Do you pay for your child to play on a state school sport's team?

tea = team

By the way I do pay an extra £190 per annum for DS1 to be taken to rowing regattas which usually involves multiple trailers for the boats and minibuses for crews as well as trucks to haul the trailers.

Rowing I an extremely expensive sport when all the equipment is taken into account so seems fair but simple tea sports no way I would pay extra.

Refuse!

I pay for my children's education in a private school but am beyond gobsmacked that parents are increasingly 'paying' for elements of state school education and frankly I think it is appalling.

It may very well be the case that if they don't get the money they will not be able to afford to take the kids.

"However, schools' funding has diminished."

This .

The government cuts have affected all areas of school activities and without those contributions the school may not be able to afford to play matches against other schools unless parents help out with transport.

Don't blame the school, blame the government

I'd much rather pay a couple of quid a trip for them to be transported there in the minibus, than have to take time off work and then ferry them around myself.
I suppose it depends how they fund the minibuses otherwise - do you pay and annual contribution to 'school fund'; or take part in a monthly '50:50 Club: ? ; or regularly support PTA events to raise the money for the minibus running costs (and always beginning to start the saving towards the replacement van when this one gets too old) ?
Or do you think it runs on air?

I think it's perfectly reasonable to charge the people who get the most use out of the transport, the cost of running it.

My children's secondary (outstanding academy) does this. I pay for son who does lots of sports but not daughter who doesn't compete in team sports at all. I am grateful for PE staff transporting the children using the school minibus and giving the children the opportunity to compete. I am also grateful not to be asked to transport numerous children to events as we were in primary.
However, our 'outstanding' academy has a reputation for charging for (some) after-school sports clubs, so I am not surprised by them asking for money.
I also know teachers who work there who are unable to print resources due to budgetary restrictions so I know the money issues are 'real'.
All requests are termed 'voluntary' contributions - I do contribute - I am grateful my children have such a good school with committed staff. However, I do match my contributions with how much my children get from the activity, I don't have a bottomless pit of money by any means.

Primary school parents are expected to transport -sometimes the teachers will take some who can't get there any other way but the preference is always for the parents to do it

High school it's £1 voluntary contribution per away game so if they don't play you don't pay
Away matches tend to be about 12 miles for rugby so it won't cover the actual cost of the minibus petrol so i'm not sure why its a pound -but it's much cheaper than me doing a 24 mile round trip so I won't complain

Not my DC school but a nearby school charge a larger amoun per child for sports clubs/teams.

Standard for sports clubs, not okay for a school IMO and ime.

Our state primary does not ask for money, but neither does our state primary provide transportation. SAHPs do all the transporting. Sometimes children of working parents miss out, I notice.

When ds and dd were at secondary school (academy) we paid match fees for away games. Usually £2-3 per match. I guess that probably equates to £10 per term.

I guess my reaction would depend on what other fundraising has been considered. Do they try to raise funds through Sainsbury vouchers? Do the teams perform well enough to look for local sponsors? Are the teams really made up of all abilities, so for some kids this would be their only chance to compete in a team sport, or are the teams made up of those kids who would have the option of playing for clubs?

For most schools salary costs will be around 80-90% of their revenue costs. In September there is an increase in NI costs for schools amounting to over 3% per annum. For a 1,000 pupil secondary school this will be an additional cost of at least £120k a year. The government have told schools that they will receive no additional funding to cover this - they have to meet the costs themselves.

At the same time the number of Government initiatives focussing on certain favoured subjects means Heads look carefully at which areas get the cuts. A recent announcement about new year 7s having to sit the Ebacc subjects means that, for example, our local comp now have to make a MFL compulsory at GCSE for all of our pupils (currently a 70-80% takeup), so have to increase the amount of MFL teaching. Without an increase in the overall budget a non-Ebacc subject is likely to get hit (they've just had to drop 2 non-Ebacc GCSEs this year to manage the above NI cost increase - other schools have to prioritise elsewhere).

If the school is an academy then you can look at their accounts online.

It's voluntary, so you don't have to contribute.

However, schools' funding has diminished. It's probably a choice for the school between having proper equipment to enable PE for all (which they are obliged to provide) or funding coaches to take kids to away matches. Am assuming this is not the whole school taking part in district sports? Coach hire is in fact quite expensive.

A parent not contributing probably won't affect the chance of the child being selected for the team, though.

£10 per term should fund "voluntary contributions" for over six kids for a year, unless they are running cricket and tennis in the winter, or netball and football in the summer.

I have never heard of this.

That is awful.
I suggest that you tell them that they are in competition with the local sports clubs that your DC attend. Your Dc will now need an appearance fee (of £15 per sport per term) to persuade them to favour school over club.

The term 'own goal' springs to mind.