Parents who spend tens of thousands of pounds a year on private school fees could get some of their money back after schools were shut to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Schools including Eton are offering offering fee discounts as well as fee freezes in the next academic year following the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown.

Others, however, have said parents will have to continuing paying despite their children being at home, as the cost of discounts for them is unaffordable.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said some schools would reopen on June 1, after half term, welcoming back primary pupils in stages, beginning with reception, Year 1 and Year 6. He said it was his ambition that secondary pupils facing exams next year would get some time with their teachers before the holidays.

Can I get a refund on private school fees during coronavirus?

Whether or not parents get any money back depends on the individual institution.

Schools are trying to strike a balance between keeping parents onside and keeping the schools afloat. Some are unlikely to offer any discount on fees at all, while others may offer refunds on services they are no longer providing such as meals or coaches. They may also provide discounts in the form of credit that could be deducted from next year's costs.

In all cases the core cost of tuition is highly unlikely to be refunded, as most schools are teaching pupils via online classes.

Do I qualify for a refund?

A representative for Hollygirt School, a small independent school of around 200 pupils and 60 staff in Nottingham, said it was considering refunding parents the cost of catering and transport to sports facilities and fixtures. It could also freeze fees for the first term of the new academic year starting in September.

The school's headmistress, Pam Hutley, explained why there was such a difference in approach by various institutions. Said she and other school heads were trying to take into consideration the financial situation of parents while preserving the school's finances and keeping teachers on the payroll.

"There is a popular myth that if you send your children to a fee-paying school you are extraordinarily rich, but most of our parents are normal, Middle England, working people, several of whom are currently working in the NHS, and they are already struggling to afford fees," she said.

"These are uncertain times and we want to help our parents. Without them we would have no business and the school would cease to exist. On the other hand, if we don't have money coming in we can't carry on either. I also have my staff to think about and I am hoping we can save some costs, some of which may be passed back to parents, by using some of the support schemes the Government has put in place."

The headmaster of another small private school in Bedfordshire, who asked not to be named, said the larger schools in London and the South East, which tend to serve very wealthy families, were unlikely to offer any kind of discount as parents were already well off.

"It's the smaller independents like us who don't want to have parents and pupils leave us because of all this economic uncertainty that will be trying to change things, " he said.

He said he was considering implementing a credit system at the school, where additional costs for services no longer being used, such as school dinners, could be deducted from the overall bill next term.