Voluntary contribution towards school trips

Janepig

Don't know if the "law" on trips is different in Wales but DD/DS's school never mention the word "voluntary" on trip payment requests. It just says the cost of the trip, no mention of voluntary or contribution or anything. They will sometimes mention if, for instance, they've gone to the Panto at Christmas as a treat and the PTA pay for tickets and parents pay for the bus or vice versa.

Just in the last week or so some payments have come out for schools in Wales (I think it's just confined to Wales) depending on how many children have free school meals in the school. Our school have a huge number of kids, twice as many as any other school in the LEA, in sub-standard accommodation, but we are having next to nothing as there's only a small percentage of children on free school meals in our school. I could fill another thread with my views on this. We already get the fourth least per child budget of any primary school in the LEA (and I think that must be out of about 150).

However, to my knowledge, the school don't badger kids for payments, and on the odd non-uniform, take £1 in day, they don't humiliate the kids who don't take money in. In fairness also to the PTA, they do stirling work with their fundraising, despite the usual suspects whinging and moaning, and provide an awful lot for our children that they wouldn't otherwise be provided with.

Knowing that paying for school trips/extras is something that happens when your child goes to school, surely having a contingency fund of just £1 per week from CB or CTC's isn't rocket science.

Jx

jellyhead

tiggerroo1301 wrote: »

Ada Doom, if you read through my previous posts you will find that, being a teacher and having paid for a child to go on a school trip (not an educational visit, by the way!) and prepared her lunch for her, that I do actually have compassion!

However, would you, as a parent, be prepared to subsidise a child who has been to DLP five times in the last four years, whilst you maybe struggle and budget every month to make sure that your child can go on a school trip, or scrimp and save to afford a Sun holiday so you can take your own children away.

By the way, this is not a comment on the OP but simply a response as the OP has explained her current situation.

From what I gathered (I didn't read through previous posts in other threads though) the OP has had a change in circumstances since DLP was paid for. It could happen to any of us, I suppose.

meer53

jellyhead wrote: »

From what I gathered (I didn't read through previous posts in other threads though) the OP has had a change in circumstances since DLP was paid for. It could happen to any of us, I suppose.

The OP said the DLP trip was paid for by someone else AFAIR. She did say that that she'd saved up the spending money though, i asked if she could have used a little of the spending money for the school trip but didn't get a reply.

You're right it could happen to anyone, but the general consensus was that if you can afford to go to DLP, even if someone else pays, you can afford a school trip. This would have avoided to issue the OP's husband experienced when he spoke to the teacher about the trip.

room512

We let parents pay weekly if they can't afford a trip (even though it's a voluntary contribution!). Most parents are willing to pay but struggle to find all the money at once. Maybe you could offer this as a compromise?

tiggerroo1301

I think the key point is that budgetting is the way forward. The OP did say that her husband was off sick due to an injury and that they were already struggling due to the low sick pay. Obviously she didn't know that there was going to be the Natwest disaster, but the situation might have been lessened if some of the DLP spending money had been held back.

However, hindsight is a wonderful thing!

emsywoo123

emweaver wrote: »

I have not seen the form as DH took her to school so I don't know how much it is

A *whole* thread 6 pages long, and we don't even know how much the trip cost?!

It could have been a pound or a hundred?

becominganobsessivesaver

I think the main thing is that this wasn't the first time, but the third. Unless the school trips were very close together then they would have been before the change in circumstances. As my username states I am a saver (although have had large car loans etc.) I have tried my hardest to make sure we had a buffer, which meant that when my husband was made redundant we could maintain our standard of living (but I did cancel a holiday, as i couldn't justify the spending money). I know that some people spend everything they have (i have close family members who do this), personally I could never do this.

I think it's selfish to expect others who could be living hand to mouth but may (out of pride) pay each and every voluntary contribution, to subsidise a child who is privileged enough to go on numerous holidays to Disney etc. By the way we have just got back from Dlp and a meal in cafe mickey (which the op recommends in the dlp thread - not saying she ate there) cost €60 for a kids meal, 2 pizzas and water! It is very hard to keep spending low there, even a mcdonalds meal is €6! With hindsight if op's husband was injured maybe cutting their losses and cancelling may have been the way forward. Or perhaps the chain of events may make them realise the benefit of a buffer.

Sorry for the self righteous rant. I hope everything got sorted in the end.

Ada_Doom

tiggerroo1301 wrote: »

Ada Doom, if you read through my previous posts you will find that, being a teacher and having paid for a child to go on a school trip (not an educational visit, by the way!) and prepared her lunch for her, that I do actually have compassion!

However, would you, as a parent, be prepared to subsidise a child who has been to DLP five times in the last four years, whilst you maybe struggle and budget every month to make sure that your child can go on a school trip, or scrimp and save to afford a Sun holiday so you can take your own children away.

By the way, this is not a comment on the OP but simply a response as the OP has explained her current situation.

I don't give a stuff how others spend their money or live their lives, but I do care about children being excluded from activities that others enjoy.

jellyhead

Ada_Doom wrote: »

I don't give a stuff how others spend their money or live their lives, but I do care about children being excluded from activities that others enjoy.

Me too, but that's because I was always the pauper in charity shop uniform who was excluded from things because my mum couldn't pay. A video in the hall, for example. I realise that school probably divided the cost by the number of students, but my mum couldn't pay for all of us. Nowadays I am sure that school would allow a mum to pay for 1 child while the others get a sub.

tiggerroo1301

That's lovely to know, Ada Doom. Maybe you would like to pay for some of the children at my school (which is in a VERY deprived area) to go on the trip to France and Spain that has just been announced.

Unfortunately, there are some children at the school whose parents (and this is not stereotyping as I have met them on numerous occasions, and they are quite open about this) who cannot afford to pay for this as it might mean that they would have to smoke less, drink less and not have their weekly cannabis delivery.

Obviously I feel sorry for the kids, but parents need to take some responsibility for the fact that their kids are missing out because of their actions.