Charges and Payments

Charges, Remissions and Payments

Charges as of September 2023

The Department for Education requires that:

• School governing bodies, subject to the limited exceptions, cannot charge for education provided during school hours, including the supply of any materials, books, equipment or instruments
• Schools must ensure that they inform parents on low incomes and in receipt of the benefits  of the support available to them when being asked for contributions towards the costs of school visits

The school will not charge for:

• admissions to the school
• education activities and lessons which take place during the school day
• education provided outside school hours if it is part of the National Curriculum or Religious Education
• instrumental or vocal tuition, for pupils learning individually or in groups, unless the tuition has been agreed by parents
• entry for public examinations
• transport or instructor fees for swimming lessons
• books, pens, pencils and other equipment used during the school day

The school will charge for:

• any materials, books or equipment where the child’s parent wishes him/her to own them
• any materials or books which have been lost or misplaced, e.g. reading or library books
• optional extras
• instrumental tuition (e.g. clarinet, trumpet)
• additional ‘Top-Up’ Early Years provision (beyond the statutory funded 15 hours)
• use of community facilities

Optional Extras include:

• education provided outside school time that is not part of the National Curriculum
• board and lodging and voluntary contributions for a residential visit
• childcare – morning club and after-school club
• extra-curricular activities

Participation in any optional extra activity will be on the basis of parental choice and a willingness to meet the charges. Parental agreement is therefore a necessary pre-requisite for the provision of an optional extra where charges will be made.

Any charges made in respect of individual pupils must not exceed the actual cost of providing the optional extra activity, divided equally by the number of pupils participating.  It must not therefore include an element of subsidy for any other pupils wishing to participate in the activity whose parents are unwilling or unable to pay the full charge.

VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS

The school can and will ask for voluntary contributions to support any school activities which might include educational visits, residential visits and other curriculum activities, e.g. school-based workshops run by external providers.

Although many of the class visits and other events organised by the school take place for the purposes of enriching the curriculum and take place during school hours, we ask for voluntary contributions to ensure that a wide range of such visits can be offered by the school.  Parents are not obliged to make any financial contribution.  However, in reality, if we did not receive voluntary contributions for the many educational visits we organise for our children, many of the visits simply would not take place as the school budget would not be able to fund them entirely.

In general, the school will:

• attempt to reduce the requested voluntary contribution for each educational visit; it will always be less than the full cost
• balance the cost of voluntary contributions across the year as much as possible
• generally not ask for a voluntary contribution for a curriculum activity which takes place on the school premises
• not ask for a voluntary contribution for visits to places of worship (e.g. Mosque visit) or safety workshops, e.g. Crucial Crew
• fund entirely from school budget some educational visits and activities
• not cancel a class visit or event if the costs cannot be covered by voluntary contributions, although we reserve the right to do so and consider the impact of this of future activities
• not discriminate against any child or family who struggle or choose not to pay a voluntary contribution
• not excluded a child from an activity or educational visits because because his/her parents are unable or unwilling to pay
• not pressure parents into paying a voluntary contribution

MUSIC TUITION

Although the law states that, in general, all education provided during school hours must be free, instrumental and vocal music tuition is an exception to that rule.  The Charges for Music Tuition (England) Regulations 2007 set out the circumstances in which charges can be made for tuition in playing a musical instrument, including vocal tuition.  Charges may be made for vocal or instrumental tuition provided either individually or to groups of any size, provide that the tuition is provided at the request (by agreement and consent) of the pupil’s parent. In essence, this means that parents’ must agree to the child receiving tuition during the school day by a qualified tutor.   Charges may not exceed the cost of the provision, including the cost of staff who provide the tuition.  Charges do not apply to children who are looked after by a local authority.

SUPPORT FOR LOW-INCOME FAMILIES

The school can offer financial support for low-income families, including remitting (cancelling) the voluntary contributions requested by the school for educational and residential visits, music tuition and other activities.

NO-DEBT POLICY

The school operates a no-debt policy which aims to ensure that parents pay for all additional services in advance, have a credit at the beginning of each week to cover any short-term future charges (e.g. school meals for the week ahead) and clear all debts owed to the school by (preferably before Friday) the end of each week.

This policy aims to:

* support parents in managing regular payments and avoiding debts accumulating over time, especially to the point where they are not manageable or difficult to pay;
* minimise the need for the school to review debts and consider withdrawing chargeable services;
* reduce the considerable amount of time spent by our office staff managing payments and contacting parents;
* minimise the risk to the school’s education budget which should not be used to subsidise parents who do not pay for the additional services offered by the school.  

Debt Reminders

Our policy is to inform parents of their debts to school on a regular (usually weekly) basis by text.  We expect parents to respond to these reminders before larger debts are accrued and before the school may need to make a decision about withdrawing the services offered by the school, including school meals and wrap-around care, and taking possible action to recover any significant debts, including with a repayment plan or legal action.  We also invite parents to discuss and be pro-active in raising any issues they may have in making payments or clearing debts to the school.  We appreciate that discussing family finances can be a personal matter but any issues raised are kept in confidence and we aim to support families as best we can without encouraging the accumulation of further debt.  This may be in the form of a repayment plan or signposting to sources of financial advice or benefits support. We do appreciate that 2020/21 has presented a number of financial challenges for some families.

Ensuring that you make payments in advance and clear your outstanding debts on ParentPay on a weekly basis will mean that you can continue to access the services offered by the school and avoid reminders by text or email from the school office.  We reserve the right to withdraw services (school meals, before-school club, after-school club, additional nursery hours and music tuition) until such time that all debts are paid and additional payments received in advance.  Whilst we do not wish to pressure parents for payments, we are obliged to manage the debts accrued by parents in the same way that any other organisation would remind customers about and take action to recover outstanding debts.  This is in the public interest as it protects the school budget for which the school is publicly accountable.  Significant debts (usually in excess of £50) are referred to Manchester City Council’s City Solicitor for consideration for debt collection by legal action.  We aim for this action to be a last resort and hope that parents resolve any issues before this action needs to be considered.  However, it is on occasion necessary in order to recover funds for the benefit of pupils at the school.  This action may also apply to parents whose children have left the school.