We are seeking guidance on how to dispute an invoice for a one full term notice fee with a school.
How to Dispute The School One Term Notice Fee
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Our local government high school has been spruiking a STEM centre for almost 10 years now, and it still hasn't been built.
If they won't budge, go public with the facts. Parent/teacher night would be a good time to "raise awareness". Make it known that you're going to be sharing your experiences etc with every man and their dog. Any half decent management will try and quickly settle with you because they'll see that their potential losses will significantly outweigh what they need to write-off in your case. And reputational damage is something that no amount of money can fix.
Parent/teacher night would be good.
OP isn't invited as their daughter no longer attends the school.
You don't need to be 'invited' or be on school grounds to distribute flyers. Standing on the public footpath right at the gate would be perfect - they can't do shit to you or ask you to leave.
thanks for your advice, gee, I am not preparing to do this right now, but I may consider it later if I have time lol.
@JayOZ: I know it sounds extreme, but sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do. How much are the Term 2 fees? $20k or so? I (and probably half the people on this forum) would be willing to stand there and hand out flyers for you for just half of that! haha
I think a lot of schools' parent/teacher meetings have gone online after COVID, so OP's next best bet would be to rock up on a P&F meeting to bring awareness. They could be removed from the school grounds though.
Yes we attended P&F sessions before, but now we were removed from the group.
Oh boy
So many words, but nothing that would relates to a 'refund'. You said so yourself OP
We promptly withdrew our child from the school, receiving an invoice for one full term notice fee as per the terms and conditions
So pulling your child out in term 1, means paying paying for term 2.
The teachers or principals who would be teaching your child was not part of the contract.
The tuition fee for 2024 increased by 20% without any prior notice or communication. Parents only knew about the increase was receiving the additional payment request in Term 1 due to 2024 fee increase. We paid the fee after receiving the notice.
We received an announcement of the principal's resignation in mid-March. Two days later, we withdrew our child from the school. Now we disputing an invoice for Term 2 fee.when was the additional payment request due? if your child withdrew before then, then you would not be liable for any of the 20% increase
Our argument lies in the school's deliberate withholding of vital staff and leadership changes, rendering us unable to make informed decisions.
so there was never any notification of these changes?
We contend that the school no longer resembles the one we initially enrolled in, given the principal change and the influx of less experienced teachers.
principal and staff changes are not unusual or uncommon, change is not necessarily bad, experience doesn't necessarily equate or correlate with quality
There were no notification on teacher depatures, except for the principal resignation in mid-March.
one is generally not informed of teacher changes unless directly affected - were you?
Many days kids are just self learning without any teacher in the class.
including your kid? if so, then s/he should keep a log/diary of occurrences, which you could use to claim/justify a discount on fees
@JayOZ: if the service provided during term 1 was inadequate/unusual and not as otherwise expected, then you are entitled to a refund as per ACL consumer guarantees
How's your kid doing with the change in schools and this drama? Did they want to leave?
Out of curiosity, how much is the school trying to charge you for term 2?
8 big ones
Your argument is weak. Failing your lofty expectations isn’t written into the agreement I would suspect
Read the t&c’s you agreed to and see what the terms are for be able to break the agreement and penalties
Negotiate with the school if need be
There would have been detailed terms and conditions you agreed to. Straight to Fair Trading, now to Ozbargain. Another entitled Karen and Darren.
OP can't even be bothered to self write and uses chat gpt
Nope, lazy entitled
fixing one's post with chatgpt when they maybe ESL is lazy and entitled? Lmao ok bro
Are you a member of any online groups for school parents? Eg on Facebook? If not, look for dinner and see if you can get a feeling of sentiment about this from other parents
Just send them to public school and lead a happy life
100%
Our argument lies in the school's deliberate withholding of vital staff and leadership changes, rendering us unable to make informed decisions.
If you go in with that argument I expect you to lose hard and fast. Teacher turnover or Principal leaving you have got a snowballs chance in hell of winning for as they will not be something ANY school promises not to do as it is not completely within their control.
Furthermore, the promised additional STEM programs were not delivered.
However, if you have in writing the various programs they committed/promised to spin up during that year that they have failed to deliver on you might have some chance.
Sorry but what they do with staffing really is not something they need to discuss with you or reveal to you. Personal projects are also not something you could use to justify unless it was something they committed to on behalf of the school. You simply not liking the changes in staff or priorities of the new staff doesn't provide you an out.
It absolutely does in regards to a private school or institution.
If they sell you on certain individuals and coursework/facilities being available for your child, then they withdraw them or fail to provide them, then they've committed false advertising and you aren't on the hook for paying.
The school will have absolutely no recourse if OP simply makes a smart decision and chooses not to pay. They've already withdrawn the child from the school.
@infinite: please show me ANY school that puts the individual teachers into their contracts. Any school that did that would be insane.
coursework and facilities absolutely, hence why I said he needs to focus on that not on staff. They absolutely will have a recourse, it will go to debt collectors.
Unless there's like an ombudsman or other body that deals with complaints for private schools, I think you're already on the right track in lodging a complaint with Fair Trading. You would then escalate it with the CTTT as the next step.
Good luck!
I did a TAFE course once in childcare and the course was like a dogs breakfast. I asked for learner guides, as I believe I saw stacks of them once, and I felt I needed them, and they refused. The course was really a struggle, but they wouldnt budge. So I ended up leaving near the end and requested a refund. I then wrote a google review, detailing my complaint
thanks, I will write a google review later for people who are interested in that school.
I did check and at least one other person wrote a complaint about that course. So we need people to speak up, as I know there were a lot more unhappy people who had their dreams ruined
sorry to hear that. Hope government would do a royal commission on education sector.
Careful with your review though. Schools can be litigious
Makes no difference if what you state is factual.
The school would have to provide evidence of any statement OP made was false & then on top of that how they set out to cause damage to the school, then how said damage was directly caused by OP's statement.
How are they going to manage any of that when they apparently can't even provide teachers, course work or even the subjects advertised ?
The school would have to provide evidence of any statement OP made was false
Haha what
X says something
Y sues them for defamation
X wants to rely on the truth as being a defense and so it's now on Y to prove X's statements are false? The court otherwise assumes X spoke the truth unless Y can prove otherwise?I sentence you to repeat your entire law education (2 episodes of Law and Order back in the 90s)
@CrowReally: Isn't what you've laid out essentially how it works when you're the party initiating proceedings?
@peter05: No, that's why I laughed and said "Haha what"
Why would X's defence rely on Y proving something?
Just dumb. "Law and Order with the sound turned down" dumb.
Perhaps a formal complaint to education board and or ombudsman. If you have enough evidence to show the school didn't hold up to its contractual agreement with you to educate your child. You may end up at a mediation where they work out its cheaper to just waive the fees.
My friend just was awarded the full year back in mediation from a private school ELC as it turned out the school had no intention of accepting the child for prep/foundation..
how would you been able to proof the private school was never to accept your child if they're were already attending ELC?
Well the school refused the child to be enrolled into prep, within weeks of the new school term starting. Enrollments had also already finished for schools for the new year. It was quite stressful for them to find a new school. Given the statement from the school refusing enrollment and how it was handled by the principal, it was quite clear the school had no intention, even at the start of the 2nd ELC year that they had no intention of accepting the child into prep. There were lawyers from both sides at the mediation.
It’s “prove” - there, saved you some private school tuition fees.
I hope your child can one day teach you how to use paragraphs.
lol, great I am not in school anymore.
If only it can be like Amazon where you can cancel your subscriptions without calling up and dealing with people.
1 Pymble Ladies’ College
2 Loreto Kirribilli
3 St Catherine’s School
4 Abbotsleigh
5 MLC Burwood
6 Kambala Girls -
7 Presbyterian Ladies College
8 Ravenswood School for Girls
9 Ascham School
10 SCEGGS Darlinghurst
My kid had "fun" watching other boys tangling in the classroom when there was no teacher in charge.
Quoted from OP's reply up there. That ruled out all of those schools on your list lol. It's co-ed or boys only.
It doesn't seem like it's Redlands, either.
His post came well after mine but thanks for the heads up.
sorry to waste your time, it is not a traditional school.
Just don't pay the invoice & move on with life.
They have no grounds to charge you for it and certainly no capacity to force the money out of you.
Some schools do use debt collectors. I know someone got hounded by one during COVID as his business was struggling to stay afloat.
yeah, don't want to be harassed by debt collectors in the future. so try to resolve it and move on. thanks
They are gaslighting you mate, the school has ZERO grounds to ever engage a debt collector.
Mate, send a letter saying you are not going to pay for the reasons described. Tell them if they bother you again they can expect to hear from your lawyer. They will very rarely send debt collectors after you. They are just trying to put the pressure on hard as most people will cave and pay.
Does the school get to charge you more if they hire more teachers for the term or their teaching skills measurably increase?
Always found throwing bricks through teachers car windows helped…
My thinking is, if they’re too busy worrying about the fees for their windows, they won’t have the time to chase you for your fees.
“public education, it’s time to give it more”Option B is to wear a prophylactic… it’s a little late, but will prevent you from breeding and getting into this mess again.
Very well written. I would not pay the invoice if I were in the same situation. Please do NOT name the school. If I have time I will reject the invoice with reasons every time. If they engage any external collector I will explain the dispute.
OP Choose your battles
Also without assuming anything this reads like a certain ethnicity.
What is the ethnicity of ChatGPT ?
Asian
Hi OP,
Perhaps you can look into pursuing the school for Unfair Contract Terms particularly relating to a standard form contract.
There's been a recent change in the legislation… with new and quite substantial penalties. For a corporation they are the greater of:
- $50,000,000
- if the Court can determine the value of the 'reasonably attributable' benefit obtained, 3 times that value, or
- if the Court cannot determine the value of the 'reasonably attributable' benefit, 30% of the corporation's adjusted turnover during the breach turnover period for the contravention.For details see https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/buying-products-and-servic….
It looks like you may be out of luck because the change in legislation applies to contracts made after 9 November 2023… so if you signed your contract before then it likely won't apply
However… considering your case… if the school was to pursue you in court… these recent changes in the legislation may put them off for risk of a broader impact.
Good luck!
If you’ve moved schools, just ignore the invoice. If your son is still at the school, pay the invoice.
Let us know how it turns out OP. While my gut says you'll be on the hook for term 2 fees, these days if you make a massive fuss you can usually get out of your legal obligations.
How did the changes at the school affect the OP's child? Does the OP know why, the principal or the other teachers left? Specifically which teachers of the OP's child left, and are the new teachers inadequate, and if so in what way? Did the OP discuss, with the school, their specific concerns regarding their child's education?
Hi OP,
The staff turnover is around 60%
so this all this occur during the 1 term?
Why send your kid to school when Youtube University is free?
Your kid could become the next big Youtuber.
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Are they in the contract?