high school charging kids to make their DT projects.

oliver2008

My DD school provides the materials, I pay £10 a year for cookery, £4 for material for sewing and another £4 for craft & Design. I dont mind paying this but as I said the school provides the materials. My neice on the other hand had to pay £22.50 this school year for cooking :eek:

*Louise*

I dont think it sounds that bad really.

When I was at school we had to pay approx £2.50 per item in D&T, 80p for stuff we made in Home Ec (every week) and when I was doing Higher Art we had to supply all the materials for our exam projects ourselves.

Dunno what things cost round here these days - I'll get back to you in a few years when DS1 starts High school.

Loz01

I never had to pay for Tech stuff when I was at school, and I'm only 21! I only left 3/4 years ago!! I feel well old now.

Also, I dont think its the fact that its 50p, its the fact that WHAT dya get for the 50p..? If you provide all your own stuff, its a bit pointless to ask for 50p, and if theres 100/150 people in the whole year, the school are onto a money winner if no ones askin questions!

mrcow

stef240377 wrote: »

Further to this kids have to provide their own materials for the project so how can they justify the further expense?

Why don't you ask them what the extra money is for?

frivolous_fay

I think OP has a fair question and I'd ask the school to justify what the charge is for.

If it's unrelated to materials, then what is it? Nothing wrong with having principles. If the bank was charging me £1.50 a year for no apparent reason, I'd query it.

lonestar1

Maybe its to pay for stuff so that the young uns who cant afford to bring in the ingredients etc dont have to feel left out just because their families cant afford to subsidise these activities.

After all none of us get to choose our parents

aliasojo

My guess is that the 50p might go towards the upkeep of machines etc.

I remember one of our craftwork teachers telling us that the sewing machines and woodworking machines etc were forever breaking down and they always needed repaired or serviced etc. Although there was supposed to be funds in the kitty for stuff like this, there never was, as books and other teaching materials were deemed more important.

Maybe it's a similar thing, especially given the 'never enough machines' bit in the OP?



Of course it could just be for the shareholder's party. :rotfl: (Nationwide ad )

Loopy_Lobes

I have no problem with handing over small amounts voluntarily to pay towards materials that make something my child will bring home. My son did some cooking projects last year where we only had to provide flour, the rest of the ingredients like eggs, sugar, butter etc were provided by the school - I guess they don't want teenagers having eggs in their bags nowadays! Our 50ps would have covered the costs of 3 eggs.

Actually, at my girls primary school the teachers even often dip in their own pockets to do nice things for the children. Last year the class had a 'prize drawer' and the children would be given points for various things to put towards prizes. This fantastic idea was completely funded by her teacher.

School have tight budgets and if they need these small amounts contributed to do the good work with the children then I'm fine with that.

FairyElephant_2

OP - I would send the school a polite little note asking what the charge is for, as it does seem odd that it is on top of providing the materials. maybe they need extra supervision in these type of classes and it is for that - but you should be told what you are paying for - I think - regardless of how much it is, it is the principle which counts!

My DSK's school are ALWAYS asking for money for stuff.

Every year they have an 'activities week' where they get to 'choose' activites, which vary in cost from £30 to £160 for the week.

Last term DSS#2 got his 3rd choice which was 'conservation' - from what he says he spent all week pulling out Japanese Knotweed and some other pernicious weed, and paid £40 for the privilege! All he learned was that Japanese Knotweed and the other stuff (which he can't even remember the name of!) are not native to the UK and should be got rid of......not value for money IMHO - I could've shown/told him that for nothing!!!!!

It wouldn't be our choice of school, but as DH is not classed as the PWC we didn't get to choose - but that's a whole other story!

Jo_F

When my daughter was doing cookery, we were asked to provide all the ingredients, plus they asked for 50p to cover extras. This came in useful, when at 10pm one night befre a cookery class we realised that I had no eggs, so she managed to get one from the teacher. It also covered things like spices etc. The sort of stuff that not everyone has at home and for the quantities required didn't justify us all buying.