The school recognises that many families are struggling and we intend to remain being one of the cheapest Christian schools in the country to attend. Equally, the school is facing financial pressures too with the increase in costs in maintenance, resources and providing outstanding staff.
From 2024 the basic Attendance Dues (AD's) will remain the same at $720 for the first child and $480 for the next. However, they will now be capped from there. This means all families will now only be charged for a maximum of two students attending the school at a time—a total of $1 200. Additional children are Attendance Dues free.
There is a new financial component being introduced which we will ask families to contribute to as well please. Like most other Christian schools we will now implement a Special Character Contribution Scheme. This will be set at $30 per term per family (also one of the lowest in the country) and is being asked as a donation, (thus is not compulsory). Being a donation, families will be issued a donations receipt at the end of the school year to use for tax donation purposes where you will be able to claim up to 33% back again.
So why is the Proprietor Board (PB), the board of Peria Christian Education Inc, doing this? the PB are the proprietors of the school. They are responsible for paying any mortgage, doing building redevelopments and are charged with protecting the school’s special character. They have been carefully weighing up how to keep supporting families while also moving forward with redevelopments and new classroom developments.
They also recognise the School Board needs support with key resourcing and staffing but under government rules they are not allowed to use Attendance Dues for this. They can, however, use any Christian Character donations in this way. Because they want to help support the school and ensure we can keep building resources and provide extra staffing like we are, this gives a provision for them to be able to do this.
We know this should be great news for most families in that Attendance Dues are not rising and are now capped for larger families. The new Special Character Contribution can provide significant support for the school and we ask you please to help with this if you are in a position to do so.
Click/tap here for more details about Attendance dues and school activity fees.