Thursday April 01, 2021

Bonus for mid-year intake

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Reception students who join a 2021 mid-year intake at a Catholic school will get free tuition in Terms 3 and 4.

Thursday April 01, 2021

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The fee reduction is part of a number of initiatives of the South Australian Commission for Catholic Schools designed to ease the financial burden on families.

“While the South Australian community is beginning to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, we are acutely aware that there are some families who continue to be impacted by reduced income and the withdrawal of the government’s JobKeeper payment scheme,” said Dr Neil McGoran, director of Catholic Education South Australia.

“Our commitment to each child’s learning and wellbeing remains absolute. That commitment includes our long-standing practice for Catholic schools to offer fee remissions for families experiencing financial difficulties or hardship.”

Fee remissions introduced last year for COVID-related or other financial hardship will remain in place this year.

All Diocesan schools will offer the 2021 Term 3 Reception intake to parents free of charge. The Commission is also encouraging separately-governed schools to offer the tuition waiver.

Last year the fee structure of every Catholic primary school in the State was reviewed with all of them reducing their fees for 2021. These schools also introduced a lower income fee that incorporates a near-standardised 40 per cent discount off the full fee for those eligible.

These initiatives are in addition to an earlier commitment to provide scholarships to children and young people in care. The partnership between the South Australian Commission for Catholic Schools and the Department for Child Protection has been so successful that the number of scholarships has been doubled, with 200 children set to benefit from the program.