Strange school letter

Plans_all_plans

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

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In what way?

I thought I'd heard that the more pupils registered for FSM means that the school gets a better Value Added score in the league tables. That may be something else I'm thinking of though, I'll have a search to see.

balletshoes

but as I said, this is not new legislation.

POPPYOSCAR

adouglasmhor wrote: »

If more schools do this tax will have to go up because the money has to come from somewhere. It's not magic money from the head teachers hat or something.

I would hope that it would be taken from somewhere else, one of the useless other things that IMO tax is wasted on.

I wish we could tick a box on our tax forms stating where we want a proportion of our tax to go.Obviously certain things would have to remain as a constant, but I would lean heavily towards Education and the NHS.

Plans_all_plans

For some reason I can't post links at mo. Go to google, type in CVA and free school meals and go down to the BBC article (3rd down) and it explains that FSM is taken into account when deciding upon the CVA score of the school, which shows up on the league tables.

POPPYOSCAR

ukjoel wrote: »

Exactly my point. Someone the other day was on the radio justifying the cost of something by saying each taxpayer would only pay the cost of a stamp a year to pay for it.

Its all very well saying that times are tough and we need to make sacrifices but it seems to me that the government are saying one thing and doing another.

Yes we do have to make sacrifices. I am having to work longer and will not be able to retire when I had planned.

I just think education is so vitally important to the future of everyone and to society as a whole and more should be spent on it.

elvis86

If I understand the OP correctly, the school are encouraging all qualifying parents to register their kids for free meals, even if they intend to send their children with a packed lunch every day, as the school receives a payment of £488 a year for each child registered, regardless of whether they actually have the lunches?

IMO I'm in agreement with the OP, that seems like a very inefficient way for the system to be run. Surely schools should claim for each free school meal served and be reimbursed accordingly (though obviously this would be open to the same kind of abuse and would need to be regulated somehow).

Regardless of what the school may spend the money on where the lunches aren't taken, if the money was intended for one thing I don't think it's right that the school can decide to spend it on another.

And whilst I appreciate that the money will benefit everyone in the school, why should a school with a high number of kids on free school meals be raking in thousands of pounds more per year to spend on things other than providing free dinners, than a school where most kids don't qualify? The children of taxpayers who work and earn enough to not qualify don't deserve to be short-changed like that.

I'd be tempted to send the letter into a newspaper. I know that others have said that this is common practice, but if the letter is so blatant as to suggest that parents should register just so the school gets the money, I think that would interest a lot of taxpayers..

GobbledyGook

This isn't money that needs to be found. Authorities know how many children in their area should be entitled to free school meals from other records. This money then goes into the budget and then as people claim the free school meals then the schools claim it from the budget. If they don't claim it then it just sits in the pot.

The reason that schools get extra money for children who are entitled to free school meals is to help with things like school trips, sometimes uniforms and other things that ensure children whose family income is low do not miss out, but that the school budget isn't hit either. So things like the coach to swimming lessons and the likes.

POPPYOSCAR

Plans_all_plans wrote: »

For some reason I can't post links at mo. Go to google, type in CVA and free school meals and go down to the BBC article (3rd down) and it explains that FSM is taken into account when deciding upon the CVA score of the school, which shows up on the league tables.

Thanks for that.

This is something I was not aware of.

elvis86

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

I would hope that it would be taken from somewhere else, one of the useless other things that IMO tax is wasted on.

I wish we could tick a box on our tax forms stating where we want a proportion of our tax to go.Obviously certain things would have to remain as a constant, but I would lean heavily towards Education and the NHS.

...and very few people would opt for their tax money to go to defence, or to "unsavoury" services like drug and alcohol rehabilitation, sex offender rehabilitation etc. And yet many of these are vitally important services that do benefit the taxpayer.

Whilst I agree that taxpayers should have more of a say, this simplistic method wouldn't work.

peachyprice

ukjoel wrote: »

J
As a taxpayer and one who has been told that we are not getting a pay rise this year (so effectively getting a cut of 5%) I find this madness.

Its a real struggle to make ends meet and to know that I am now going to be paying more tax as a result of this does my head in.

More of your tax going towards your child's education, how appalling.