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Hi there,
I would really appreciate some advice on what to do. My son is 5 and started Reception last September. Prior to starting school, he was in a private nursery. We applied for State Schools in our area but only got one very far away from where we live with a bad reputation so we decided to leave him in his current school where the nursery class feeds into a Prep School. We were told by the local council that we were on a waiting list for a State School close by but that there was no guarantee of a place. The private school costs over £5,000 per term so as you can imagine, we were very keen for a State School place to come up as we can't really afford this sort of money. A week into Reception, a place came up in a local state school and we accepted it. We told the Private School what happened and moved him into the State School. As expected, they sent us a bill about 2 weeks later for the £5,000 as payment in lieu of a full term's notice as per the terms and condition (which we had signed when he started in their nursery a year before). We then didn't hear from them and stupidly we hoped they had let us off as we let them know quite soon after the start of term, the 2nd week, when they were still doing the staggered hours for Reception. However, we received an email out of the blue from them last week (8 months later) where they have sent us an invoice for the initital £5,000 we knew about but now also for the term which he had started and did just over a week of. In total they've billed us nearly £10,000 which is a big shock. I accept we owe them the £5,000 for the lack of notice but being charged in addition for the term that he only just had started and was there for just over a week seems excessive. I'm not sure if they are just trying it on or are legally entitled to charge for 2 terms. The Ts and Cs say if notice of a full term is not given then they will charge a full term fees. I assume in our case that because we pulled him out a week into the term that they'd just charge us the one term and not 2. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
I would really appreciate some advice on what to do. My son is 5 and started Reception last September. Prior to starting school, he was in a private nursery. We applied for State Schools in our area but only got one very far away from where we live with a bad reputation so we decided to leave him in his current school where the nursery class feeds into a Prep School. We were told by the local council that we were on a waiting list for a State School close by but that there was no guarantee of a place. The private school costs over £5,000 per term so as you can imagine, we were very keen for a State School place to come up as we can't really afford this sort of money. A week into Reception, a place came up in a local state school and we accepted it. We told the Private School what happened and moved him into the State School. As expected, they sent us a bill about 2 weeks later for the £5,000 as payment in lieu of a full term's notice as per the terms and condition (which we had signed when he started in their nursery a year before). We then didn't hear from them and stupidly we hoped they had let us off as we let them know quite soon after the start of term, the 2nd week, when they were still doing the staggered hours for Reception. However, we received an email out of the blue from them last week (8 months later) where they have sent us an invoice for the initital £5,000 we knew about but now also for the term which he had started and did just over a week of. In total they've billed us nearly £10,000 which is a big shock. I accept we owe them the £5,000 for the lack of notice but being charged in addition for the term that he only just had started and was there for just over a week seems excessive. I'm not sure if they are just trying it on or are legally entitled to charge for 2 terms. The Ts and Cs say if notice of a full term is not given then they will charge a full term fees. I assume in our case that because we pulled him out a week into the term that they'd just charge us the one term and not 2. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
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