few quid a week to retain your cleaner, and several thousand pounds. Presumably, your cleaner hasn't tried to justify her pay by saying that she's still giving you the same service she was before the crisis?

Did you read the last paragraph
Clearly if you don't have a job then this doesn't apply
If you do I think you should continue to pay the people you usually pay for stuff, it's just basic decency in a situation like this.

And my cleaner didn't ask to be paid. I offered as I know she needs to money to live.

I don't resent paying the fees at all, because like the others say, salaries still need to be paid. In the long run though, a gesture of good will is always remembered in both sides. A lot of parents will be struggling to keep their profession working from home, whilst looking after children who will get bored and need a lot of support all day... While paying for a service they are not really getting.

I would be aggrieved if the school did not make a gesture of goodwill by waving even a small part of the fees in recognition of the fact that it isn't providing a full service. Which it isn't!

If you can afford to pay then you should. The school will go bankrupt and fold otherwise so you won't have a school to go back to once this is all over.

Schools will be stretched to breaking point already by those who actually suddenly cannot pay due to loss of business etc without people deciding they just don't fancy it because they are not getting the full service.

Plus I would say we have been working about 3 times as hard over the last three weeks to set up very high standard remote schooling. I'm exhausted already!

I am wondering if they might get support from the government to pay their staff actually, like other businesses whose revenue has been interrupted.

There was a small article in a newspaper, I will see if I can find it

Newspaper article attached

I agree with the article, and like onsaid above, it has to be a two way thing. Parents are happy to support schools and viceversa, but gestures of goodwill have to be a two way thing otherwise they lead to resentment. Goodwill can be expressed in many ways.

It’s under discussion in parliament and they are considering the impact as for a business

www.isc.co.uk/sector-info/coronavirus-information-for-schools/