Cruel School?

thebaileys

Hi,

Last week my son's nursery arranged for an outside theatre type group to come in to the school, and put on a show for the children, songs, dancing etc...

Parents were asked to pay £5.00, and were also allowed to watch the show with the children in the school hall.

I noticed that four of the children from the nursery class, were escorted off to another classroom just before the show started.

One of the Grandmothers asked why they weren't watching the show, as one of the children was her friends little one.

We were told they hadn't paid there £5.00 so could not watch the show.

The grandmother paid the £5.00 for her friends child, as she was certain it was a mix up,the little girl is collected by mother/father-the letter asking for the money may have got lost.

I have being thinking about this all weekend. These children are only 3-4 years old, and if there parents do not pay, why should they be punished.

I find it very cruel that they were not allowed to watch.

Does anyone else think this is unfair?

piratefairy

Yes, I do.
I seem to recall that as our school got funding for trips etc, one of the conditions was that they couldn't make any charges for school trips and events compulsory - they would send letters home asking for money, but this was alweays termed "contribution" and not enforced. That said, i'm sure most, if not all of the parents would pay anyway. There was always a note to ask parents who didn't feel they could contribute to contcat the school as well, so they could help them if needed with the costs etc.
My point being that I would say it's unlikely that the school gets no grants or funding at all, which means if i was the parent of the kids involved, I would want to clarify that they didn't have anything like that in place.

ontheroad_2

For an event that has been brought into the school, yes I think thats a bit unfair - as presumably the school has subsidised some of the cost anyway.

We have this a lot (at least twice a year) in my daughters primary school - but its for trips out of school, where the school are subsidising the cost, but parents/guardians have to pay something too, for their child to be able to participate. Like trips to the mosque or temple etc for their religious studies topic, or when they went on a day trip to Eden Camp for their WWII topic.

mikey72

I couldn't do it myself either, but on the other side, is it fair on all the parents who have paid, if the non-payers watch it for free regardless?
I think Ofsted may be the people to contact to clarify it.

Reggie_Rebel

A fiver is a lot to ask for a nursery school child's entertainment.

Running_Horse

Agreed. We both work, but £5 is still a big deal.

xmaslolly76

It does seem mean if there were only 4 children who hadn't/couldn't pay yes i would be a bit miffed if i was subsidising half the class but that seems really cruel to me.

claireac

That does seem very harsh!!! Especially for so few children. As pp said, if it was half the class then maybe, but not for 3/4 children.

sashadesade

This definitely seems unfair to me. I think a lot of people are in the mindset that £5 is pocket change and don't realise that some people simply can't afford to pay that much. It's like punishing the children because their parents are struggling to get by.

slightlyconfused1

I agree that it was wrong if the school wouldn't let 4 tots watch the show because parents hadn't paid.

However it may have been that the parents had decided that they didn't want their child to watch the show.

My eldest ds went to a theatre with his nursery to see one of these shows and had to be taken out because he was really upset by it. Dont know what it was that upset him but for the rest of his childhood he always refused to go and see that type of show even with younger siblings. He was also terrified of clowns so it may have been the costumes/ make up that upset him. If one of the children involved was like my son it may have been a considered decision to not make them sit through it.

angel223_2

..................................