School seem to think we have a money tree at the bottom of the garden!

gingergee

My daughter has violin lessons, they cost £24 a term. She got them free for first 6 months and the use of a violin. Now i hire one for £4.50 a month, with the option to buy in 6 mth. Her school is a 3 tiered federation and i think its brilliant. They subsidise a lot of things. Just lately the PTA funded a cover for the outdoor pool. Yep us mums and dads prob paid for it really but that means that all my children swim for free all year round!!! Its swings and roundabouts.
Also this school is the only one in the country to have "exmoor curriculum". They get extra qualifications for completing this. Parents helping with schools is good when it A) can be done and B)if its for something to benefit the children long term x

jellyhead

nickj wrote: »

i've got a life , considering i don't know any other pupils in that class , i;m hardly likely to have their mothers as fb friends ,
the school should set a realistic amount per recipe , £5 would be ample .

I've got 1 friend on facebook and another's mobile number - I don't think that constitutes me not having a life

They are kids that my son hangs around with outside of school - sleepovers, trips to alton towers, duke of edinburgh award (it makes sense to car-share when the trips are an hour's drive away) and just to call somebody else's mobile if he doesn't come home from school, because he's too dozy to charge his and I want him to come home for dinner, etc.

I wasn't suggesting that you get to know everyone :eek: Here they do things like cooking in their tutor group, but if it were post-options then they could be in classes with kids they haven't met before, so I see your point there. I probably don't know anyone in most of his options.

The problem with school paying for ingredients is that not everyone pays the teacher back, so the teacher ends up out of pocket. They have tried that before at my son's school, but only once - the teacher didn't make that mistake again. But if they are actually taking the subject for GCSE you'd expect the kids to all take part, so it may be an option at that age.

mountainofdebt

well for all those of you who think that these trips are a jolly for the teachers would you like a free holiday where you are responsible - will get blamed if something goes wrong regardless of what actually happened - for a coach load of teenagers ?

I know I would rather pay for my own holiday,go where i want with whom I want and without 30+ teenagers.

And no I'm not a teacher either

FatVonD

gingergee wrote: »

Also this school is the only one in the country to have...

Yikes! You've just identified which school your child goes to then, might be a good idea to edit?

FatVonD

My own DS has not been on any of the school skiing trips and never will, I just can't afford that amount of money.

I did pay for a trip to the IOW and, while I don't think teachers should pay for themselves, it did nark me when the head teacher then took her (unqualified) husband as one of the other adults.

borderlakland

i was very peeved at having to pay for exam resits for my dd (yr 11) as she and most of class mates failed due to a, now left, teacher actually teaching them the wrong sylabus for the 1st year. now don't get me wrong, if she had failed due to the lack of her own work or lazyness then ok we should pay but when its actually the school/teachers fault then surly they should cough up :mad:

jellyhead

borderlakland wrote: »

i was very peeved at having to pay for exam resits for my dd (yr 11) as she and most of class mates failed due to a, now left, teacher actually teaching them the wrong sylabus for the 1st year. now don't get me wrong, if she had failed due to the lack of her own work or lazyness then ok we should pay but when its actually the school/teachers fault then surly they should cough up :mad:

Hmmm, yes I'd be peeved at that too! Did the whole class have to resit?

We pay £8 per resit here, and I think each subject has around 4 exams so that's a lot of resits. A friend has paid for 5 so far. They like students to get their target grades, so if the target was A and they only got a B then school would offer a resit. I told my son I won't make him resit as long as he gets a C, but I am starting to regret that now because with 3 or 4 exams added together if by some chance he did terribly in the summer exam then higher marks in the previous ones could pull his final grade up to a C, which he needs for college. He doesn't like English as much as he used to and I worry that he might not get a C.

Spendless

jellyhead wrote: »

Hmmm, yes I'd be peeved at that too! Did the whole class have to resit?

We pay £8 per resit here, and I think each subject has around 4 exams so that's a lot of resits. A friend has paid for 5 so far. They like students to get their target grades, so if the target was A and they only got a B then school would offer a resit. I told my son I won't make him resit as long as he gets a C, but I am starting to regret that now because with 3 or 4 exams added together if by some chance he did terribly in the summer exam then higher marks in the previous ones could pull his final grade up to a C, which he needs for college. He doesn't like English as much as he used to and I worry that he might not get a C.

:eek: I'm waaayyyyy out of touch then. I thought it'd be like when I was at school., when you sat an English exam, A maths exam and so on. I only recall foreign languages having more than 1 exam (spoken and paper). Who pays if school wants the student to resit to see if they can get a better grade, you or school?

Dunroamin

Spendless wrote: »

:eek: I'm waaayyyyy out of touch then. I thought it'd be like when I was at school., when you sat an English exam, A maths exam and so on. I only recall foreign languages having more than 1 exam (spoken and paper). Who pays if school wants the student to resit to see if they can get a better grade, you or school?

I think you'll find tha,t when there were fewer exams per subject, t the exams were very much longer than they are these days.

JC9297

A couple of people have questioned the educational value of ski trips, as far as I know schools don't claim there is any, they are just holidays - that's why they are not taken during term-time.