Although most parents can’t wait to get their children properly back to school this month, let no one imagine that school life will be normal. Establishments everywhere have had to re-examine how they teach, re-work budgets and building plans and redesign sports and co-curricular timetables.
Demand for private education appears to be holding up—with enquiries from parents unimpressed with the home-schooling support from State schools, plus Hong Kong families interested in the UK’s citizenship offer—but the coming economic crash will undoubtedly hit hard. ‘People are not committing, leaving things as late as possible, and are sometimes happy to forgo their deposits if they find their personal situation is not good,’ observes Neil Roskilly of the Independent Schools Association.
Having already given between 15% and 30% off last term’s fees and frozen fees and staff salaries for the coming year, independent schools are also trying to support families through cashflow problems. One bursar in the south of England confides that he has some £1 million of fees outstanding, being managed through payment plans. ‘We’ve seen a huge spike in requests for assistance,’ he reveals. ‘It will be interesting to see if people will catch up at the end of the payment holiday.’
‘There will be lots of postponed building projects,’ adds Anna Maria Clarke, bursar of King’s College School, Wimbledon. She points out that Covid-19 has long tentacles: schools must fund increased cleaning and transport but will lose income from hiring out facilities for events and so on. ‘There are lots of hidden consequences.’
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