why are schools always asking for money!

chnelomi

Not only do i have to pay for 2 kids to attend school trips and fork out for fun days (£1 for most activities some£2:eek:) as well as sponsorship, charity coffee mornings and PTA fund raisers. They even have the brass neck to request a donation per child for a gift for a teachers wedding during the summer, another for a teachers first baby due in the summer as well as donating for a retiring teacher all within 2 weeks. And we don't just get one letter we get 1 then a reminder slipalong with emails, and the teachers ask every morning for the money/sponsor slips etc

Then to top it off we had a news letter asking us to hand in old uniforms to the school as it had been brought to their attention some parents were selling them. well excuse them for trying to avert bankruptcy after donating to the school.:rotfl:

It has got so bad that my daughter told the teacher not to bother giving them to her as she was no longer asking anyone for money.:T:Tthat's my girl:j

bestpud

the_other_mce wrote: »

ceebeeby wrote: »

... I thought there was an option to opt out of all of this hype?

ceebeeby wrote: »

Maybe you could get in touch with your PTA or even think about joining, to find out how you could alleviate some of the costs you seem to be incurring.

It's the PTA that does most of the money grabbing! (school disco entry £3 per child 3/4 times a year), they sell the over-priced sweets, £10 worth of fete raffle tickets sent home with each child, they doubled the price of the mufti day from £1 per child to £2 and then organised more of them. Interestingly I don't see many of the PTA members putting their hands in their pockets - they all seem to let their own kids have free sweets, drinks and free goes on the bouncy castles and attractions at the fetes..... :mad: they say it's because they are giving up their time - to the rest of us parents who are also helping at all these events in our free time:rolleyes:

I'm afraid I sell them if I can and buy what I can afford, and the rest go back to the school unsold.

Saying that though, the PTA subsidise a lot of the trips and events at dd's school and also buy quite a lot of equipment and things they otherwise would not have.

Bettyboop

Well you can be glad you don't have school fees to pay. That on top of buying your books, stationery and your uniforms is very expensive. A lot of children in disadvantaged countries cannot afford to go to school.

My understanding is that one's council tax is meant to help pay the teachers. You have quite a few kids and considering what you are being asked to pay it's not a lot when they are literally taught for free anyway!!!

*Louise*

I don't find the school too bad, there's the odd thing, this month has been £8.50 for DS1's scool trip (£10 spending money) and I have to buy him 4 or 5 new sweatshirts, for next term, but with regards to fundraising, it's not too frequent.

My younger son only started nursery after Easter and I've had to pay 3 sets of 'fund money' (£7.50 a time) already. :rolleyes:

I'm dreading when all 3 are at school lol

mishkanorman

I am a member of my DS's PTA although we are called 'the friends'

Its worth joining so you can see where all the little amounts you are asked for through out the year are spent, the school relies heavily on our contributions and without the friends the school wouldn't be able to offer the children the fun extras that are part of school life, for example in the last few months the friends have provided,

3 new sheds for storing play equipment (which had been provided by the friends the previous year) aswell as extra chairs etc

water bottles for every child so they have fresh water available throughout the day

A school trip for reception and year 1 to a local adventure park set in a forest

A disco for year 2

A poet who visited the year 2 children to help with their SAT's, he gave a 2 day workshop that the kids really benefitted from.

It may seem like money grabbing to most of you but the budget gets stretched tighter and tighter each year and without the continual support the PTA gives these things wouldnt be possible, if you feel that the PTA are taking advantage in certain things then I would suggest requesting a look at the books and see whats been raised and where its spent, or join them and become part of it.


mishka

fernliebee

Bettyboop wrote: »

Well you can be glad you don't have school fees to pay. That on top of buying your books, stationery and your uniforms is very expensive. A lot of children in disadvantaged countries cannot afford to go to school.

My understanding is that one's council tax is meant to help pay the teachers. You have quite a few kids and considering what you are being asked to pay it's not a lot when they are literally taught for free anyway!!!

I can understand your point about being thankful for what we have, I don't see that anyone is moaning about the education (free) side of things.

The point is that some schools have lot's of costly events some of which the school don't actually make any money from. I don't think anyone would have a problem supporting their child's school be it with money/ donations or helping out at events etc, however it is not fair that some schools have lot's of these event's whereas others have very few. Therefore you could be in a situation where your spending out a great deal of money sending your child to one school, but if they went to a different school it wouldn't cost you at all.

Remember you do always have a choice though IME some teachers/ headteachers can put a lot of pressure on, and I have known parents pay for things to take the pressure of their child, as teachers keep asking until they pay- this is so wrong IMO! It's also very hard to say no to things when you feel your child may be left out.

Susan_Frost

How can post 14 say our education is free - thought we all paid through our income tax, council tax, etc. No doubt people who have 3 or 4 children will contribute their fair share as a family when these kids grow up and work and all pay tax themselves.

Nothing is free in this country - where do you think the government get their money from ? How we are luckier than some countries is that these things are spread out over our working life rather than paid literally at the point of take up.

shelovestobuystuff

I also think being asked to buy you own childs artwork is terrible.You should be given that.
I did initially think dd,s school wasnt too bad but actually when I though about it its quite a lot over the year.
This term there was £4.50 to watch a touring theatre co put on a show in the school,£6 towards the school trip,£1 to be able to wear no uniform on red nose day and £1 for the same on some other charity day.
We were asked to send them in white leotards for the xmas play last term,I had to go and buy that at £19.50 and she didnt get it back,it ended up being put away with the schools costumes.
The summer concert it was pink ballet leotard and tights which she already had thank goodness,but yet again the school managed to keep those too.
The tickets for the concert were £1.50 each and there were refreshments and a stall selling some bits the kids had made on sale afterwards too,those were cheap though so I only spent £3.
The xmas fair cost £2 entrance and included tea or coffe but not juice so also had to buy the kids juice on top of the £2 each to get in.Then they of course had to see santa too and tickets for that were £5 each.
There are sponsor forms too through the year,money envelopes,shoe box appeals etc.
The classes do their own little fundraising things too.e.g.book sales which need book donations plus money to buy.You do feel obliged to contribute to the charity things so your child isnt left out.
Having kids is an expensive thing anyway and I do think you get really good value for money for anything you have to fork out for at school.Things like the school trip and touring theatre groups is mainly covered out of school funds and we just pay a token amount.all the other fundraising throughout the year is what pays for the extras.School would be boring without the extras.

bonty44

Exactly; my son's school hardly does any 'extras' so when they do, it's great.

Although I am getting fed up with requests for money that my son doesn't seem to 'directly' benefit from; each family has to pay £30 in September for 'Buildings Fund' then we have just been told that we all need to raise at least £10 in sponsor money for the new building that's been built as they don't have the money for any furniture ... I'd rather raise this money by having a night at the races than getting DS1 to walk around the school field, how boring is that? I might well opt him out of that and think up some different, more exciting things, that he can take part in ... I would sponsor him for a 'sponsored wash the car', 'tidy your bedroom' and 'do the washing up', that would be a lot more exctiing for me!!!

Janepig

shelovestobuystuff wrote: »

We were asked to send them in white leotards for the xmas play last term,I had to go and buy that at £19.50 and she didnt get it back,it ended up being put away with the schools costumes.
The summer concert it was pink ballet leotard and tights which she already had thank goodness,but yet again the school managed to keep those too.

Surely you can ask for them back as it's obviously irked you? I would if it was me.

Most people on this thread sound like my MIL who is always whingeing that the school are asking for more money, and it's not even like she's got to pay it!!! Last year at the sports day, the PTA bought juice for all the children, which I thought was good considering there are 450+ children, but then the headmaster made an announcement to say to the parents that there were tubs of ice-cream for sale in the school afterwards. Ye gods you should have heard her moan about that. I felt like going and buying a box full just to annoy her further.

I've personally got no problem with paying the odd £1 here and there for school discos, pyjama/mufti days, and a couple of quid for the odd school trip. I think the christmas concert is £4 but that's only once a year and well worth it imo. We always get a list from the headteacher to say what they want money towards, usually interactive whiteboards, picnic tables so the children can eat their sandwiches in the yard in the summer, covered shelters for parents to wait in the dry to pick the children up, etc... All stuff the LEA doesn't cover on their budget. And I'm grateful to the PTA for organising the things they do, and they do it well.

Jxx