Education Reform Act 1988

118 General and supplementary provisions relating to charges

(1) Nothing in the provisions of this Chapter relating to charges shall be read as prohibiting or in any way restricting or regulating any request or invitation by or on behalf of the governing body of any maintained school or any local education authority for voluntary contributions for the benefit of the school or any school activities.

(2) Any request or invitation made by or on behalf of any such body or authority for contributions for the benefit of any school or school activities shall not be regarded for the purposes of subsection (1) above as a request or invitation for voluntary contributions unless it is clear from the terms in which it is made—

(a) that there is no obligation to make any contribution; and

(b) that registered pupils at the school will not be treated differently according to whether or not their parents have made any contribution in response to the request or invitation.

(3) Nothing in section 106(6) of this Act shall prevent the parent of a registered pupil at a maintained school from being required to pay for or supply any materials for use for the purposes of the production in the course of the provision of education for the pupil at the school of any article incorporating those materials, where the parent has indicated before that requirement is made that he wishes the article to be owned by him or by the pupil.

(4) Nothing in this Chapter relating to charges with respect to a registered pupil at a maintained school shall be read as relating to—

(a) charges made by persons other than the governing body or the local education authority; or

(b) charges to be paid by persons other than the parent of the pupil or the pupil himself.

(5) The Secretary of State may make regulations requiring, in relation to every maintained school, the local education authority, the governing body or the head teacher to make available either generally or to prescribed persons, in such form and manner and at such times as may be prescribed—

(a) such information relevant for the purposes of this Chapter as to the school hours at the school; and

(b) such information as to the policies determined under section 110 which apply in relation to the school;

as may be prescribed.

(6) Any sum payable under section 108, 109 or 111 of this Act by the parent of any registered pupil at a maintained school shall be recoverable summarily as a civil debt.

(7) In this Chapter—

(a) “equipment” does not include clothing;

(b) “the local education authority” means, in relation to a maintained school which is a school maintained by a local education authority, the authority by whom the school is maintained;

(c) “maintained school” means—

(i) any school maintained by a local education authority; and

(ii) any grant-maintained school;

(d) references to a public examination (including a prescribed public examination) are references to such an examination as it applies in relation to persons entered for any syllabus for that examination with a view to meeting the examination requirements for that syllabus so as to qualify for assessment for the purposes of determining their achievements in that examination on any particular occasion in any year when an assessment for the purposes of determining the achievements of persons entered for that examination takes place;

(e) references to an examination requirement for a syllabus for any such examination are references to any requirement a pupil must meet in order to qualify for assessment for the purposes of determining his achievements in that examination in that syllabus; and

(f) “residential trip” has the meaning given by section 106(10) of this Act.

(8) For the purposes of subsection (7) above an assessment for the purposes of determining the achievements of persons entered for any examination is to be regarded as taking place on any occasion on which it is determined in relation to each person entered for any syllabus in that examination who has met the examination requirements for that syllabus whether that person has passed or failed and, if grades are assigned for the purposes of the examination, the grade to be assigned in his case.