School Fees for 2014

Introduction

It would be great to be able to give families an accurate idea of costs for the year. However, given our focus on inquiry and authentic contexts for learning, we want to be able to be flexible and responsive – responding to students’ areas of interests and to the opportunities that come up during the year in a city such as Wellington. Therefore, we are reluctant to have an activity fee that is fixed. Hence, we have not set an activity fee but will do our best to give you advanced warning of costs.

Known Costs for 2014

i.                School Donations

The Ministry of Education provides a decile-based Operational Grant, which is funding for the basic administration, teaching and property running costs of the school. As a Decile 10 school, the government considers our students to be from the highest socio-economic area, so we receive a smaller operational grant per student than lower decile schools. On current programmes, developments and running costs, each year, we need to make up a shortfall of about $100,000. School donations are an important component of this. Therefore, to enable us to provide quality education and additional resources to enhance learning, we rely on voluntary donations from parents. These Voluntary donations are tax deductible.

Amesbury School's Board of Trustees has approved the same donation structure and amount for 2014.

2014	FULL YEAR (TERMS 1-4)	PART YEAR (TERMS 2-4)	PART YEAR (TERMS 3-4)	PART YEAR (TERM 4 ONLY)
1 Child	$240	$180	$120	$60
2 Children	$400	$300	$200	$100
3 Children or more	$480	$360	$240	$120

2. Stationery and Mathletics - $50.00 per child

3. Cooking/Electives Fee - $20.00 per child

Cooking and electives are an important part of our programme and rather than asking for small amounts here and there to cover particular costs, we would prefer to have a one off payment to enable a richer programme throughout the year.

                       i. v.     Payment

In the next couple of weeks you will be invoiced $70.00 per child through your ETAP account for the stationery, mathletics and cooking/electives fees. However, given that donations are voluntary, you will not be invoiced for this in the same way, but will receive email reminders to pay the donation.

Please NOTE: We are aware that the beginning of the year is an expensive time for families and we are happy for these fees to be paid off over time. Please feel free to talk to Gail about setting up an automatic payment.