Playbook, private school
Two payments before a child has attended a single day
A family holding an offer usually pays twice before the first day of term, and the two payments behave in opposite ways. The first is charged for processing an application and is gone. The second is a deposit that comes back as a credit years later. Calling both of them the deposit is how the argument starts.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for deposits and no-show fees holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- The registration fee falls due at application, before anybody knows whether a place will be offered, and it does not come back if the answer is no, which parents find harder to accept than any other charge in the process.
- The acceptance deposit is paid on taking up an offer and is held against the final term's invoice, making it a credit with a long wait attached rather than a payment for anything.
- A family joining from overseas is often asked for a larger deposit or a term in advance, and the reason is practical rather than personal, which is worth stating before somebody has to ask.
- A school charges nothing for a missed visit and there is no no show fee here at all, but a missed assessment date has a real consequence: the file moves to the next round, or the year group fills without it.
How it arrives
- is the registration fee refundable if we dont get a place
- how much is the deposit when we accept
- when do we get the deposit back
- do we have to pay a term in advance
- what happens if we miss the assessment day
- is there a charge if we dont turn up to the open morning
What has to be indexed for this to work
| The registration fee, with what it buys | The amount, when it is due, and what the processing covers. Say plainly that it is not returned whether or not a place is offered, because that is the sentence families quote back when nobody told them. |
|---|---|
| The acceptance deposit, with the date it comes back | The amount, when it falls due after an offer, that it is credited against the final term, and the conditions on it. The date is the part that actually answers the question. |
| Any different terms for families joining from overseas | A larger deposit, fees in advance, a guarantor. Publish the requirement rather than leaving it to be raised on a call, which is where it lands worst. |
| What happens when an assessment or an offer deadline is missed | Whether the place is held, whether a second date is offered, and how long an offer stands. There is no fee here, but there is a consequence, and the consequence is the real answer. |
The reply
There are two separate payments and they work differently. The registration fee is paid when you apply, covers processing the application, and is not returned whether or not a place is offered [1]. The acceptance deposit is paid when you take up an offer and is credited against your final term's invoice rather than returned while your child is here [2]. We do not charge for a missed visit, but a missed assessment date does affect where an application sits, and the admissions page explains that [3]. I cannot take a payment or see one, so anything about your own account goes to the bursary office.
It labels the two payments in the first sentence and then defines each by what happens to it, since the naming is exactly what families have confused. The visit answer is honest in both directions: no charge, but a real consequence. And it says no payment can be taken here, which is the assumption behind a surprising share of these messages.
Where it stops
The trigger. Any request to pay, to defer a payment, to have a fee waived, or any question about whether a particular family's deposit has arrived.
I cannot take a payment, check one or move a due date. Leave me your name, an email and which payment you mean, and the bursary office will confirm it with the account in front of them.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never say a registration fee will be returned where a place is not offered, unless your own terms say exactly that.
- Never describe the acceptance deposit as money a family can ask for during a child's time at the school.
- Never confirm that a payment has arrived or that a place is being held, because nothing here can see either.
- Never invent a charge for a missed visit, and never let a missed assessment be described as costing nothing when it moves where the application sits.
Questions
- Why separate two payments that both feel like a deposit?
- Because one is gone and one comes back, and a family that works this out after paying both feels misled. Two short paragraphs at the enquiry stage prevents a conversation the bursary office would otherwise have every admissions round.
- Can it take a card payment for the registration fee?
- No. It has no connection to any payment system and cannot take, hold or check money. It can point at the route you publish and take a message, and it should say so rather than leaving somebody waiting for a link.
- Should we publish the overseas terms?
- Yes. A family arranging an international move is planning around cash flow, and learning about a larger deposit on a call three weeks before term reads as a school inventing a condition.
Keep reading
- Everything for a private schoolAdmissions timelines, fees, bursaries and uniform lists are safe ground for a school assistant. Anything about a named pupil or applicant is not.
- Handling deposits and no-show fees in generalThe notice period, the charge, and why vague policy wording produces the complaint. Taking a card number in a conversation is out of scope.
- The question that needs a bursar rather than a fee scheduleA per family figure turns on year groups, boarding, the coach and a means tested award. The bursar builds it from evidence, not arithmetic.
- Evenings, weekends and the message that cannot wait until morningBoarding duty, the staff member on late cover and an empty office are three different evenings. A welfare message goes to a person at once.
- Between accepting a place and the first morningUniform fittings, forms, the coach seat and the first morning. A summer of deadlines that arrived in one email nobody can find.
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