Things are even worse that I suspected!

thriftybabe

I cannot believe this! My children's school has sent an email out asking us to donate pencils, memory sticks etc as they are desperate. The cuts that have been imposed on the school have lead for them to do this. My husband is furious but I feel we have to oblige. The area we stay is quite an affluent area and to be honest we do not get the Partnership grants etc that I hear some other schools seem to get. Having already donated a large sum to the school funds I fear we will have to do this again.

The thing that gets me mad is that my friend works in a school where there are a 100 kids. They have got everything as the area has a large workforce unemployed. They get all the grants going and are severely over staff. This is the maddening thing.

Has anyone else been asked to donate anything to their child's school?

abaxas

thriftybabe wrote: »

I cannot believe this! My children's school has sent an email out asking us to donate pencils, memory sticks etc as they are desperate. The cuts that have been imposed on the school have lead for them to do this. My husband is furious but I feel we have to oblige. The area we stay is quite an affluent area and to be honest we do not get the Partnership grants etc that I hear some other schools seem to get. Having already donated a large sum to the school funds I fear we will have to do this again.

The thing that gets me mad is that my friend works in a school where there are a 100 kids. They have got everything as the area has a large workforce unemployed. They get all the grants going and are severely over staff. This is the maddening thing.

Has anyone else been asked to donate anything to their child's school?

No school should need outside help, the only reason you are being asked is due to mismanagement. Sad but true.

markharding557

Maybe they should look to cutting their wage bill,most schools spend far too much on admin and sending thousands of letters through the post to parents.
someone is being paid for this and of course the cost of the letters

peterg1965

Maybe the LEA spends far too much on admin, beauracrats, equality and diversity advisors, 5 a day monitors, school dinner monitors, inclusion advisors, outreach workers, general do gooders and other people who have zero value add.

It is disgusting that parents are asked to provide materials for schools. I would be writing to my MP.

thriftybabe

TBH I did not think it was due to mismanagement of funds. I thought it was due to the lack of funds! Crikey it makes me feel sick that my kids are going to a school like that. Not sure what to do.

abaxas

thriftybabe wrote: »

TBH I did not think it was due to mismanagement of funds. I thought it was due to the lack of funds! Crikey it makes me feel sick that my kids are going to a school like that. Not sure what to do.

It ALLWAYS is due to mismanagement. The school down the road doesnt need help, why does this one?

thriftybabe

I am going to ask my neighbour about their school and see what is being asked of them. We have been raising funds for Smart Boards for about a year now and still do not have enough. My cousin who is a teacher was given them by the local area partnership as well as my friend's school.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

The schools budget has not had any cuts. In fact, it has had significant increases over recent years.

If local administrators cannot manage their funds between schools, they should be sacked and replaced with ones that can, rather than expecting parents to contribute twice for something they have already paid for through taxation.

lemonjelly

There are issues around funding within education. However they are endemic problems which have been in existence for decades, & arise out of the highest level management, rather than being focussed in individual establishments imo.

Education has, despite all the rhetoric & political points scoring, been significantly under invested in since the early 80's. Of particular importance, is the failure to upgrade buildings, facilities & resources. Look around at a great number of schools/colleges, & you will see that the buildings at resources that they have to use are not in great condition - some could be argued to be neglected.

The Learning Skills Council was tasked to improve the lot of educational establishments, & at a time when property prices - & therefore builders costs - were at the most expensive, the LSC embarked upon the most abitious rebuilding plan for educational establishments.

Problem was, the LSC didn't seem to employ an accountant, or anyone with a basic grasp of maths. After granting permission for approx 170 exceedingly abitious building projects to go ahead, all of a sudden, they realised that they only had enough money to build 10 or 11 places.

This has created great problems in the education sector - especially where some contracts have even been signed, & some places even started knocking down bits of buildings after the LSC gave the go ahead.

More info on this small section here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8152714.stm

I can recall being taught lessons in portacabins at school in the 80's. The portacabins had been brought in as a temporary measure at the end of the 70's. IIRC we were told at the time they were only intended to last 5 years. I walked past my old school recently, & could see the same portacabins still there.

wymondham

Almost certainly mismanaged. Schools often have apalling management in place in their own safe environment. Our school recently embraced the 21st century with parentmail - doing away with all paper/post correspondence. Unfortunately they still send home letters and use parentmail for fundraising 'spam' only - never had anything useful from this service!

SingleSue

I know I am expected to pay for basic items which used to be provided free when I was at school...exercise books, paints, study books, aprons etc.

All children at the school are expected to also have storage devices for homework and access to a pc.