The Sydney private schools offering tuition relief amid Covid lockdown

Find out which of Sydney’s most expensive private schools have - and which ones haven’t - pledged fee relief after months of homeschooling.

Only a handful of Sydney’s most expensive private schools have pledged partial refunds on fees to parents despite the fact the vast majority of students have not set foot in a classroom for months.

The Telegraph asked 40 of Sydney’s most expensive private schools if they would be prepared to offer parents some fee relief because students had been doing the work online for months and, in many cases, parents were doing the supervision rather than teachers.

Headmaster of the $33,763 a year Barker College, Phillip Heath, was among the few school leaders to respond. He said they had been supporting a handful of families currently experiencing financial distress because of the impact of Covid.

“We have also undertaken a thorough review of all costs incurred this term which are included in termly non-tuition charges. These charges have been adjusted appropriately and refunds applied,” he said.

“The School has taken these steps in the hope that no family is forced to leave our school community as a result of the financial impact of Covid-19.”

Barker College headmaster Phillip Heath.

Barker College in Hornsby.

It was a similar story at Newington College, where a spokeswoman said no students had left the up-to-$35,000 per year inner west school because of Covid: “Newington has off­ered parents the option of a fee deferral and has provisions in place for families that find themselves in financial hardship, as we did in 2020.”

Newington College in Sydney.

Redlands school in Cremorne.

A spokesman for Cremorne’s Redlands school, which also charges $35,000 a year, said it was still fully operational — albeit online — and it had not given any refunds.

“Although in recognition of the financial hardship that Covid can trigger, we have a range of procedures in place to support affected families,” he said.

Dozens of other private schools contacted by The Daily Telegraph, including Knox Grammar in Wahroonga, Scots College in Bellevue Hill and The King’s School in North Parramatta did not respond to the question.

But while schools charging tens of thousands of dollars a year in fees were typically filled with the children of Sydney’s millionaires and social elite, the latest MySchool data shows some of those institutions had a high percentage of students from middle socio-economic quarters of Australia.

They include St Joseph’s at Hunters Hill, where 40 per cent of students are from the ­middle two socio-economic quarters; Scots College in Bellevue Hill, where 51 per cent of students come from the same middle two brackets; and Ravenswood School for Girls, where 76 per cent of students come from two middle quarters of Australian society.

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Those quartiles are derided from Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority data, which divides school students into four socio-economic quartiles based on a mix of parents’ occupation, parents’ education, school location and Indigenous status.

Association of Independent Schools of NSW chief executive Dr Geoff Newcombe said in the current Covid situations, schools were very conscious of the financial pressures on many families.

Ascham School at Edgecliff.

Sydney Grammar School.

“This is a matter for individual schools, although it is worth noting that schools are still meeting salaries of staff and most other costs,” he said.

NSW Parents Council president Rose Cantali said parents who were struggling financially may feel too intimidated to request financial help, they should not be too afraid to ask because many parents were probably in the same boat.

“I think the parents are sometimes too proud and if there are enough parents to ask for help, the schools will do something about it,” she said.

“The parents are doing the work after all, and so they can’t do their own work and their productivity has been reduced considerably.”

Originally published as The Sydney private schools offering tuition relief amid Covid lockdown