Schools asking for parental contributions

Our school has low pupil premium number so funding has to stretch further. I'm more than happy to give £500 a year to the school fund, its less than we'd have spent on a term of lunches at private school. I want my child to have a rich and rounded education and a lot of these experiences come from the school fund.
I also nag my MP a lot about school funding, its possible to do both. I cant sit on the belief funding should be better when my child is in education right now.

I don’t agree with it and I wouldn’t be contributing. This is another example of the massive divide in education - buy a ££££ house in a good catchment, donate to the school and create (what the parents seem to believe) is a semi private type school. It’s not just about money. Yes schools will be getting pupil premium in disadvantaged areas however this is not the same as these contributions. Parents will be expecting to see ‘stuff’ for their contribution (see up thread examples) whilst the pupil premium will still be covering basics eg for everyone to go on a trip.

This is the start of a slippery slope, more and more will be expected, things will be cut in the belief parents will make it up.

Ive always said that the biggest divide in this country is not state vs private but it’s within the state system itself.

In theory, no school should have to rely on donations. They should all be properly funded. In reality this isn’t happening so it’s either contribute or have less money. This is like lots of things in our society though sadly.

I would be delighted to give our school money to help support the children’s learning

I would much rather give a sensible chunk of money than contribute to a bake sale

How will it cost extra? The extra week will have come from somewhere else. They will still be in school the dame number of days.

Contributions to school fund are standard in Catholic schools.

Its not reasonable but it's the reality....

That’s good because that was one of my
concerns.

You could suggest class teachers setting up an Amazon wish list so parents can buy specific items for their kid’s class. If parents are buying the glue sticks, school can pay the electricity bill!

In an ideal world there would be no need but this is the way things are going now.

The more disadvantaged pupils you have on roll, the more ££ you have as a school so they might not need parent top ups as much.

I’d be happy to help. Lobbying takes time; I want my kids to have a good education now. It’s still a lot cheaper than private!

I wouldn’t have an issue for a small contribution towards supplies such as pens and paint etc. I also agree with contributions for trips and enrichment activities.
Parents should not be paying basic utilities bills.
There should be a record of what pta money is spent on.

Also funding doesn’t differentiate for experience so if you are school with lots of upper pay scale teachers vs main scale then the money doesn’t go far.

Oversubscribed doesn’t necessarily mean the roll is full.

The schools in disadvantaged areas will have more pupil premium students, so will be much more likely to be rolling in it and therefore much more money to buy stuff, far above and beyond that of a school in an affluent area with minimal pupil premium children.

My worry is that having contributed. The school will need to justify its spending and communicating this with parents will cost time and money.

Why is it so underfunded?

Funding for schools assumes parents will contribute, but it sounds like this is asking beyond that, is that right?

Is the school full? head count impacts funding.

TBH schools kind of do this with the PTA, our raise a lot. I would pay monthly to help the school succeed. cheaper than private school fees!

We were never actually asked to give money but we were encouraged to provide glue sticks, paper etc for our children in primary school.

It's disgraceful and sad.

Haven't parents always been asked to contribute to school trips/extra curricular? As a child it was "if you dont pay you cant go" but nowadays it seems much more "if you can contribute, please do but no one will be excluded".

I can remember "voluntary" contributions like that when I was at school in the early 2000s. I would often get letters to give to my mum asking for these contributions, which were additional to any trips etc. My mum was a single parent and struggled month to month to make ends meet. I hated the pressure these requests put on her so I stopped giving her the letters.

I valued my education, as did she, but (if my memory serves me right) if everyone paid the contributions the school would have been getting £144,000 from the parents.

I'm a governor and was going to suggest the comparison tool and finding out a bit more about how the school is working to address its financial situation. Our school has been in deficit and there were a number of levers we were able to pull to address some of this and we are now on our way out of deficit.

It's not something we would dream of doing because it does a couple of things. First, it makes poorer families feel bad and not a full part of the school community. Then, word will also get around locally and poorer families will self select out of that school because they will feel like there is financial pressure to contribute, making it less diverse. Finally, it's not a sustainable way of running your school budget. If there is a gaping hole in it the school needs to look very hard their operating model and whether they are also making best use of things like facilities hire.

Of course people are free to donate as much as they like to PTA stuff and we also have an additional way people can do a donation for residentials to support other families, but that's mentioned in passing, once.

I would have rather paid a lump sum at the beginning of each year than go to the Christmas/summer fetes and bake sales etc.

The government should be doing more but in the absence of that, the schools need the help. I would donate. Or you could suggest compiling an Amazon wish list and everyone buying from that for the school. Depends on what they need it for.

It's better to ask than just to take. Obviously richer people can choose state or private education, but it's right that you get the choice, unlike care homes, for example, where they can just take people's houses. It does worry me that one day they'll force rich people to pay for private schools. Not because I'm rich, I'm not, but because state schools should be open to all, and it would cause even more of a divide in society.
I'd prefer to pay any extra money I had for something that's actually useful, rather than pay taxes for things that are actively bad (like some of teh road changes they've made near us, like restrictions on public places etc).

Yes because some can afford it and want to help

Well there you go then. Can use the PTA after all 🤣 I must admit I’m totally confused as to why we are having this discussion, I only suggested they should reclaim the vat