To question school spending £20000 on event space in school car park…

Presumably several people have put a lot of work into this and you aren’t required to donate to it. If you aren’t personally funding it, I would let them crack on. Far more expensive and stupid decisions are made all the time using public money.

Your thoughts on salaries and the roles of the teaching staff are a bit much as you don’t even work in the school and don’t have any involvement in running it. You probably don’t think in this detail about the wages and roles in other institutions that you come across, such as your GP or dentist.

You will inevitably upset people if you criticise the project and it probably isn’t worth the aggro. I would just buy some good reading books for my child and leave them to it.

If the PTA have contributed a large part of the funding for this building they must have explained previously during fundraising campaigns what this money was going towards

The bit about school not affording books but can build this….

it will come from very different sources.
School budgets are often very strictly controlled, with funding raised or awarded for specific reasons.

We have spent money on certain things that might seem non-essential to some onlookers. But that money was awarded for a given reason. We weren’t allowed to change what it was spent on.

Don’t ‘shut’ up but inform yourself properly so you do understand. Go to the PTA meetings and ask questions and put forward your view or ideas. Ask to see the minutes of the meeting where this decision was made, or just talk to the PTA chair. If the question is around how school funds are spent, look at their accounts, if they’re not clear, write to the chair of the board of governors - and ask questions rather than criticise, until you are 100% sure you have got it right.

My questions would be:

• what is the expected payback period? Very few schools make a lot of money through hiring out facilities. The majority that do hire out 3G football pitches. £15/£20 an hour is roughly tha going rate for a classroom near me. It takes a lot to payback £22k plus.
• Due to issues with the car park and lack of secure fencing it doesn’t sound as though it is a safe space for children to use during the day so doesn’t benefit the children whilst at school.
• What size school is it? Rough benchmarks are for a one form entry there is a non reaching Head, teaching Deputy Head with additional time out off the classroom and SENCO role but it does depend on the school. If there are a lot of children requiring additional support I would expect more time out of class for whoever does the SENCO role or the catchment may need more support for children for other reasons.
• A TA should not be covering a class, unless they are an HlLTA or a teacher working as a TA (should be paid at teaching rates) unless it’s an emergency.
• Another question would be what are the other things that a school could spend £22k on? Investment in IT (interactive boards, laptops, iPads, new server), investment in the playground, investment in the buildings etc etc

If you dislike the school that much then move your child?
Im also completely confused by your post. An “event space” or glorified shed does not cost £20k. And do you mean the entire school has 10/15 children? If so then I imagine they are really struggling.
How on earth has a PTA of a school with that small numbers managed to fund a £20k “event space”.
Im a TA in a small Infant school. We are on our knees in terms of money. We are now having to go to consultation for the 3rd year in a row to try to keep our jobs. We have no pens, glue sticks, and lots of other essentials.
In terms of complaining about a library, do you mean actual scheme reading books? If so then a lot of schools follow a phonics scheme which supports fluency so they would need to read each book many times (we read 3x a week at school then send them home). That’s the role of a TA though and not a librarian. If it’s a library book then as long as the child has access to books at home does it really matter if they aren’t changed frequently? It’s a huge task to change ours as they all have to be logged in and out and quite honestly I’m sure the parents would rather I be in class supporting their child than spending an hour sorting out library books.

I understand you are frustrated but you genuinely seem to dislike the school, its location near a road, the PTA and all the staff so why is your child there?

Orange, have a look at the governing board minutes for the last 6 - 12 months. If they aren't published on the website (they don't have to be) the clerk to governors should make them available within a reasonable timescale. It might give you an insight into why this spending was approved. Also into the non-teaching senior leaders. I worked with schools up until last year, and in the current financial situation it's hard to imagine how any small school could afford that.

Even though the PTA has paid for this, the ordering and purchase would still have to be made within the guidance set out in the school's finance policy. That's likely to include using only approved contractors and getting three quotes. I'd expect that governors would have also been consulted with a rational for the spend, and probably that they had to approve which contract to go with. You need to look at their finance policy to check that, but I suggest not spending too much time digging. The board minutes might be enlightening on their own.

@OrangeCrushing - thinking about the PTA ( as their funds raised do not ‘belong’ to the school) and would only show as a donation to the school in the school budget. ( my advice above about benchmarking is linked to school budget and staffing).

Are they a formal PTA, which is registered charity? If so they will also be subject to audit.
They should also have minutes of their decision making. If these show that the committee is in favour of the donation to the school for this purpose then there wouldn't be much you can do, other than join so that you get to be part of the process next time.

https://www.pta.co.uk/running-a-pta/managing-a-pta/pta-committee-roles-and-responsibilities/

YANBU, I’d be livid. I was involved in PTA for years, and we’d never have funded something like that. The space sounds tiny and crap too. Massive waste of money.

I think you’re right to be concerned about the car park and lack of gates if children could easily run into cars. Ignore the condescending wankers on this thread. You’ve every right to ask the school what the plans are, how it benefits the education of the children in the school and how they expect to keep children safe.

Books from home are fine for 'reading for pleasure' books but schools need to follow phonics schemes now from a short list of approved providers and many have specific books e.g. Little Wandle only uses Collins Big Cat.

Is it a proper structure -where I live closeness to traffic would be a big issue for planning -also access, and parking for users. Nearby public transport for users also. Speak to plannin.

If it’s being used for things like Slimming World presumably they will take place in the evening when the car park isn’t as full and the people attending will be adults who I assume can navigate a car park. If the school can hire it out then they will be able to generate income from the space.

There is a massive difference between asking questions and challenging appropriately and being a malicious judgmental gossip however. You are coming across as the latter on this thread, having jumped to wrong conclusions about what PTA money can be used for and refusing to accept that your prejudices about the non teaching senior staff roles are just unfounded.

If you were posting with more of an open mind, I doubt you’d have people responding calling you stupid.

You don’t get to make the decisions - if you want a say then attend PTA meetings and contact the governors of the school. It is really thankless volunteering on committees etc and people are held accountable for funds spent. You waging a personal campaign once the decision has been taken would really frustrate me!

If the school had paid towards this it would come out of their capital budget not their revenue budget which pays for staffing (usually between 70 - 80% of budget) books etc

Governor minutes should be available either on school website or via the office. I am sure this space would have been discussed. Also budgets and staffing.

There is a push for all schools to maximise their income. Funding is dire

Op, firstly I'm not sure what your concerns are. The PTA has purchased an event space or garden room.

Perhaps it is needed as a quiet space for Sen children to be in a calmer setting. Perhaps it will be used for reading practice, or for any other activity when a class needs to split. I can think of lots of reasons why a school would benefit from an extra space.

If it is also a long term revenue earning asset, and space for the local yoga group, WI etc, then that's a bonus. At £20,000 they have obviously saved up for it for a specific purpose. Have you asked what their plan is, rather than just assuming they want to raise money for an extra manager.

If the school is short of funds, I think it much more likely revenues will go towards teachers pensions.

Reading books are easy to come by. Send out a plea on Facebook for childrens books, and you will be inundated with books children have grown out of. All our books went to the primary school library.

Where I work is small with very little non-teaching SLT and it is very difficult as a class teacher. I'd much rather I was supported by senior staff who weren't teaching their own class full time too. It has huge implications for the leadership and behaviour management of a school. It's difficult to appreciate from the outside how much schools are dealing with, mainly in terms of safeguarding, that takes up so many hours. If that is left to class teachers to sort in a couple of hours at the start and end of the day and over lunch it is incredibly difficult. As has been pointed out though, that is completely separate to PTA funding anyway.