The school tries to include as much as possible within the published day and boarding fees. Many of our extra-curricular activities are inclusive within the termly fees. However, a number of items are charged as extras on your bill.

Generally, extra charges come about by either parental request (e.g. an elective school trip) or you will have been asked if you wish to opt for whatever is being offered (e.g. a school photograph or opt-in insurance). Any requested or agreed extra charges will normally be added to your next fees invoice (i.e. charged in arrears) or in some cases you will be asked for payment at the time (e.g. school trips).

Examples of extra charges (or costs to be borne by families directly) are below:

Uniform and personal sports equipment

All uniform, whether purchased new from the school’s supplier or from the parent volunteers second-hand uniform shop, is a charge to the parents, either directly or if an emergency, in-term purchase, added to the fee account as an extra item.

School photographs

Any school, House or team photographs are ordered by parents. The charges are added as an extra on the school fee account.

School-organised extra tuition

Extra tuition arranged by the school is normally included within the fees. However, if the need is greater than that considered reasonable, the school will liaise directly with the parents to agree a suitable and fair charging structure for whatever bespoke arrangement is required to best suit the circumstances. Such agreed extra charges would be added to the school fee account.
The school has a number of former King’s Ely teachers on arrangement (i.e. all checked from a child safeguarding perspective) who will gladly offer their services directly to parents if the parent wishes to arrange for private extra tuition for their child. The arrangement is between the parents and the private teacher, as are all financial transactions. If a parent wishes to arrange an independent private tutor to provide extra tuition for their child on school premises, if there are any child safeguarding compliance related costs for the school to ensure the visiting tutor is appropriately Child Protection trained/checked, those charges will be passed onto the parent as an extra change, after first forewarning the parents.

Physiotherapy

If your child needs physiotherapy as recommended by our Medical Centre team and/or a GP, we have an arrangement with a local Physiotherapy Practice in Ely whereby the Practice staff have gone through the necessary child safeguarding checks and the school can provide a matron/staff member to escort children to the Practice at certain times each week. The care is private and any agreed treatment would be paid for directly by parents to the Practice. For the initial consultation the Medical Centre would normally liaise directly with parents. There are agreed rates for Physiotherapy sessions that parents can take advantage of if they so wish. Please contact Fenland Physio.

Home-school-home minibus route fees

The school provides a limited number of minibus routes to King’s Ely morning and evening. Places are pre-booked for each term in advance, with some parents requesting an occasional place. The separate routes are essentially from Cambridge Science Park, Newmarket, and Huntingdon to King’s Ely, with stops at various convenient points along each route. The charges for use of the bus are charged as extras on the fee account. The detailed routes/timetables and fees for each route can be found here.

Flexi/occasional Boarding/Day pupil Late Stays

Parents can request that their children either board occasionally (one-off occasions) or routinely, at a fixed cost per night.  Availability will depend on bed space for age/gender of the child. This can be arranged through the Director of Boarding.  We can also cater for a limited number of ‘Late Stays’ for day pupils to have their supper and supervised evening prep for an extra fee charge on a daily basis.

Wrap Around Care

Any care provided outside the normal school day (e.g. breakfast or ‘Owls”’in Acremont) is a chargeable extra at the daily published rate. Any extra sessions within the Nursery are charged as extras if they are over and above the number of pre-booked sessions.

Private music lessons

Individual private music lessons are delivered by Visiting Music Teachers (VMTs) at the rate of £39.32 per hour (£24.25 per 37 minute lesson). The normal termly charge is for a ‘package’ of 10 x 37 minute lessons at £242.50 (£727.50 per academic year). Music lessons are invoiced by the self-employed VMT concerned in advance direct to the parents, except where music lessons are offered free as part of a scholarship/chorister or other package, in which case VMTs will invoice the school directly each term. Ceasing of private music lessons should be notified directly to the VMT half a term in advance, otherwise fees to the parents will be charged by the VMT. Any missed lessons, without sufficient prior notice to cancel the instrumental/singing lesson, will be billed directly to the parents, including those where free music lessons are awarded.

Text books

Sixth Form students (Years 12 and 13) are expected to buy their own text books to allow individual annotation. This may also apply to a limited number of texts in earlier years.

Examination fees

Examination fees as charged by the examination boards for AS and A Level examinations are onward charged as extras on the child’s fee account in addition to the published school/tuition fees.

Examination re-marks

Any charges arising from requests for examination re-marks, appeals or late changes in examination entries requested by pupils/parents will be added to the next school fee account. Leavers’ final fee accounts/deposit refunds will not be generated until the examination re-mark deadline has passed.

Music and Drama exams

Examination fees as charged by the examination boards for Music and/or Drama examinations are onward charged as extras on the child’s fee account in addition to the published school/tuition fees.

Elective school trips

Any elective school trip is charged for. There is normally a deposit to pay to secure a place. Owing to the overall cost of the trip, charges for elective trips are normally made directly to parents and outside of the fee billing cycle.

The deposit and trip fee is normally not refundable (unless the whole trip does not go ahead owing to the minimum numbers not being reached at the outset). Payment for trips should be made via bank transfer and not to the teacher organising the trip. Cash should not be used to pay for trips.

Comprehensive school travel insurance provides cover for eventualities of a student falling ill or some other insured eventuality preventing the person going on the trip. Any insurance excess is for the parent to absorb. Proof of illness (e.g. via a GP’s note) is normally required to support  any claim. The cost of the insurance is always included within the overall trip fee.

The school has a policy of not making any profit from school trips. Any excess at funds at the end of a trip are refunded directly to parents.

Old Eleans membership subscription

The cost of lifetime membership of the Old Eleans club is £120, payable over three terms when a pupil first enters King’s Ely Senior. Pupils undertaking the International Programme are offered membership and charged in full on departure from King’s Ely (or over three terms on entry into King’s Ely Senior). All parents of children starting in King’s Ely Senior are written to explaining the charge and given the opportunity of opting out of the membership and £120 one-off fee.

Damage/Breakages/Lost items

The school reserves the right to charge for any damage caused and the replacement of lost items.

Late Payment Fees

If fees are received late, the school will normally charge 1.5% of the outstanding value of fees from the original due date until the fees are paid in full. The charge is applied as an extra charge to the next fee account, or if a final bill, taken from the deposit before refund.

Dental treatment (boarders)

We request that routine dental treatment is carried out during school holidays/whilst at home. If a child needs emergency dental treatment during term time, we will either arrange that the parent pays the dental cost directly, or if it is necessary that the school pays on behalf of the parents we will invoice the dental fee as an extra.

Taxi fees

Any taxi arranged by the school for start/end of holiday transport to/from an airport or train station requested by the parents will be charged as an extra cost on the following school fee account (except where included within the International Programme fees).

After school activities and clubs

Charges as levied by providers for after school activities or clubs will be passed onto parents as agreed between parents and those organising the clubs. This includes activities such as judo, golf, climbing, private tennis lessons, archery, clay pigeon shooting etc.

Weekend activities for boarders

Many in-house activities are not charged but excursions are charged at cost price as extras on the next term’s fee account.

Insurance

The school ensures there is a comprehensive suite of insurances in place at all times. We have all the necessary buildings, employer and public liability, motor, and other ‘operational’ insurances in place.

In addition, the school provides a Personal Accident policy for all students:

Personal Accident Insurance

Please click here to view the school’s travel insurance policy for all school trips:

Travel Policy

However, please note, for children in Year groups Reception, Year 1 and Year 2, this is limited to UK. For children in the Nursery, Plus Twos and Little Ones, this travel insurance policy does not provide any cover.

All pupils are covered by a basic ‘contents’ insurance policy providing cover for personal possessions up to £500/pupil, with a per article limit of £250 and a £50 excess per student claim. This is a very basic insurance and is only in place where other cover is not in force. The Terms and Conditions make it clear that it is the parent’s responsibility to ensure a student’s possessions are adequately insured against damage and theft through their own insurance arrangements (most UK household insurance policies provide some form of extension for pupil possessions whilst at school).

Those students who are part of the International Programme are afforded a higher level of personal possessions insurance of £7,500 maximum per claim with a £2,500 limit per item and a £100 excess per claim. This is included within the International Programme fee structure.

Personal Possessions Insurance

There is an insurance scheme available, the School Fees Refund Scheme, which the school can take out on behalf of parents if they wish to opt in to cover for payment of school fees should their child be absent from school owing to illness. This is an opt-in policy and is not covered by the fees.

If parents wish to opt in, this should be done for full academic years at the minimum or a parent can opt to simply be permanently subscribed to the scheme for as long as their child(ren) remains at the school. Please complete the form with the pdf and email it to the Business Manager and Accounts by the second week of July if you would like to be included in the scheme for the following academic year. The cost for this scheme will charged on the fee account as a termly extra.

School Fees Refund Scheme

Admissions