Private school fees (merged)

HappySad

Have you been able to negotiate a lower private school fee?

What did you do? What was your argument for reducing the fee? What is the best course of action?

ChasingButterflies

I think most schools will offer a discount for siblings - although the % amount and the number of required siblings vary.

i.e. the school BIL used offered 10% discount on fees for 2(+) children. The school our little people attened offer 25% discount for 3(+) children.

I know it is not a direct answer to your question - but may be useful all the same.

Nenen

Are your children already at the school or are you wanting them to go there? If the former then occasionally, in exceptional circumstances, some private schools may reduce fees for a short while if they know you well, you have a previous good record for paying on time and being supportive of the school and there is a genuine short term difficulty. For example, if you lose your job (but are likely to get another one within a few months) or one parent dies and the other parent needs a little time to sort out finances. If you are in this situation I would suggest you make an appointment to see the Head or Bursar ASAP.

If it is a school you would like your child to go to but cannot afford the fees then some private schools have bursaries which are usually linked to exceptional performance, e.g.very high academic ability, talented musician, artist, actor or sportsperson. Sometimes these bursaries are linked to parental income and sometimes they are completely independent. In either case many school websites will give details of any bursaries they offer or again the Head or Bursar will give you details.

As CG has already said, some private schools give discounts for siblings. The final way I have heard of discounts being offered is for the children of staff. If there are any jobs going in the school for anything you could do (including teaching, teaching assistant, office, catering and maintenance staff) that might be worth considering although these kind of jobs are often 'dead men's shoes' and the discounts range from 10%-50% (about 25% being the norm for teaching staff I think).

If you are able to let me know a little bit more about your circumstances I might be able to find out some more information for you (I currently teach in a private school). HTH

HappySad

Thanks ChaisingButterfies and Nenen for your advice and support.

I have no other children at this prep school as my son applying is my first child.

Son age 4 has passes the assessment for the prep school & has not been identified as extra talented. If he was assessed as talented then he would be able to get from 25% to 50% off fees after the talented child has been additionally been discussed by the panel for this award.

i am registered disabled (bipolar-manic depressed) & also a stay at home mum. I could offer to do voluntary work when my o†her younger son (now 9months) starts nursery part-time (3mornings a week) in a years time. I am also an IT graduate and used to work as a qualified IT professional about 4 years ago.



My partner finish work and gets home for 4pm so he could offer his services for 1hour a day to help out with after school club.

As a stay-at-home-mum (SAHM) i can offer my services to help raise money for the school.

Just an idea - My partner is a graphic designer/web and together we could offer our services to update/improve and maintain the school's websight in return for a reduction of the fees.

V_Chic_Chick

Unless you can get a means-tested bursary then unfortunately I think your chances are low. Many private schools are skint (there are always the !!!!!! parts of the school where they never take parents to because they are in such bad disrepair).

Are there any other schools in the area that you could try?

DaisyFlower

V_Chic_Chick wrote: »

Unless you can get a means-tested bursary then unfortunately I think your chances are low. Many private schools are skint (there are always the !!!!!! parts of the school where they never take parents to because they are in such bad disrepair).

Are there any other schools in the area that you could try?

V Chick Chick is right, unless you get a bursary then you wont be able to get reduced fees. Helping out at the school is a good thing to do but I wouldnt expect a parent to volunteer hoping it was a means to getting lower fees!

You also need to bear in mind that if you cant afford to send one child then how will you cope with fees for two? Other costs can include activities etc. Costs will rise yearly too.

Why cant your child attend a state school if you are not able to easily afford the fees?

sarah*a

Hve you spoken to the school about means-tested reductions?

My StepD goes to a private secondary school and was lucky enough to receive a scholarship but we also get a reduction in the percentace of fees due to means-testing and she gets free school meals.

To echo DaisyFlower you will also have to take 'extras' into account - as we have to pay for an extraordinary amount of events - such as visiting drama groups/authors/field trips and get no reduction in these but she can't be left out - otherwise what is the point in sending her to a school where she gets these benefits?

I too am registered disabled because of my BP - do you have a case worker who could tell you if there any grants/monies available to help? (I am assuming you receive some benefits due to your BP - apologies if this is not the case )

devils_advocate

Perhaps if I gave a general outline of private school funding it may help.

Basically, the school will have a fixed amount of costs per year and these have to be divided amongst the parents of the kids attending the school. Most private schools are charities, which means that they are owned by a charitable trust, whose assets are the school buildings and the land its on. Some (and they are definitely in the minority) have an endowment fund, the income of which is used to fund bursaries or scholarships.

A scholarship is an amount off the fees which a child will gain because of individual skills, whether academic, musical or sporting. It would be very rare that the percentage off the fees would be more than 30%, and I know of a few places where the scholarship would be 5%. The current trend is against scholarships, and they are more for the reputation of the kid than anything else, ie "My son got a scholarship to Eton" etc means "My son is very bright".

Bursaries are given to parents on a means tested basis. If a school has an endowment fund, the income from this can be used for bursaries, or the school may have historic links to the children of some professionals, eg clergymen, who would then have the eligibilty for bursaries. If the school has no endowmemt, any bursary is effectively paid for by the parents of kids currently attending the school, and this is where the dilemma starts to occur.

Most parents would be quite happy to regard a school's bursary provisions as a sort of insurance policy, in that if a parent died, became unable to work through illness or something similar, the parent would be quite happy that a bursary is extended to another kid who's family has suffered such hardship. It becomes more difficult that a bursary is given to a kid whose parents suffer such hardship from the beginning of a school career, where those other parents who are effectively paying for the bursary are suffering hardship themselves to send the kids to private school. (There are a lot more Vauxhalls dropping kids off than BMWs, IMHE!)

In deciding to give a bursary the school will take all aspects of the kids welfare into account - including that relating to other family members. So (s)he's more likely to get a bursary if the school can fulfil a need of that specific child, rather than "I decided one of my kids should go to private school, and this is the one".

So where does this leave you, Happysad? Unfortunately, I suspect that he would have to be assessed as exceptionally talented to get a scholarship in a prep school, as most will not offer this from the age of 4. There is a greater chance of this being offered as he gets older in a school, but this would depend on the school's circumstances and there is still no guarantee.

There are a number of volunteers at private schools, but IMHO it would be very difficult to arrange to swap your time for a reduction in the fees. If the school were to allow this, it would probably create a precedent for all the other volunteers to try to negotiate discounts, which would probably distract the senior management team from actually running the school and have to spend its time negotiating with parents.

If you want him to go to a private school, you really have to shop around to find one that matches your circumstances, and to qualify for a bursary depending on his aptitudes ar your circumstances. It's not going to be easy finding the right match, and I wish you the best of luck!

loobs40

My older son has been at Private school since he was 9. When I was divorced a few years ago, I basically could not afford to pay 50% of the fees anymore (my ex was paying the other half). I found three other excellent state grammar schools in the area for my son and all 3 offered him a place. My ex who did not want him to move school approached the school.

They could offer him a reduction of 50% via a bursary so that he could stay but needed to see our income. I basically refused as I had no intention of filling in a form showing my ex my income. However the school still went ahead and offered the bursary and my ex now pays the school fees.

However, I am fairly sure that the bursary was offered because my son is one of the top pupils in the school (all A+s at GSCE) and an Oxbridge candidate

Zziggi

HappySad wrote: »

I have no other children at this prep school as my son applying is my first child.

Son age 4 has passes the assessment for the prep school & has not been identified as extra talented.

Forgive me if this sounds harsh. You sound like a mum who is doing what she believes is best for her child.

The reality is that you are saying you cannot afford the private school fees from the very beginning not just because of a change of circumstances. So what if a change of circumstances (for the worst) did occur after you got a small reduction in fees? What about transport costs/trips/sports activities? Also what about your second child? Your child has not been identified as extra bright so they aren't going to give you a bursary due to having a gifted child. Offering a few extra hours parental support or for your partner to offer to modernise the school website isn't going to sway them enough to drop the fees, believe me! As has already pointed out, you are hoping other parents will pay more per annum in order for you to get a preferential fees rate. This isn't a chane of circumstances, this is what you want from day one - it ain't gonna happen. I think you maybe need to face up to the fact that you are banging your head against a brick wall. You might *want* your child to go to a private school but the reality looks like it is out of reach.

Perhaps you should put your energies into looking at local state schools and working towards getting your child in the state school that you believe is the best possible state school in your locality.

I don't blame you HappySad for trying to explore every available avenue to see if there is a way you can get what you want. You are very much like me. I wanted DS to go to a private school but despite trying every avenue available, i eventually came up against a brick wall that i could not get over even if we were prepared to make big sacrifices. I ended up sending DS to a local state school with good results, good ethos and good parental support and he is progressing v. well. I also wanted DD to go to a private school but couldn't afford it for one so definitely couldn't do it for 2. DD ended up going to a less favourable school on a big council estate (sorry for the stereotype bt it does fit in this case). I was really not happy at the allocation for DD but actually found that DD stood out more because the kids entered the school at a lower level and it meant the teachers & Head made more effort with DD and she is now been moved up year-groups and is identified as talented. DD is probably getting more support that DS at his "better" school. So sometimes it works out for the best. Please don't take offence at my post, i was not meaning to sound harsh.

inkie

Our DD sat the entrance exam for a top girls school at 11 and got one of the best marks. This would have meant that she would get 50% fee reduction, but we woudl still have to find £500 ish per month to make up the shortfall. Also, it was means-tested, and so if our income went up even slightly, we would have to pay a considerable amount more.
We made the very difficult decision of not tkaing up the place - we would not be able to afford it if we were honest with ourselves, and besides, it would not be morally right to me to send one and not the other (we have 2 children). We really struggled to come to this decision, as she is a girl who would have thrived in that environment - and so we put our energies into finding a great secondary school for her - where she is happy at , and is part of the G & T cohort.