£75 registration fee for preschool

[hana]

I need a new preschool/playgroup for dd as her current one closes at the end of the term. Have been looking around and have found an ok one, but the registration fee is a whopping £75. Does this seem extortionate? Am hesitating at the seemingly moneygrabbing going on....

[Chopster]

blimey that does sound a lot, I've only ever had to pay £10-20.

[katwith3kittens]

EEeek.... is it refundable if you choose not to go ?

Seems an extremely large ammount of money to me. Most independent schools dont charge that for an assessment day !

[lljkk]

Nursery at local indep. primary charges that much, it certainly puts a lot of people off. The other private local nurseries charge more like £25 (nonrefundable, still).

[TellusMater]

We charge a fiver. And it still takes quite a bit of chasing with some people

[eandh]

I had to pay £20 when I registered dd1 and it was refunded on my first bill (am paying as dd as 3 beginning of sept so no free place till january (knew i should have had her in august!!!)

[CarGirl]

It may be to stop people registering at the shcool who then don't attend. It was a big problem at our school - all the places were filled and then 50% went elsewhere and then the pre-school struggled due to lack of funds because it didn't have enough children. Some parents put their dc name down at all 4 local pre-schools!

[annieshaf]

I agree with Cargirl. Used to work in a nursery and we had a big problem with parents putting their name down - we would organise our staffing for the term according to the number of children registered and then would find a number of them didn't come for a number of reasons and didnt even bother to let us know. We charged a £50 registration fee which was not refundable if the child did not attend but was deductible from the first bill if they did. I think this was reasonable as it did deter people from registering at 3 or 4 different places at the same time. If the fee is not deductible from your first bill then yanbu.

[hana]

have decided to give this place a wide berth - not deductible from fees so will keep looking for dd
she will only attend 2 mornings