Schools charging & people on benefits!

lilly81

My sons school is in a middle class area but i am one of a handful of parents on benefits. The school applies directly to a charity fund so that we can have free school logoed jumpers.
We also get the trips funded by the council so I guess we are lucky

lilly81

I've just read some really negative comments on here, I would like to point out that we dont have luxuries. My son has Autism so looking after him is a full time job. I would love to go back to work but being up in the night with him makes me too tired to work!
Also some of the working families dont contribute towards school trips and thats what puts the cost up for others :mad:

Fang_3

lilly81 wrote: »

I've just read some really negative comments on here, I would like to point out that we dont have luxuries. My son has Autism so looking after him is a full time job. I would love to go back to work but being up in the night with him makes me too tired to work!
Also some of the working families dont contribute towards school trips and thats what puts the cost up for others :mad:

It is those working families that are paying for your children to go! Not the council.

andyrules

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

£200 doesn't seem a lot for the clothes that a child wears for most of the day and most of the year.

Only if you do get the year - DS's clothes were barely worn during age 12-15 due to his massive (but common) growth spurt. Thankfully the mandatory blazer came in quite late and at that time everything else was available from chain stores. Additionally uniform is notoriously easy to lose during PE, swimming, football etc, and at secondary school naming items rarely helps. It is becoming that uniform is more divisive financially than non-uniform.

However, re the trips - if you really can't afford to send them on the more expensive trips, then don't! It is a good lesson that there is a cost to everything. If the trip is expensive, your child won't be the only one., and primary trips tend to be fairly manageable/subsidised anyway.

Not applying this to all, but I've lost count of the times a parent has told me they can't afford the sweatshirt/trip/PE plimsolls etc whilst handing in a holiday form, very often just informing me that children are at Granny's as Mum and Dad are going away!

lilly81

Fang wrote: »

It is those working families that are paying for your children to go! Not the council.

Thats rubbish! In oxfordshire its the local authority that pays for the children on free school meals to go on the trips, they get this money from the government.

Indie_Kid

lilly81 wrote: »

Thats rubbish! In oxfordshire its the local authority that pays for the children on free school meals to go on the trips, they get this money from the government.

And where does this money come from? Tax payers!

lilly81

sh1305 wrote: »

And where does this money come from? Tax payers!

OK so what would u suggest I do? Make my son miss out on trips with his class mates because I cant work?

demonicangel

I think you all need to come to my girls infant school.

They have uniform but can buy it anywhere, dont need logos.

They do one fund raising thing a year and one trip which costs between £5 and £10. The last fundraising was an Easter Bonnet parade, bring in 50p and you hat to show everyone, to help repair the local church roof!

They dont participate in world book day or any charity events, dont do fetes, raffles etc, dont even have a PTA! (EPPA group just started though but we are not allowed to fund raise, the head wont allow it because the PTA folded, no one wanted to help and parents wouldnt send money in)

And you know why they dont do anything? Because the head wont do it as parents werent helping by sending the money etc.

They have trouble getting £1 a week for snack for foundation stage children (in addition to the free fruit) from some parents.

Its a fab school, but a shame that they dont even do non uniform days (yet the juniors do), although cant complain that we are asked for money every day!

samandona

lilly81 wrote: »

OK so what would u suggest I do? Make my son miss out on trips with his class mates because I cant work?

As many have previously said, yes. THAT IS LIFE. My best friend has recently gone on a luxury 3 week holiday to the Caribbean. Should I phone up the local council and complain that because I can't afford it they should pay for me?

I agree with the person who mentioned the 'sense of entitlement' that seems to be rife in todays society.
I have just finished University (I am yet to graduate) and have found myself with an unplanned pregnancy. My boyfriend works fulltime but has a low income and I have had to find 3 part time jobs so we can pay the bills. I could quite easily claim a whole host of benefits instead of working but I have chosen not to. I felt it hypocritical to start taking from a system and I have never paid into.

When I was at school, there were some trips I went on and some that I didnt. My parents had a rule - if I wanted to go anywhere, they would pay the cost of the trip if I provided the spending money. I never got an "allowance" or pocket money...I had part time jobs. I had no outgoings (as virtually all children under 18 dont) so all the money I earned, I saved. There were plenty of my peers who couldnt afford trips, so they just didnt go. They wernt bullied because theyre parents had less money, nor did they feel hard done by. Why is this now such a difficult pill for some people to swallow?

Indie_Kid

lilly81 wrote: »

OK so what would u suggest I do? Make my son miss out on trips with his class mates because I cant work?

Yes - that's what I had to do if my parents couldn't afford trips.