Have the school done the right thing even though it punishes the wrong set of people ?

Not all of us use WhatsApp regularly - doesnt make us precious. You need an attitude adjustment. Nothing wrong with email - a lot less binging of notifications. I reply to emails efficiently - I might take days to reply to WhatsApp. And by the way I always pay my dues that I have agreed to and I dont need chasing. I receive emails and know what I need to pay.

unlike the removal of the name, that's the perfect example of "if you don't like it, do it yourself".

If you don't agree with the way the rep decided to deal with the VAT, you should have been involved in the process. This is what happens when you leave one person to deal with everything. You cannot complain that you don't agree with the way they actually deal with it.

It's not.

The organiser was a right cow.

And now everyone has useless hoodies and a bitter taste.

I see your point uuuuu and thetrumanshow and it does always irk me buying my secondary school son's school branded sweatshirt in adult sizes and paying VAT, as - rather like a school leavers' hoodie - it's not going to be bought and worn by anyone other than children.

I think the approach of getting everyone to order whatever size they like and paying direct is perfect.

But all of this is making me glad that I'm not doing it!

Well she was factually wrong to try and smooth the VAT across all sizes as kids clothes are exempt from VAT.

So she fucked up the costing and fucked up the resolution.

Was it definitely a parent? Normally the school would organise the goodies.

I can't actually believe an adult would do this.

That’s a shame, we had a google shared spreadsheet which everyone put their size and we specifically asked for how they wanted name to appear. It really wasn’t very difficult. The hardest part was simply getting everyone to do it as there are always a few who you have to handhold through it! Honestly the endless conversations we had about making sure all the kids would be happy. With regards to the yearbook we even went as far to count how many times each child appeared in the photos to make sure no one could accuse us of accidental favouritism and a child would be upset they only featured 5 times vs someone else who featured 10!

i do understand the frustration if one parent was doing it alone. It seems very odd. Lots of people actually wanted to help with the year 6 stuff as it was such a big year.

From the sound of it this parent has form for being controlling and intimidating. If that's well known who would want to volunteer to (attempt to) work closely with her on projects?

How? She bought a child hoodie on which no VAT is chargeable, paid the amount asked for it, then got told she’d have to subsidise the others’ VAT.

Even then, she said she’d need some time to pay.

How’s that being a total nightmare?

This is awful ..particularly as deliberate. My son has never liked or been known as his first name and has been known as another name since reception. No teacher or child has ever called him by his actual first name and all his books / pegs were marked up as the name he likes to be known as. When the year 6 leavers hoodies came out he was devastated as he thought he had been left off. It turned out someone had used his legal first name which was repeated on the hoodie twice as another boy is called that. Obviously someone had a list of “ official names” and it had not been noticed. It was not deliberate but we had a week of tears every evening because people had asked why he wasn’t on the hoodies. He then refused to wear it to school, School were really apologetic and put me in touch with the local printer. In the end I paid to have them overprint his hoodie and squeeze his name into a gap. He was happy to wear the hoodie after that. A genuine mistake but it was so heartbreaking at the time. My heart goes out to the parents and child in this particular instance ….

It could be because one of the parent of a bigger child complained that they were discriminated by having to pay more ?

I don't know. In my local schools, the volunteers deal with the design and the authorisations, but the parents themselves order on the supplier website, so they deal with sizes, VAT, prices. It's easier.
That way, if a parent want to buy a hoodie to wear now, and an adult size to keep as a souvenir for later, they can.

The school is right not to let the hoodies be worn on school property/at school events though. How must that child feel - 2 arguing adults, both unreasonable but a kid left off the jumper.

Well maybe, maybe not. It isn’t clear cut. It was a bulk purchase of hoodies so could be reasonable for everyone to pay the same regardless of who incurred the VAT. Everyone ends up with a hoody that fits their child. It’s unfortunate that the govt taxes those of us with big kids. My kids were 6ft by the time they were 12. The clothing and shoes that I’ve paid VAT on for them over the years is a fucking disgrace. I do think there should be a reclaim scheme for kids like mine. A leavers hoody for a Y6 is only goign to be worn by a kid, regardless of what adult size they need. Thinking back, my kids both had leavers hoodies in adult sizes, but it was organised by the school and everyone paid the same.

I agree @thetrumanshow

see that's the attitude that really annoys me, and it's so common

rather than bow down at her feet at the volunteers brilliance.

as if volunteers, mainly parents with full time jobs, left to deal with all the random crap because they think it's good for kids but no one else can be bothered, have nothing else better to do in their life.

Not only CF do nothing themselves, but abuse or insults those who do.

I know what's pathetic, and it's not the PTA.

And again, if at least 1 other parents had helped, the situation here would have been avoided.

This is a truly cruel thing for the rep to have done. The school are completely right to take action.

The rep is so clearly in the wrong at every step.

Completely agree that the rep should never have deleted the child's name. That is the biggest problem and the reason why the school had no option but to take the stance they have.

I'm also stumped on why anyone would think it okay to pass on a VAT charge that was only incurred on adult sizes to those who were buying child sizes? It's a purchase tax that's to be paid by the person making the relevant purchase.

I know people who volunteer are amazing etc but this is just so typical of that sort of parent. I bet the other parent had the audacity to question something rather than bow down at her feet at the volunteers brilliance. And now the group of fellow PTA queens will have turned on the poor woman too.
These mums usually were bullies at school and can’t wait to get some control back in their kids classmates parents too.
imagine being that pathetic to leave a 10 year old out. Good on the school.

It's not exactly what I meant. There shouldn't be carte blanche, but others should be involved from the start. Once it's done, it's too easy and too late to complain.

If you think they are doing it wrong, do it yourself! Or at least help.

I don't really think the school could do anything else to be honest, it was a shitty thing for her to take the name off even if they were to cancel the child's order over the price difference

How would you force someone to do this?

Probably impossible as if it is the common type, their names get arranged inside the year numbers on the back so there wouldn’t be room to add another name. It took a lot of work to get all the names in and correctly spaced so it looked good.

Yes it is (well it was at my children’s school) a year 6 specific thing. We formed a year 6 committee of 3 per class so 6 in total and we organised the hoodies, yearbooks, collections, and other incidentals. It was a big deal at their school- and It was an awful lot of work (for almost zero thanks, not that I was doing it for that but still!). We did liaise with the school and I think they did sign off the hoodies and the yearbooks before they went to print.

i do understand the frustration if one parent was doing it alone. It seems very odd. Lots of people actually wanted to help with the year 6 stuff as it was such a big year. Doesn’t excuse her taking a name off though as she didn’t have any right to do it. It wasn’t a private enterprise, it was being done for the school.

That’s a nasty human garbage, the rep. Shocking behaviour.

I feel sorry for the teachers having to deal with this kind of drama.