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Original poster

Schools asking for parental contributions

238 replies

ButamIwhoyouthinkIam · 27/01/2026 19:40

I’m sure this one will be divisive and is partly down to personal politics but I’m interested in the consensus.

state funded primary, good catchment, in deficit, like many others.

email last week to suggest a voluntary contribution from parents to cover essential materials, lays out case etc. but already have quite a few requests annually for enrichment and also trips. Has active PTA and most families donate to this through usual calendar of events.

email sets out rising costs of utilities etc and asks parents to plug the gap. I’m not sure this is the right solution for something that is inherently gov funded and it feels like a slippery slope.

IABU: it’s reasonable for schools to ask this and for parents to be happy to pay

YABU: a different option eg lobbying gov or showing the deficit would be more reasonable. Contributing financially allows the funding problem to be hidden

OP posts:
DeftGoldHedgehog · 27/01/2026 21:00

At DDs' school I always contributed to the PTA, both on the committee and financially. I never felt as comfortable contributing to the school.fund as they never published the accounts.

Sausagescanfly · 27/01/2026 20:59

Itsmetheflamingo · 27/01/2026 20:54

Remaining the VAT is worth more than gift aid so probs don’t need the PTA at all

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Doesn't the pta give the money to the school and the school makes the purchase, so can recover vat.

Itsmetheflamingo · 27/01/2026 20:54

Sausagescanfly · 27/01/2026 20:48

I don't think you'd need to involve the pta for that.

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Remaining the VAT is worth more than gift aid so probs don’t need the PTA at all

BeeDavis · 27/01/2026 20:52

If my child’s school asked this of parents I wouldn’t hesitate! Most schools are having their budgets cut and can’t afford materials, pens, pencils etc! Surely there’s something parents can contribute even if it’s not money? I regularly clear out my sons toys/books and donate them to the school if they want them. I also give them bags of art materials, I keep anything that can be used like toilet rolls, plastic lids, cardboard! Everything helps

Honeyandwine · 27/01/2026 20:51

Schools are in massive amounts of debt. You can find this easily enough on the school benchmark site. They do not have the funds anymore and really do need parents help. It isn’t right but it is real.

Sausagescanfly · 27/01/2026 20:48

Itsmetheflamingo · 27/01/2026 19:55

They want to money to make purchases- they say materials etc

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I don't think you'd need to involve the pta for that.

Sausagescanfly · 27/01/2026 20:45

AuntyBulgaria · 27/01/2026 20:00

If they did that I would have thought that they could only fun extra non essential stuff like enrichment activities. Depends on the objects but probably does not fall into a PTA's objects. Schools are often charities themselves eg academy trusts are and many independent schools.

Edited
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There are plenty of ways round that. You can just rejig things. For example, our primary subsidised some trips for pupil premium children. You could get the pta to pay for that and rebadge the pupil premium money for something else.

AffableApple · 27/01/2026 20:38

The birthrate is down since the pandemic. This will happen increasingly as funding is per capita. I'm not sure what the solution is.

DanceMumTaxi · 27/01/2026 20:36

The school I work in gets all the new parents in during July before the kids start in year 7. They give information about starting etc and then give them a direct debit form. Most parents do fill this in and give a monthly contribution. It is run as a charity and school need to ask for funds for certain things. Usually building projects.

Abd80 · 27/01/2026 20:24

Yes I’m asked to pay 70 bucks per child every September. I just pay it as it’s a good cause

Itsmetheflamingo · 27/01/2026 20:21

None of the secondary schools in my area (3 towns) are in deficit

Itsmetheflamingo · 27/01/2026 20:20

My child’s secondary school is rich 😭 in year reserves of £400k and revenue reserve of £5.6m

Itsmetheflamingo · 27/01/2026 20:17

Tiredforfive45 · 27/01/2026 20:15

There is a DfE financial benchmarking tool where you can search for any school’s in year balance and revenue reserve here: https://financial-benchmarking-and-insights-tool.education.gov.uk/

This is amazing thank you! Our school has a small deficit (but a revenue reserve of 8 times that) and spend 86% more than average on support staff and IT!

Tiredforfive45 · 27/01/2026 20:15

There is a DfE financial benchmarking tool where you can search for any school’s in year balance and revenue reserve here: https://financial-benchmarking-and-insights-tool.education.gov.uk/

EmeraldShamrock000 · 27/01/2026 20:14

It used to be standard before Covid.
€5 a month. I wouldn’t mind offering a donation. The school roof is leaking, everyone could throw in a few euros to have it repaired properly instead of patching it up.
There was bake sales before Covid too, I’d imagine they are feeling the pinch.
Most parents would moan if they were asked to contribute.

Jesuismartin · 27/01/2026 20:13

Itsmetheflamingo · 27/01/2026 20:06

The school I was governor of the management accounts showed that they were in deficit due to the repayment of misappropriated SEn funding.

imagine if there are schools asking for contributions when something like that had caused the deficit?

in addition, it would be interesting to see what deficit means- the staff are getting paid, the utilities will be paid. They’re not going to go under. The LA are recharging them costs, they’re not processing the gas bill themselves. It’s fairly “notional” (although yes, they may not have as much as they’d like to spend on equipment)

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Yes I wouldn’t be very impressed with this. Realistically I would probably pay if asked because I wouldn’t want my stance to negatively affect my DC. But I don’t like that it puts people under pressure.

Newyearawaits · 27/01/2026 20:10

ButamIwhoyouthinkIam · 27/01/2026 20:02

And my rough calculation based on a guess at numbers of families and amount suggested is that they are looking for around £10-15k

Is there a suggested amount per child /family?

Itsmetheflamingo · 27/01/2026 20:06

Jesuismartin · 27/01/2026 20:02

You could get some headteachers taking advantage of the situation too. Asking for money where is isn’t needed. On a separate note the teachers presents at our kids school are ridiculous. £200-300 vouchers etc.

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The school I was governor of the management accounts showed that they were in deficit due to the repayment of misappropriated SEn funding.

imagine if there are schools asking for contributions when something like that had caused the deficit?

in addition, it would be interesting to see what deficit means- the staff are getting paid, the utilities will be paid. They’re not going to go under. The LA are recharging them costs, they’re not processing the gas bill themselves. It’s fairly “notional” (although yes, they may not have as much as they’d like to spend on equipment)

MissingSockDetective · 27/01/2026 20:05

Jesuismartin · 27/01/2026 20:02

You could get some headteachers taking advantage of the situation too. Asking for money where is isn’t needed. On a separate note the teachers presents at our kids school are ridiculous. £200-300 vouchers etc.

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Thats generous, I think around here it's a box of chocs or nothing, which is fine. I always try to get the staff in dd's class a little something. I do feel for teachers and ta's though, nothing they do is ever right or enough, there's no money, Ofsted has just got worse and more ridiculous than ever, behaviour is rubbish and when considering the hours worked they probably get even less than minimum wage.

Jesuismartin · 27/01/2026 20:04

MargaretThursday · 27/01/2026 20:03

I thought this was fairly standard now.
I was first asked by one of my dc's schools in 2008 and regularly since then.

How much were you asked for?

MargaretThursday · 27/01/2026 20:03

I thought this was fairly standard now.
I was first asked by one of my dc's schools in 2008 and regularly since then.

Jesuismartin · 27/01/2026 20:02

Itsmetheflamingo · 27/01/2026 20:00

Would they share their management accounts do you think? I think parents have a right to see what the financial situation is if the are going to be told that there isn’t enough money

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You could get some headteachers taking advantage of the situation too. Asking for money where is isn’t needed. On a separate note the teachers presents at our kids school are ridiculous. £200-300 vouchers etc.

MissingSockDetective · 27/01/2026 20:02

Itsmetheflamingo · 27/01/2026 20:00

Would they share their management accounts do you think? I think parents have a right to see what the financial situation is if the are going to be told that there isn’t enough money

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They may well be willing too if allowed to. Pretty sure no normal state schools out there are running with excess budget though. Most are running on the bare minimum.

Original poster
ButamIwhoyouthinkIam · 27/01/2026 20:02

And my rough calculation based on a guess at numbers of families and amount suggested is that they are looking for around £10-15k

OP posts:
Itsmetheflamingo · 27/01/2026 20:00

Newbutoldfather · 27/01/2026 19:58

An increasing number of schools are doing this.

From the schools’, parents and children’s perspectives, this additional contribution can make a huge difference.

However, governments have been starving schools of funds for years, making it almost impossible to balance the budget.

It will massively increase inequality, with schools in wealthy catchment areas being increasingly parentally funded, whereas schools in deprived areas will struggle to provide a basic education.

Would they share their management accounts do you think? I think parents have a right to see what the financial situation is if the are going to be told that there isn’t enough money