Charges, Remissions and Payments Charges as of September 2023 |
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All charges for the above (except uniform prices which are set by external suppliers) are reviewed by the Governing Body in the Summer term of each year. Any changes in charges will usually come into effect at the start of a new academic year. However, some charges, such as school meals, may change at other times during the academic year (for example, if our school meals provider has to increase charges at any other time). | |||||||||||||||||||||
Charging Policy | |||||||||||||||||||||
The Department for Education requires that:
The school will not charge for:
The school will charge for:
Optional Extras include:
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:
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; 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. |