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 had an email yesterday saying that we were getting 15% off and no extra charges such as lunch, stationary etc, I think that’s fair.
DD is getting a full timetable with interactive sessions with her teachers plus a fast email response from them if she has any questions so I’ve no complaints at all

I fail to see why furloughed staff would automatically resign and seek jobs elsewhere
They will still be being paid their salary - perhaps only 80% (but for no work)
Who is going to be hiring? All the schools are shut

@nolanscrack
Excellent that your DCs school is providing a full programme for their Y11s and Y13s. Please can I ask what this programme entails?

My husbands staff haven't all resigned and sought work elsewhere. I think they understand we are in the brink of a global recession the like of which has never been seen before. The bigger problem is that if the affluent middle classes end up not so affluent there will be no one to pay the fees. Then there really will be no school. Just because you are not affected by that as you are still receiving 100% of
your salary as an indi school teacher (no doubt with a massive staff discount) doesn't mean many of us are not staring down the barrel of real financial hardship.

My independent school teacher husband is in school today, at risk to himself, and during his Easter holidays, working flat out to complete essential work to ensure that his Y13s come out of this situation with some qualifications, because the exam boards have suddenly introduced additional requirements, and he cares massively about doing the absolute best he can for his students. He's been working pretty much full days since he 'broke up'. It's not all about setting lessons and marking. There is a huge amount going on behind the scenes.

We had one week of online teaching at it was s**t, just a few worksheets from twinkle and videos of the teachers out walking, no work that we've completed and sent back has been marked or commented on. We've had our invoices for next term and we're in a position to pay so we will but I will expect more from the school after the holidays.
Looking through the class list it is clear that about 50% of parents will have taken a massive hit to their income (think tourist attractions and holiday let owners) and I honestly think that a lot of children will not be back in September. I know of many other schools offering discounts between 15-40% and feel that most should attempt some sort of fee reduction. Yes, I realise that teachers still need to to paid but the schools overheads have reduced and some of this should be passed on to parents, for some parents this could make a real difference.

branwensstarling - have Ofqual and JCQ announced what additional evidence they will require then? The last I checked (statement of 26th March), they said they were planning to publish what steps they will require teachers to take this week. What are the additional requirements that have already been introduced that your DH is working on?

This is IB so may be different.

And in answer to the question, I'm not 100% sure, but I think it's mainly work around uploading coursework and data analysis relating to calculated grades.

GDST have offered a 10% reduction to years 7-13 and have even tried to claim that tears 11 and 13 will actually be getting more for their money than they would do in a normal exam year.
Judging by what’s been set online so far (ie virtually nothing and no feedback on work submitted), I’ll be interested to see what changes after the Easter holiday.

10%? Pretty sure we’ve lost more than £500 worth of service, not to mention the fact that, presumably, GCSE exam fees will be refunded to the school?

GDST offer a large number of bursaries and scholarship and therefore are not a rich trust. Everything they make gets reinvested in the schools. I honestly don't think they could financially cope with more than 10%. They are also refunding school meals of course.

I have 2 at two different GDST schools and so far I am really impressed with how they have manage to keep some sort of normality in the girls day. Lots of streamed lessons and given how little they have had to prepare for this unprecedented time - i think they have both done an amazing job.

My job is pretty precarious at the moment and we can only afford private education because we are both working full time. But from my prospective - and i have made it clear to the school that i can only do this if I still have a job ! - I have offered to donate the 10% to the hardship fund as I am sure there will be some families facing some tough times ahead.

I have read some of the posts above and to be honest I am a bit surprised - no school could have planned for this !

I also think it's early days to think you aren't getting good value for money. The other thing DH is doing over the Easter holidays is writing a Y13 programme of work for next term, to ensure that the students don't drop back before university.

We're to pay as usual, which is as expected. We are receiving school support while in this lockdown situation, however.

@branwensstarling - Good luck for your DH with that! Do schools really believe that they're going to be able to encourage Year 13s who were expecting to start study leave in May to hunker down for non-essential lessons?

I can see that maybe working for subjects such as Maths or Sciences where the content may be valuable/ continued at degree level, however for many it will be pointless.

My DS is Year 13. He was planning to take a gap year, so not going to uni in Sept. Also his chosen uni subject is not really related to any A level subject. Our independent school has said they are going to offer some Yr 13 'LifeSkills' lessons in prep for uni.Things like finance and cooking were mentioned. It all sounds like 'make work' to justify the fees to be honest. DS can already cook and has been budgeting/ had a bank account since he was 11 .

I think schools are going to find it very hard to get money for next term for years 11 and 13.

At the moment I have a yr 11 child who has been told to continue revising albeit only 2 hours a day over the holidays and then they will be doing open book exams at home which hopefully could be used to work out their final grades. However, I think this is extremely unlikely. I want to think the school are trying their best but a little bit of me thinks it is just doing something to try and justify fees.

Personally, as I have two other children at the school I would be happy to pay for all 3 for next term provided a 'fair' discount is offered.

A lot of staff could be furloughed, eg, sports staff as we aren't getting all the fixtures etc and I can easily find youtube videos of stuff they can do in our garden.

Schools are going to be facing some very tough times as I see a lot of children will be pulled out. Also, some people will undoubtedly use this as a reason not to pay fees when they could/should.

No matter how good the online provision it is not the same as a child being at school 5.5 days a week and there needs to be a reduction in fees to reflect that.

We are all going to be impacted financially by this. In terms of income/investments etc.

I don't know, from what he tells me a lot of his Y13s are a pretty academically ambitious and committed lot, so I imagine quite a lot of them will appreciate some ongoing work and teaching support. And I agree with a couple of PPs who said that in some ways the Y13 parents have got less reason to complain about paying than others - they've already had most of the teaching they would have had this year, and it's mainly only the exams themselves they're missing out on (which is obviously a nightmare but not much of a cost saving to the school - in fact teachers will probably have to do more work than usual to deal with grade predictions). It's the lower year parents (of which I'm one) who are actually missing out on the teaching.

Of course no Yr11 or 13 parent will want to kick up a fuss about fees either in case their DC are borderline in the predicted grades and they want to appeal...

voloemum, I was informed by a governor at our school that GDST “have lots of money, because of the Drapers”. Certainly, when the head boasts about how many (tens of) thousands she’s spent on a school production, and purchases 2 Snowdogs for decoration, it gives the impression that there’s plenty of money going spare.
I can only speak for our experience, but as I’ve said, no sign of any kind of interactive lessons - just “do this but don’t bother sending it to me”.

Our local GDST school is apparently on a knife edge financially and that was before all of this. They have low numbers and hand out lots of scholarships to try and attract girls but facilities are less good than those of the many other private schools nearby.

I think a lot of smaller schools or those who don't have decent reserves will close sadly.

Alsoplayspiccolo sorry your experience is not as positive as ours - i have never heard either heads at our GDST schools boasting about how much money they spend ! On the contrary they tend to be really grateful for any PTA donations so clearly very different experience to yours.

They did of course say in their letter that there is access to the fund for those who are struggling following this period. Isn't it better to have a smaller discount for all families and then being able to offer help to those who face some difficult times following this period - rather than offering a bigger discount to all and then having a smaller hardship fund ? That's my view anyway.

I am kind of hoping that we face this situation for one term only so i struggle to understand why everyone is so upset about a situation which is clearly out of the school's control.

I can't comment on Year 11 and Year 13 as I can see that this is very different problem for them - not much that can be taught to a Year 13 in the next term so I agree more should be done for these 2 year groups !

It would be interesting to know whether this situation has already had an impact on places for September. I wonder if there are parents who were planning to go private but hadn't yet declined their state school place who will already have changed their minds, even it means a lost deposit - or who are thinking of doing this.

It will all depend on whether they can reopen quite soon. Whilst some seem to predict closure for the whole term, there's no way of knowing yet - they could be reopening as soon as after Easter if lockdown ends

@branwensstarling I think you are right

Lockdown isn't going to end that quickly, and certainly not to the extent that schools will be up and functioning fully again after the holidays.

Totally agree, if anyone thinks that schools will be reopen and up and running after the Easter holidays are truly deluded. It would be brilliant if kids could go back to school for the last month, but it’s very unlikely, realistically it’s more like 2-6 months before things may get back to some normality.