Kensington Park School - Fines - Be Aware

[Ballerina1211212]

My son was attending Kensington Park school in London, Bayswater. Be careful to give a notice 3 months prior to leave the school as they fine you 19,900 Pounds. Even if your child fully finishes secondary school they still attempt to fine you to get extra fees. Few parents I know had issues with that and I can not get out of it. They hire debt collection agency adding massive percentage on top of it. There is absolutely no reasoning with them. It is worst than dealing with the bank. Make sure to read the contract properly.

Do you mean that you have to give a full term’s notice if leaving at the end of Year 11? My dd’s school do this as they expect most will stay on in the 6th form. IME it is pretty standard stuff for a school to insist on the term’s fees if insufficient notice is given. As per your contract.

sSorry that you have been caught out though.

It is not standard and should be prohibited. 6th Form is entirely different part of education (College) where students need to wait until mid August to get their places allocated in schools due to their GSCSs results and schools should not assume that a student will stay at their school, especially that at times students still change schools in September. The schools attempt this way to make extra money out of penalties. It is good to warn parents about that and not agree to such procedure.

What does the contract say?
If you want to warn parents at any Private school about anything like this then warn them to check their contract

Read carefully - I did that. Last sentence in first message.

It is quite normal to give notice at Easter if you have decided to not continue or may not make the grade for sixth form.

Well aren't you just delightful
I imagine the Debt collection Agency only got involved once you ignored request for payment, maybe you didn't read them carefully enough?

Giving a terms notice is completely standard in every private school I’ve ever heard of.

It should not be when you finish secondary school and start 6th form which is totally different educational body, plus charging so much is unethical.

Is the nearly 20K for the whole first year of sixth form? Seems a lot for 3 months

'Make sure to read the contract properly' doesn't read as you read the contract. The rest if your post confirms you didn't read it, otherwise you wouldn't be warning others.

I think it's a fair point that you won't know where you got in til GCSE results

Now you're complaining a private school charing so much is unethical?!!! This would only be the case if there weren't plenty of state schools available!

Our school make it very clear that if you have the offer of a place for sixth form when you are in year 11 you either accept or reject it by last day Easter hols, or you are liable for a terms fees. If you don't get the grades that is a different matter. They would probably just work with the student to pick different options in that case.

It sounds like you are being charged a lot, but this is standard practice and in addition to the contract we receive at least two emails about it in lent term. It's in nobody's interest to go to debt collection, but schools need to know how many students there will be!

I think she means charging 20 K for not giving 3 month's notice for the 6th form. Not charging for when her dd was studying there.

It’s not a fine, is it? It’s signing up for a year then failing to complete it.

This is two terms fees as the fee is £9950 per term. It is not a fine. It is your contractual liability. Presumably you never told the school your child wasn’t returning for sixth form. If you didn’t give notice by Easter you were liable for one terms fees and then I guess your child didn’t turn up for the start of 6th form in September and you still hadn’t given notice so you became liable for the next term as well. Sorry but you owe the school this money as per the contract you signed.

It is pretty standard for schools to require a term’s notice even at the end of year 11.

We live in a grammar area and a good few year 11s leave the fee paying schools to go to the grammar 6th forms. Our independent school is very clear that if a sixth form offer is accepted and the child then actually moves to state grammar, a term’s fee will be charged. This is to prevent mass, last-minute switching so leaving the school in a precarious financial situation.

I do know some parents who hedged their bets. Accepted the indy 6th form place but then kept their fingers crossed for stellar GCSE results which would open up the super selective grammars. They are the term fee as a necessary hit to then not pay 2 years’ worth of fees.

@Ballerina1211212 I appreciate that you are very upset. Are you being charged for the term or for the whole year? Or perhaps tuition and boarding for the term?

I can certainly see how that could happen (making it 2 terms fees - ouch!)

I do understand that owing this money is annoying but you signed up for this.
You chose this school for your child. You knew how much it was going to cost. I’m fairly sure the terms of the contract you signed with the school are made clear.
They can charge what they like as picking them is a choice. You have done this of your own free will.
Pay up or face the consequences.

Unfortunately you needed to have checked with the school. One of mine did GCSEs in the summer and we weren't sure whether he'd stay. We talked to the school in Feb and I served provisional notice before the end of the Spring Term.

This isn't a fine or penalty. It's the tuition you're liable for under the very standard contract you signed. You're were liable for the fall term tuition because you didn't give notice by the required date in spring (and for year 12 parents this is always a known and discussed date). If you had given notice in spring then your DC's place would have been offered to a new student applicant (based on predicted GCSE grades), but instead it was being held for your DC and thus you're liable for the tuition.

A fair number of parents will hedge their bets, hold a place at their DC's current school, and still apply for other places. They know if their DC receives a preferred offer then they'll have to eat that one term of fees as the cost of having a place in reserve. Schools still have to charge that tuition to maintain financial stability.

What I can't understand is why, after your DC presumably either accepted an offer elsewhere over the summer or decided not to continue on to 6th form, you didn't immediately give notice so that you only owed one term's fees instead of the two you now owe.