How to price your school readiness program: a practical guide for Australian operators

Pricing is the conversation most school readiness operators dread. You don't want to undercharge and resent the work. You don't want to overcharge and price out the families you want to serve. And once you've set a number, it can feel almost impossible to change it without losing half your enrolments.

This guide walks through how to actually think about pricing, from your cost base through to the levers that most operators forget exist. It's written for Australian school readiness providers, with practical notes on what's standard and what's flexible.

1. Start with your real costs

Before you look at what other people charge, work out what a single session of your program actually costs you to deliver. This is the floor, not the ceiling.

Add up:

• Hourly cost of educators (including super and any leave loadings)
• Venue or rent, allocated per session
• Consumables (resources, snacks, art supplies)
• Insurance, professional development, admin software, accountancy
• A reasonable margin for the time you spend that you don't currently pay yourself for

Divide by the number of student spots in the session. That's your minimum viable per-session rate. If your market won't bear it, the problem is the program structure, not the pricing.

A lot of operators discover at this stage that they've been underpricing for years and resenting the workload without knowing why.

2. Pick a pricing model that fits your program

There are three pricing models most Aussie school readiness operators end up choosing between. Each suits a different style of program.

Per-term pricing. The family pays for the whole term up front (or in instalments). The spot is held. This is the dominant model for school readiness because the program is sequential: each week builds on the last, and consistent attendance is part of the offer.

Per-session pricing. Useful for shorter or more flexible programs, holiday workshops, or add-on offerings. Easier for parents to commit to, but you lose the cash flow certainty of a term sale.

Casual drop-in. A premium per-session rate for families who want flexibility. Works as a top-up to a term-based program, not usually as the core offer.

You don't have to pick just one. Most established operators run a term-based core program with the option to add casual sessions, and price the casual rate slightly above the per-session equivalent of the term price.

3. Two ways to set your per-term rate

There are two ways to land at a per-term number, and they should give you roughly the same answer.

Method A: per-session rate × number of sessions. Set what you'd charge for one session, multiply by the number of sessions in the term, optionally apply a small discount for committing up front.

Method B: flat term rate. Pick a round number that feels right for your market, then sanity-check it by dividing by sessions to see your effective per-session rate.

Most operators use Method A because it makes pro-rata calculations easy later. In Foxloop, you can set per-term rates either as a flat number or as per-session × number of sessions, and either way the platform automatically calculates a per-session rate behind the scenes for pro-rata and refunds. That saves you doing the maths every time a family joins late.

4. Handle mid-term enrolments with pro-rata

A family wants to join in week four of an eight-week term. What do you charge them?

The fair answer is pro-rata: remaining sessions × per-session rate. Anything else either overcharges the family or makes you look opaque.

Where operators get into trouble is doing pro-rata manually. It's not hard maths, but multiplied across twenty or thirty mid-term enrolments a year, it's an hour or two of avoidable work, and the chance of errors creeping in is real. Foxloop calculates pro-rata automatically from the per-session rate, so a parent enrolling mid-term sees the right number on the enrolment form without you touching it.

5. Deposits, and the "trial deposit" trick worth knowing

Should you charge a deposit? For most school readiness programs, yes. A deposit does two things: it commits the family (people honour what they've paid for), and it gives you a non-refundable buffer if they pull out before term starts.

Common deposit conventions:

• 10 to 25 percent of the term fee
• Non-refundable if cancellation happens after a defined date
• Credited against the balance, with the balance due before the term starts

There's a clever variant that more operators are starting to use: the trial deposit. A family enrolling mid-term pays only the deposit up front, with the balance due a set number of days into their first sessions. If it doesn't work out for the family or the program isn't a good fit, you keep the deposit, the family hasn't sunk a full term's fees, and you can write off the remainder. If it does work out, the balance gets paid as planned. This lowers the barrier for families nervous about committing while still protecting your time.

Foxloop supports both standard deposits and this delayed-balance trial structure as part of its per-term pricing setup.

6. Sibling discounts (and other levers worth using)

A sibling discount is one of the most under-used tools in school readiness pricing. It rewards loyalty, it makes the second-child decision easier for families, and it costs less than you'd think because the marginal cost of an enrolment to a family already in your system is low.

Practical guidance:

• 10 to 15 percent off the second sibling is the usual range
• 15 to 25 percent off the third (rare, but worth having)
• Apply it automatically, not on request

Foxloop applies sibling discounts in one click at the family level, with a percentage you set. You don't have to remember which family has multiple kids in the program.

Other levers worth considering:

• Early-bird pricing. A small discount for families who enrol and pay by a defined date, in exchange for cash flow certainty.
• Re-enrolment incentives. A modest discount or value-add for families rolling over from the previous term.
• Trial sessions. Either free or at a casual rate, designed to convert into a term enrolment.

The general principle is this: discounts should reward behaviour you actually want (commitment, retention, referrals), not just be a sticker on the front door.

7. Pre-paid vs post-paid: a cash flow decision

You have a choice about when fees are paid. The two main models:

Pre-paid. Fees are due before the term starts (or in instalments tied to start dates). Better for your cash flow. Standard for school readiness.

Post-paid. Fees are billed as sessions are delivered. Used in a few specific scenarios:

• NDIS-supported students (where the funder usually requires service to be rendered before payment)
• Families on payment plans for hardship reasons
• Per-session or casual models where there's nothing to pre-pay for

Foxloop lets you set whether fees are pre-paid or post-paid at the provider level, and supports both standing arrangements and per-family overrides. That flexibility matters more than it sounds: it lets you say yes to a struggling family without changing your overall model.

8. Supporting families experiencing hardship

A blanket "no discounts ever" policy is bad business and worse community building. Families go through hard periods. Many of them are otherwise rock-solid parents who want their child in the program and just need a bit of breathing room.

Practical options to have ready:

• Weekly payment approvals. Rather than a single term invoice, the family approves a weekly debit. Same total, smaller psychological load.
• Delayed balance. Deposit now, balance in four to six weeks once a pay cycle has reset.
• Hardship hold. Pause enrolment, hold the spot for a defined window, no penalty.

Foxloop allows weekly payment approvals as a built-in option for families experiencing hardship. It removes the awkward conversation about whether they can pay. They just approve each week as it comes.

9. NDIS-supported students

If you take NDIS-supported students, your pricing structure has to accommodate two realities:

• Payment usually comes from a parent or plan manager, not the student
• Invoices generally have to be issued after service is rendered

This is post-paid by default, on a schedule that suits the plan management arrangement. It's a different invoice cadence to your standard students. The temptation is to handle it as a manual workaround, but it gets messy fast at any volume.

Foxloop supports NDIS-supported students natively, with invoices issued to parents or plan managers on a schedule, after service. If you're picking up NDIS students for the first time, build your pricing process around this from the start rather than retrofitting it later.

10. Refunds, credits, and the third option you might be forgetting

When a family withdraws mid-term, you have three ways to handle the balance:

• Cash refund. Cleanest for the family, hardest on your cash flow if you've already committed staff and resources.
• Account credit. Hold the value against a future term. Good for families who are likely to return.
• Makeup tokens. Convert the value into makeup sessions, redeemable within a defined window.

Most operators offer some combination of all three, with the choice depending on why the family is leaving and how much of the term is remaining. Foxloop supports all three options from the admin side, so you can pick the right tool for the situation rather than being forced into a single answer.

Whatever you do, write the refund position into your enrolment terms before a family signs up. Disputes are almost always about expectations, not amounts.

11. Review your prices every year

The single biggest pricing mistake school readiness operators make is letting years pass without a review. Costs creep up. The award rate increases. Insurance premiums rise. If you held your fees flat from 2020 to 2025, you've absorbed a meaningful margin hit without noticing.

A modest annual increase (three to five percent in most years) is easier for families to accept than a single big jump every four years. Communicate it well in advance, explain what it covers (educator wages, program improvements, increased operating costs), and offer existing families a re-enrolment window at the old price as a courtesy. Most won't blink.

How Foxloop helps you actually run this

A pricing structure is only as good as your ability to apply it without losing your evenings to admin. Foxloop handles per-term, per-session, casual, deposits, pro-rata, sibling discounts, weekly approvals, NDIS invoicing and refunds in one place, with parents seeing accurate numbers on their enrolment form before you've lifted a finger.

If you want to see what your current pricing setup would look like in Foxloop, the free webinar walks through real examples. Or skip ahead and start a 7-day trial (no credit card required).

FAQ

How much should I charge per term for a school readiness program in Australia? Term fees vary widely by region, age group, session length, and program length. Rather than benchmarking, calculate your real per-session cost (including educator wages, venue, insurance and a margin) and build up from there. If you're well below other operators in your area, your costs are probably under-counted somewhere.

Should I require a deposit at enrolment? For most term-based programs, yes. A deposit commits the family, protects you against late cancellations, and signals that the spot is real. Ten to twenty-five percent of the term fee is a common range.

How do I calculate pro-rata for a family joining mid-term? Take your per-session rate (either set directly or derived from the term fee divided by the number of sessions) and multiply by the remaining sessions. Most software, including Foxloop, does this automatically.

Is a sibling discount worth offering? Yes for most operators. It rewards loyalty, makes the second-child decision easier, and your marginal cost on a sibling is lower than on a brand-new family. Ten to fifteen percent off the second sibling is the usual range.

Can I take NDIS-supported students? Yes, if your program meets the criteria. The pricing model is different: invoices are typically issued to parents or plan managers after service is rendered, not before. Build this into your process rather than treating it as a workaround.

How often should I raise my prices? A small annual increase (three to five percent) is easier to absorb than a single large jump. Review at least once a year, communicate well ahead of term, and offer existing families a re-enrolment window before the new rate kicks in.

Is this legal or financial advice? No. This is general guidance for Australian school readiness operators. Australian Consumer Law applies to your services, and your terms of service need to be reviewed against your specific situation. For anything you're unsure about, get advice from a lawyer or your industry association.