Pat's Schoolhouse

[Busymom]

Didn’t realize that the fees are different for different branches.


For Halifax, the 2013 fees are (before GST and childcare subsidy)

Full day (till 5.30) - $1450

Full day (till 6.30) - $1660

Half day morning - $1080

Half day afternoon - $850

[ahbombom]

The fees are different for different centres. I recall Pat’s Raffles is more expensive due to the location. Visited a few Pat’s centres and noted it.


By the way, anyone knows where Halifax is shifting to?

[empressplace]

zenith56:

Anyway, I think the point about letting the school know about concerns over price increase is very valid. I work in the consumer sector and whenever we attempt to increase price for our products, we consider the severity of the customer's reactions and one of the way to gauge that is how they responded to the last price increase.

Just imagine if you are the management of Pat's Schoolhouse considering the next fee increase, if there were not many negative response from the last increase, would they not think twice about the next fee increase? Ultimately they are a for-profit education business. However, if there were many parents who raised concerns, if the concerns are serious enough and made it to the press (hypothetically), if there are lots of noise in the internet forums resulting in potentially negative reputation of the school, would the school not think harder about the next fee increase? Collective action definitely helps.

There is definitely value in making a big fuss on the rather high fee increase. Mr James Tan already highlighted the issue with fee increases in another Knowledge Universe chain. Obviously one can understand that there could be increased costs in a business. It is PSH and Knowledge Universe's business decision that it can and will pass on the costs to the customers. Not every business has the pricing power to pass on costs. Childcare services may be one of those given the shortage of childcare places. We can all complain but what are the real alternatives in certain locales? MCYS has already made it clear that they will not intervene in any meaningful way, notwithstanding the nation's call to support families and increase birth rate. Any young couple considering whether to have children ought to consider the real costs of childcare in Singapore and the availability of good domestic help. If childcare services should be totally left to market forces, then how does one meaningfully support families with young kids?

As customers who may not have an alternative but to accept the fee hike in certain situations, there is still value in making unhappiness known especially as a matter of public interest.

In 2011, PSH made the news for mass food poisoning. In 2012, the focus would be the high fee hike for 2013.

Notice that PSH did not win any MCYS Childcare award in 2011 after winning several in 2010.
https://app.cdn.gov.sg/MCYSChildCareSeminar2012/MCYSChildCareAwards2012/PastAwardRecipients.aspx

[VooVoo]

Busymom:

Didn't realize that the fees are different for different branches.


For Halifax, the 2013 fees are (before GST and childcare subsidy)

Full day (till 5.30) - $1450

Full day (till 6.30) - $1660

Half day morning - $1080

Half day afternoon - $850

What's the increase from current?

[GLORYmum]

OMG, the increase is 10% for half day in 2013! And they already anticipated an increase by around 5% in 2014. How come they know that the cost will increase by around 5% in 2014? Is this their budget for yearly salary incremental or the cost of electricity and rental will surely increase by 5% in 2014 ?


And the best part is they ask for advanced payment for fees of Jan 2013 by August which is 4 months in advance as confirmation of a place in their centre ! Overheard they are going to demand this advance payment by June which will be 6 months in advance in the future !

And not forgetting to add that we have placed one month deposit already and now we need to pay 4 months in advance to secure a space in the next year !?! What is the logic?

If the centre has a long waiting list so it claims as the reason for demanding payment 4 months in advance, all the more they have less to worry as any vacant space can be filled almost immediately, isn’t one month notice already sufficient? Why need 4 months or even 6 months in advance for the new academic year?

Any comments ?

[empressplace]

GLORYmum:

OMG, the increase is 10% for half day in 2013!

10% increase is relatively low compared to Claymore. Claymore's morning half day fees are slated to increase by a whopping 22.4%.

GLORYmum:

If the centre has a long waiting list so it claims as the reason for demanding payment 4 months in advance, all the more they have less to worry as any vacant space can be filled almost immediately, isn't one month notice already sufficient? Why need 4 months or even 6 months in advance for the new academic year?
Any comments ?

If there is a long waiting list, PSH needs to inform the applicants on the list whether they have a place for 2013 as soon as possible. Most parents need to secure a childcare place months in advance. So advance notice by existing students whether they are continuing in 2013 is understandable. However, I agree that for existing students, it is a bit of an overkill to collect one month advance payment in addition to the deposit already paid during registration.

The typical practice for many kiddy classes such as Julia Gabriel's play nest is that if notice of discontinuation is not given before a certain period before start of new term, the deposit is forfeited. For the start of a new year, PSH has the double protection of the deposit and the first month's fees for existing students. Existing students are treated no differently from new students (other than the registration fee). Also note that the first month's fees collected in advance is inclusive of the portion usually covered by the government childcare subsidy. This means that for existing parents entitled to government subsidy, your cash outlay is even higher than for a typical month. Once the childcare subsidy kicks in, there is usually some accounting that would take care of that in the second month's invoice. PSH's practice in this regard is very business friendly for their collection and cashflow management but not particularly customer friendly. I wonder if this is an industry wide practice among childcare centres.

[GLORYmum]

PSH has asked existing students to confirm their placement for next year as early as August which I feel is ultra KS.


If few objection voices are heard, they will collect this additional one month deposit as early as June in the future.

Is this ok? Do other centres practise the same ??

[mr.03768sparroe]

For me, I am going to start to check out other preschools and see what’s the tradeoff. Generally the standard of preschool in Singapore has gone up.


I feel the most important is the teachers are happy working for the school. Does anyone know of good nursery program near Toa Payoh area? My girl currently goes to Pat’s Buckley.

[arielle08]

Hi Pat’s mummies,

Anyone recalled the terms and conditions for withdrawal for Pat’s? I lost the parents’ manual.
I vaguely remember there is a timeline for withdrawal, especially during this period as they do not want parents to withdraw right before the dec holiday which is mainly childcare services.

Thanks in advance.

[pebblez]

Hi Arielle,


What you need to do would be to send a formal email to the principal of your centre noting your reason and last day of school for your child. They only collect fees based on half month and full monthly so if you put in your withdrawal before the 12/13 of the month, they will pro-rate your fees for the next mth. However if you do it after the 12/13, you will then need to pay full fees for the next mth in order to get back your deposit. Try to withdraw before October as I remember they don’t entertain withdrawals from Oct to Dec if I am not wrong.

We too can’t comprehend why there is a need to collect advance school fees given that we have alry paid a mth’s deposit with the school. Cannot help but wonder if they are in financial troubles

On the whole I feel that there are increasing disparities between each centre and you can’t really say all pats schoolhouse are the same even though
they are under the same umbrella. Even comunication between teachers and parents are not uniform throughtout all pats’. Same goes for the other promises such as academic excellence and enrichment quality. For one, our centre principal is a large contrast from some of the other principal we spoke to at other centers.