School Charging £25 for passport applications

4Chickens

Dear All

I have got to get this off my chest.

I have a 13yo son and was called by the school today to pick him up because he has a case of 'man flu' (common cold to us women). Anyway, whilst waiting for him I spotted a notice outside the office saying that the school would be charging parents £25 for countersigning passport photos and applications and they would be donating these funds to the school.

I am insulted on two counts:

1 Passports for children are expensive enough as it is and they only last for five years.
2 How dare they charge for something that is required by law i.e. countersignature by an upstanding member of the community.

Now I support my sons school in alot of ways:

I attend fund raising events
I donate raffle prizes and stuff for their merit shop
I am a responsible and approachable parent and take an active role in my sons education (I don't treat them like they are free childcare providers)

Am I the only one who finds this kind of charge offensive?

If I had the authority to countersign someones passport for them I would do it as a good will gesture and not take advantage of the situation for financial gain.

There you are I've said my bit, whether I'm right or wrong. But I do feel better now.

C_Ronaldo

it doesnt cost anything to do the countersignature, it takes what 5 secs to do it, the cheek

figgy1978

Doctors would also charge for this

hollydays

Very cheeky,I would have thought even £5 would have been over the top,if they feel they had to charge.

StartingAgainKayla70

Bloodey rip off, is all I can say. Even when the doctors charge they dont charge that.

Murtle

£25 is exteremely steep for this - I think my local Doctors charge £10.

iwanttosave_2

I actually think that chaurging a fiver is a good idea, esp as it is going back into the school and not their pockets.

IF you can get your doctor to sign them (Mine wont do it any more) they charge you £10 with goes in their pocket.

£25 is utterly disgraceful.

black-saturn

The middle school signed my eldest daughters passport application for free but the primary school wanted a £20 fee to sign my youngest daughters one. I enquired at the doctors and they wanted £25 so in the end I had to bite the bullet and cough up £20 to the school. It makes the passport application really expensive and it's a nice little tax free earning for 5 minutes work by a teacher.

nej

£25 for the teacher to scribble a signature on the back of a photo? That is ridiculous.

I'm lucky in that I've a friend who is a policeman so he always does it for us.

iwanttosave_2

nej wrote:

£25 for the teacher to scribble a signature on the back of a photo? That is ridiculous.

I'm lucky in that I've a friend who is a policeman so he always does it for us.

I got a guy who owns a Ltd. bussiness to sign mine, the list is massive that you can choose from so its not that hard to find someone to do it for you.


Plus its not just that simple, they have to provide their passport numbers as well as fill out a whole section about them, how long they have known the person and in what capacity and also about the person for who it is intended.

Rikki

My sons old headmaster did his for free. That was over five years ago mind.