Voluntary contribution towards school trips

jellyhead

balletshoes wrote: »

can I just ask, are the letter for educational/curricular visits supposed to mention voluntary contributions? Its just I have one in front of me for my DD's education centre trip in a couple of weeks time (supporting the class novel thats been a topic this term). Nowhere on the letter does it mention voluntary contribution. It asks if my child will be or won't be attending, if I want to pay the whole amount (£10) at once, or in 2 installments, and asks for my signature.

Our letters don't say voluntary either, they say to speak to the office in confidence if you are experiencing financial difficulty. I assume that the office come to different solutions with different parents - for example I know a mum with 4 at the same school only pays for 1 child to go to the panto and the other 3 are paid for by school (or probably the PTA?).

Janepig

jellyhead wrote: »

Everyone would remember it about me because I was bullied for being poor. The school had a large rural intake, and just a few from the outskirts of the council estate. I was the only girl in PE who didn't have the correct skirt.

So judging by that, letting me in to watch the video in the hall wouldn't have made any difference - I still would have been the pauper. Hmmm .... I still think all kids should be included in the cheap things.

OP mentions 3 trips - are they all in the same year? My 6 year old has only been on 3 trips in the whole of his 3 years at school. A trip per year is probably affordable for most parents. 3 trips a year may not be.

That's horrible. Maybe I'm naive, or maybe there were more children in your position in the schools I went to, but I genuinely don't remember anyone being bullied for being poor. Free school meals in comp were by way of tokens and that didn't appear to me to be something anyone was ashamed of. And in primary I wouldn't have known. I'm not saying there was no bullying, of course there was, we all got into fights over different stuff, but I don't remember anyone being singled out for being poor.

Can't really remember how many trips my two have had this year. DS's trip to the beach was called off last week and they were asking £2 for that to cover the bus. DD's going to the cinema next Thursday to watch Top Cat and that's just under £8. She had a residential afew months ago which was £60 but we had the heads up on that at the start of term and you could pay in instalments. All the children in her year went on that.

balletshoes wrote: »

can I just ask, are the letter for educational/curricular visits supposed to mention voluntary contributions? Its just I have one in front of me for my DD's education centre trip in a couple of weeks time (supporting the class novel thats been a topic this term). Nowhere on the letter does it mention voluntary contribution. It asks if my child will be or won't be attending, if I want to pay the whole amount (£10) at once, or in 2 installments, and asks for my signature.

Same here, never any mention of voluntary, but also no mention of not going if you don't pay.

Jx

tiggerroo1301

The problem with the wording 'voluntary' is that too many people take it literally.

It is fantastic to take students out of school to experience different things but, as pollypenny said, these things cost. If everyone takes the opinion that 'voluntary' means you don't pay a penny, these trips will become fewer and far between as schools just don't have the budgets to pay for everyone to go.

jellyhead

emweaver wrote: »

No I said 2 trips both this month. I paid for the first

Sorry I must have misunderstood. 2 in a month would be a stretch for some families that I know (luckily I have a large age gap between mine, so they will never be on the same trip). What were these trips? Were they both educational?

Janepig

pollypenny wrote: »

In my case, I would have hated it if i couldn't take classes to see the plays we studied. To hear Y8 kids cracking laughing at The Tempest made the job worthwhile and ensured they never say Shakespeare was boring.

Oh lordy, you just reminded me of a trip we did have in comp - we went to the New Theatre in Cardiff to see Macbeth. Yawwwn. I hated Shakespeare with a passion, I might as well have been reading a foreign language (and I like to think I'm not stupid - honest), even the war poems held my interest a teeny bit more, and they were miserably depressing. Maybe if you'd have taught me Pol I'd have enjoyed it!

Jx

Bluemeanie_2

One other I don't get it is, if they do these recreational trips two or three days a year or the like, wy are you made to feel like a serial killer for taking a child out of school for a day for a holiday??! Again just curious!

jellyhead

Janepig wrote: »

That's horrible. Maybe I'm naive, or maybe there were more children in your position in the schools I went to, but I genuinely don't remember anyone being bullied for being poor. Free school meals in comp were by way of tokens and that didn't appear to me to be something anyone was ashamed of. And in primary I wouldn't have known. I'm not saying there was no bullying, of course there was, we all got into fights over different stuff, but I don't remember anyone being singled out for being poor.

I don't remember any bullying before I was 11-ish. I didn't get free meals, but my dad was low paid and my parents had too many children, and the youngest was very prem and very ill so mum couldn't work while he was preschool age. There weren't tax credits back then.

Being honest they were probably bullying me because I was weird, but chose my clothes to laugh at because they didn't know how to laugh at my oddness in other ways. The other girl that I made friends with at that age was also poor but she had special needs, and she was bullied too.

I was either 11 or 12 when I was excluded from the video thing at school, and it was because I hadn't paid the 'school fund'. One of the teachers brought me in later on while it was dark, and hid me at the back with 4 or 5 other paupers.

Janepig

Bluemeanie wrote: »

One other I don't get it is, if they do these recreational trips two or three days a year or the like, wy are you made to feel like a serial killer for taking a child out of school for a day for a holiday??! Again just curious!

Maybe because you've got plenty of non-school days in which to take them? DD/DS's school makes no fuss about term time holidays. Provided you don't take the pi$$, obviously. But as long as they know about it then they certainly don't make you feel like a "serial killer" or anything else.

Jx

becominganobsessivesaver

jellyhead wrote: »

Sorry I must have misunderstood. 2 in a month would be a stretch for some families that I know (luckily I have a large age gap between mine, so they will never be on the same trip). What were these trips? Were they both educational?

Apologies here too. 2 trips in 3 weeks does seem excessive. How much are they costing?

pollypenny

Janepig wrote: »

Oh lordy, you just reminded me of a trip we did have in comp - we went to the New Theatre in Cardiff to see Macbeth. Yawwwn. I hated Shakespeare with a passion, I might as well have been reading a foreign language (and I like to think I'm not stupid - honest), even the war poems held my interest a teeny bit more, and they were miserably depressing. Maybe if you'd have taught me Pol I'd have enjoyed it!

Jx

I wonder if that was the same production as I, and my O-level lot,saw in Llandudno. A carp, static production.

I'd have loved you in my class, Jane fach!