Schools expect parents to pay, pay, pay

tiff

There must be at least one person allergic to eggs or milk, doesnt mean you shouldnt have items containing that at the school fair.

Becles

We've had 'bring a bottle' but if you don't want to send alcohol, you can send a bottle of sauce, olive oil, bubble bath etc., or fill an old jam jar with sweets.

jellyhead

yep, i don't think a primary school fayre needs alcohol. there are always a few bottles at ours but they're donated through choice, they're not asked for. i can't imagine school requesting bottles, a lot of KS2 kids walk to school alone, what if they drank it on the way? you can't really get anything bottled cheaply either, unless you got tesco value ketchup.

kazzy

I find the summer fayre always a good excuse to get rid of the bottle of unwanted Liebfraumilch that's been sitting in our cupboard all year LOL!!!.Unfortunately some poor s*d has to win it!! haha evil grin!!

However I do object to the book fayres.They let your child see the books first and then,having fallen in love with a particular book(without you being there),they can reserve it and then come home and pester you for the money to buy it.I don't think that is on.The books are way too expensive.

jellyhead

that kind of tactic for book fairs is definitely not on, i can't believe how many of you say they let your kids see the books!! ours doesn't, it's entirely up to the parent whether we take our kids to view the books and this last one was in world book week so lots of parents just told their kids they were getting one of the £1 world book day books instead. the school still made plenty of commission from the parents that wanted to go see the books.

Sarahsaver

Savvy_Sue wrote:

I would definitely have objected strongly if there'd ever been any suggestion of compulsion to bring in a bottle for an adult tombola. There must be at least one parent in any school with issues of alcohol dependency.

Taking alcohol would be TOTALLY out of the question at our school, most of the kids are muslims.
Anything we take also has to be nut free because of allergy sufferers, but I also leave out the dairy products because one of my son's mates has a milk allergy.

before_hollywood

This kind of thing was starting out when i was at school in the 80's and 90's. Usually it was the usual 50p for non uniform when there was some kind of charity event going on (children in need and comic relief were in their infancy), then there was 'taking in a tin for harvest day', which translated to 'get rid of something we are never going to eat day', where each child had to march up to the front of the assembly hall, tin in hand, which i think was donated to local poor people or something (this was in the 80's after all!!!).
I think that schools can be a bit demanding, but some of the attitudes from parents on here is a bit mean spirited- the people helped by these charities are a lot needier than us after all.
I know, spot the childfree singleton!!!
i don't care, i am not ashamed

Jolaaled

Busybee wrote:

First I want to point out that I am no scrooge. I am however someone on a low budget who prefers to have the freedom of choice to decide for myself where my money goes.

I am sick of my child coming home from school with notes asking for money.

Is every school the same? Are other parents happy to pay,pay,pay?

I was initially thrilled that my eldest had opted to do Art GCSE..until i realised the cost implications: having to buy a comprehensive kit of paints/brushes/A1 art folder etc etc and the lockable carry box, to keep it all in! ..it cost me over sixty pounds, all to be found in the first 3 weeks of the autumn term. ( and i did shop round for the cheapest stuff too). ..and the school gave no warning about this either!!
(I was thankful that my daughter hasn't also chosen to do art. ..but other parents say i'm lucky, as choosing cookery GCSE ( or domestic engineering, or whatever it's called now), would have been even more expensive.)

before_hollywood

sorry to sound tight, but it's your kids education.
a lot of the time, they only get pushed for stuff like that if they are really good at it.

hillside_2

You think its hard now wait until youre child starts secondary school. I also think that if you joined your PTA you could make a valuble contribution. and suggest other ways to raise income or even help. I am tresurer on our PTA We raise over 10,000. It is a very small school and I would say that there is only 10 members. We work very hard and we find that its the same people that are willing to help. But the children have benefited with new playground equipment, computers and we also subdise school coach trips.