Can a school fair make too much

[Bestbe]

My boys go to a school in a very mixed part of London. It’s not overly affluent and there is a real mix of kids. It’s a 3 form entry school.
The summer fair was last weekend and they have just announced they made £8400.
My reaction was to be appalled. It’s just exploiting parents.
They introduced a no cash policy so you had to buy tokens. But it wasn’t until you got in that you realised that all food and drink had to be paid for with cash. By the end of the fair everyone had tokens over but you couldn’t get them refunded.
The kids had to be involved in the stalls so you had to stay.
At the end there was a massive queue at some stalls because people were trying to get rid of all the spare tokens.
I just feel we’ve been exploited. We all pay taxes so why are we being made to pay again.

[PitterPatterOfBigFeet]

Well surely you're not objecting to the success of the school fair but how they went about it. I don't see why you couldn't have your extra tokens refunded and they should have been clear about what was going to happen in the fair so YANBU. On the other hand I'm sure the money will be very useful for the school.

[InSpaceNooneCanHearYouScream]

Well, for a start I'd be demanding my money back for unused tokens- sounds like extortion to me!

[NewYearNewMe18]

Has to be a primary school? N, R through to Y6 is 8 year groups, 3 classes to a year group, so 24 classes, with approx. 30 pupils in. That's just over a tenner per pupil.

No one made you go, no one made you spend money.

[AveABanana]

Has to be a primary school? N, R through to Y6 is 8 year groups, 3 classes to a year group, so 24 classes, with approx. 30 pupils in. That's just over a tenner per pupil.

I would gladly pay a tenner per child NOT to have to donate X, Y & Z then stand on a stall for an hour and also pay for lunch and spends for the kids.

[TwoBlueShoes]

10 pounds per pupil means a primary school with 840 kids.

How many kids are there in the school, OP?

I’d be shocked toI.

[Alienspaceship]

You sound nuts. You don’t have to go to a school fair you know.
What does the fair pay for? Anyway, seeing as you have such strong opinions I’m sure you’ll be volunteering to run it (so much better) next year.

[Seasawride]

Sorry this really made me laugh op. You are complaining your school PTA made too much money? So too much money to be spent for the benefit of your children.

Jesus Christ. Schools can’t win can they

[RiverTam]

so, food & drink is cash, everything else tokens? All stalls, craft, tombola etc?

I think it sounds fine and the money will be plowed back into the school. God, I’d be thrilled to bits if our school made that much, and they do pretty well.

Do you go to the PTA spending meetings and see how the money is being spent?

[happiestcamper]

We are a teeny tiny school and we raised 2500 at ours so i think thats about right tbh

[poopsqueak]

As long as it's being reinvested in the school I wouldn't mind.

For example our Pta has bought leavers tshirts, a circus to come visit school at the end of the year, paintings for the yard (hopscotch etc), AstroTurf pitch etc.

I think the tokens thing is shit though.

[IsTheRainEverComingBack]

You know this money is for your children at school, right? To give them extra things and opportunities? The PTA aren’t pocketing it! I’ve never heard a parent being upset that a school had made more money to advantage their children

[IsTheRainEverComingBack]

Btw my 1 form entry R-3 school (so about 120 kids) made £3500 at their school fair. Your school seems pretty stingy in comparison

[MyOtherProfile]

That does sound badly run. Seems lile they really didn't explain the system properly.

[ourkidmolly]

Exploited? I don't think you understand the meaning of the word.

[TeenTimesTwo]

I think saying it is all tokens and then discovering that actually food and drink are cash, is poor.

The PTA should have been willing to refund unused tokens under those circumstances.

[GoingRogue]

Token system sounds rubbish.

We are a two form entry infants (180 kids) and make approx £4k per fete, then get it match funded so doubles. Never thought we'd piss parents off by making too much! And we do our level best to spend it asap so parents get to see their child enjoying whatever we've spent it on.

[Pikehau]

Don’t go to the fair

The pta won’t spend this on a night out for themselves......

Your children will benefit

What and odd odd thread

[Pikehau]

Our fair made 5k and my sister told me her dd secondary school make £20k

[OmnishamblesOverHere]

Sounds like poor communication. Have they mentioned where the funds are going - ie. was there a specific item, like tech or learning resources?

[CherryPavlova]

Pales into insignificance when I recall that one of my daughter’s friend’s father raised £19 million for the school they’ve already left.

[Charley50]

@CherryPavlova - not really. That person and school is obviously loaded.

[Dottierichardson]

OP instead of posting here why not write to your MP to protest the appalling underfunding of our education system, this is why schools are so desperate to find other sources of funding.

[hornbeam]

I guess that what the OP is objecting to is that everyone bought plenty of tokens thinking that they needed them to buy food and drinks as well as for stuff on the stalls. When they discovered that they had to pay cash for the food & drink they realised that they had paid for far more tokens than necessary.

Having a no cash policy would be fine, but nobody told them that they didn't need to use tokens for everything so they bought too many.

Either a rip-off or a cock-up. My money is on the second.

[brizzledrizzle]

OP instead of posting here why not write to your MP to protest the appalling underfunding of our education system, this is why schools are so desperate to find other sources of funding.

^ This - with bells on.