On your advice we defended the claim from our son's school over unpaid school fees. The judge looked at the claim and on Thursday we received a general form of judgement suggesting mediation. This morning we received a copy of a form N244 from the school's solicitors. What does it all mean? What should we do next?

Can anyone help? We have been sent CC papers by our son's school . He was at the school for 3 years but in his GCSE year my husbands company went under . We ended up owing just under £4000 . We could not take our son out as he was in such a vital year. We asked for help but they would not even send us a bursary application form! We have corresponded with them trying to come to some amicable resolution but they wanted us to repay 3 times what we could afford. I have contested the claim because they are allegedly a charity and have not gone by the Charities Act however I am not sure how to proceed as we have just been sent the next lot of paperwork. One thing that I did not disclose in the earlier form, is that I signed my husbands name on the original contract so technically he is not eligible. Should I keep this quiet or use this fact ? Ironically I work for a charity that has just written off £80,000 of unpaid fees !

Go to your local Dyslexia Action Centre. Their Head Office is 01784 222300. They have a bank of psychologists and will charge you around £400 for a report. Their psychologists often appear as expert witnesses at SEN tribunals for parents. They also have bursaries for teaching if you ask for a bursary form the next meeting is in November to allocate funds.Hope this helps.

Will do . Great to know that there is help out there. thanks

Thanks for your help- nice to know I'm not the only one! ktc

This is basically it! In September 2004 our son started at SGCollege but by September 2006 we were having serious financial difficulties. We went in to see the school several times but as our son was in Year 11 we did not feel we could remove him in such a vital year and hoped that the situation would be temporary. Our mortgage company started repossession proceedings in December 2006 after we became in arrears and we were due to be repossessed in February 2007. We managed to find a cash buyer and a new cheaper house just before that date. We immediately paid £10,000 to the school . Before this point we had asked for help from the school’s bursary fund but both times we were refused. On my second telephone conversation I was told that we would be ineligible as the school had used up its quota for bursaries for the year already. After we moved my husband was able to secure a temporary contract and in August of that year a permanent job. At this point we repaid another £761. Our son was refused entry into the sixth form at the school and by this point had had a very stressful year as he was aware of our financial difficulties. We then tried to come to some agreement repaying the outstanding fees and copies of letters are enclosed. Based on our financial status at that point I think we made reasonable offers that were flatly refused. We now owe £4100 including interest. The school would only take £300 per month as a repayment figure- one that we were totally unable to afford. We are going to try to dispute this claim on the grounds that the school, which is a Catholic institution, advertises itself as a charity but has not adhered to the Charities Act in its dealings with us when we desperately needed its help. Do you think this will work???

In December 2006 we faced having our house reposessed as my husband was not earning at the time. We fell behind with our son's school fees who was in his final year at a Catholic Independent School. We asked for help but they refused to even send the forms out to us as they 'had already allocated all the money for bursaries for the year'. We managed to avoid repossession by finding a buyer for our house and a mortgage advisor who managed to find us a new mortgage. We then paid £10,000 to the school in APril 2007. Getting back on our feet was hard and in August 2007 my husband gained full time work and we paid an additonal £761 in tht month and offered to pay the rest in instalments. They refused our initial offer and wanted £302 per month which we could not afford. We have tried to come to an agreement but have been constantly turned down. We have now been served with County Court Papers for £4165. Can anyone help us avoid a CCJ? The date of service is 22/9/08 and we received the papers on the 20th. Many many thanks.