As parents of students enrolled at Garden City British School, we respectfully request a reduction of school fees in light of the current circumstances. While we appreciate the effort made by the school to continue schooling, we believe that the factors listed below require consideration.

REASONS FOR OUR REQUEST:

Our children are not present in the school building and therefore overhead costs including electricity, water and cleaning services are at a minimum. We, as parents, are now bearing these costs.

A reduction in teaching hours (9am to 1pm) has reduced the normal schooling hours (8am to 2:30pm). As the school building is officially closed, the number of staff required is reduced significantly.

While lessons are being conducted online, students are unable to complete the activities without support and direct teaching. The current system is ineffective. There is no acknowledgement of work handed in and no feedback is offered. Please take into account that many parents are also working online or are required to go into work as they are part of the essential service workforce.

The financial burden of printing off worksheets and supporting materials (which includes the purchase of ink cartridges and paper) rests with the parent(s). An additional cost is incurred for parents who are working. Some parents have had to employ an adult to teach and supervise their children while they are at work. As devices were not provided by the school, parents have had to purchase laptops/tablets.

The online platform adopted by the school incurs no cost.

The teaching of languages i.e.Arabic and French pose challenges to parents who do not have experience with these languages.

ADDED CONSIDERATION

Parent who have paid school fees in advance and club & transportation fees for term 2 would like to be informed as to why a partial refund was not due to them.

We ask for special consideration for those parents who have had their salaries reduced and those parents who are now unemployed because of these unfortunate circumstances.