Does your STATE school ask for a regular donation?

State school parents are the easy, soft target. School heads have no other option but to ask for money from parents as the Dept of Ed will not give them more. If Tory MPs' children all went to state school in the UK we would not have our state schools in such a mess financially. They would be well supported.

I'm primary £20 every term towards swimming ( never paid was skint). State comp now £50 per annum. £50 quid a month is steep imo. This never happened before, it's a sad sign of the times.

Primary doesn't ask for donations but PTA raises around £5k a year and quite a few companies have donated goods to the school worth a few thousand this year. Lots of parents giving days of their time doing the gardens etc.

London grammar, no suggested donation but is option to but no pressure.

Local comp apparently asks parents for £150 a year per child.

DS2’s HT would never ask for donations. It’s a LA primary in a very mixed catchment. The HT is very aware that many of the families are struggling.

I feel like a really bad person because I don’t give. I hate the letters and I hate feeling like I”m letting my kids down - and that’s what those carefully worded letters all abut what they can do if they get x amount do

I wish they weren’t allowed

Mindhunter - no, you are not a bad person.

Can everyone see what this type of donating does - it makes some parents feel bad, others angry, others pay up. I don't think it should be called donating - rather "being made to donate". I paid some to our school, but certainly not the whole amount requested.

Yes but we're are in One of the poorest funded areas of the country.
Primary school didn't ask but do regular fundraisers, including the schools lottery.

Secondary do ask and we give irregularly when we can afford. Lots of parents just about managing. It's a successful school in a mixed area so of course it's funding has been reduced

What do the schools with very active PTAs do to raise funds? 11+ Mocks raise most of the money here. Plus quiz nights.

I was asked at grammar and comp. Never paid as on minimum wage, 4 kids, single parent I haven’t the money to give. A letter detailing the top 10% then 10-20 then 50 and if you’re the lowest of the low we’d let you off is just horrible.

Faith school
VA (not an academy)
London fringes, mostly comfortable/ wealthy intake but not all
One of the highest progress 8s in the country
£8.80 pcm per family - not compulsory but heavily encourage, I suspect most pay it.

My daughters c of e secondary school asks for £70 a term. I have never given anything as we are barely scraping by as it is so probably makes me a bad person. We do pay for books and class materials though.

Very high achieving Grammar in South East.
£150 per term with direct debit forms posted to parents detailing possible amounts going into low thousands per annum.
Asked for money at every opportunity/school meetings/parent eve etc. Many parents did not pay and said so, as there had been previous financial problems at the school which were not related to government cuts.
PTA raised an additional £30k per year.

Schools are extremely underfunded and I do not blame them for trying to raise funds in any legal way they can. However, I believe raising funds in this way presents state schools with an extra problem. If a parent (as some did at our school) gives low thousands in donations will there not be favouritism towards that family/their children? Will their child be the one asked to leave before year 13 if they achieve a C at end year 12? The idea of free state schooling is that all children are equal. I don't think this was the situation at our school after the extra (non-PTA) donations were encouraged.

As state school parents we are doing the government's job for them by making extra donations. The government alone should be funding schools correctly.

Comp semi rural, 2000 puplis

Voluntary contribution of £75 a year and lots of requests throughout the year eg £10 for technology materials, £10 art materials

Grammar in suburban London here for DC1
£35 per month was the amount requested as voluntary contribution although I suspect it might be higher for lower down the school cohorts now.
Very active PTA that makes lots of money for the school and much of it is used for equipment including mini buses, computers, IT equipment, DT equipment, cameras....You name it, the school PTA seems to have funded it at some point!
I don't know what % of the school budget goes on paying salaries but I have always suspected that they pay 'well over the odds' to attract good teachers (most of whom stay at the school long-term)
Can't recall too many school trips that haven't cost us anything (unless it's ones where just the travel is costed)

Comprehensive in suburban London here for DC2
The £25 voluntary donation is an annual thing
Not very active PTA and can't see that much money is made for the school (max 5% of what DC1's school make annually)
Not many if any trips organised from what we can tell

Some of children come from comfortably off backgrounds (even by London standards) so the school possibly should be asking for more in the way of voluntary contributions.

Primary, CofE, one firm entry.
Central London, mix of incredible wealth and poverty.
VA but linked to London Diocese.

They ask for £80 a term per child.

I don't like the way the money is asked for and I am wary about the way the school spend money.

They have made some short sighted financial decisions which have led to accredited income. They are too linked to a particular church; this church actually takes money from the school for certain things.

I don't like the emotional blackmail style of the letters or the individually named chase-up demands.

Certain areas of the curriculum have money thrown at them and it's a waste-Reading Recovery.

I don't think it's sensible to rely on a variable income streme for essentials.

The school is top-heavy with non teaching management.

DH and I have come to an impasse-if I don't tell the school what I think of their practices we won't pay. If I tell the school he will go with cheque book in hand.

Yes

Grammar in the SE, we're asked for a voluntary contribution of £250 per year.

We're also asked to buy a number of text books (for GCSE) ourselves, otherwise kids will get photocopy handouts rather than textbooks.

The PTA raises just over £10k a year which goes to "extras" that the school can no longer afford - smartboards, contribution towards classroom refurbishment for example.

Given chronic government underfunding, I find it's disappointing that more of our parents don't contribute to the voluntary ask - some parents are actively hostile to even being asked to contribute (HT is not pushy or aggressive in asking). Probably less than half of parents contribute, and whilst I don't know everyone's situation, the overwhelming parent body present themselves as fairly well to do (which matches the tiny FSM% of the school).

Grammar in suburban London
Suggests £50 a month but just a suggestion
Some subjects that are non-core like Mandarin, Japanese or Dance cost £200 a year and held at lunchtime and after school.

Parents and teachers come in and decorate / sand down benches etc twice a year with materials and skips donated by local businesses.

Also Parents can voluntarily over pay for trips to help pay for those who can’t afford it so School doesn’t have to dip into funds.

Funds have paid for toilet refurbishment, books, library system, computers etc. School spends 90% on salaries so budgets very tight.

Grants have been got for a wellness garden etc, so getting these sort of awards also key to a school.

School not a million miles from the OP's

Comp
Stand alone academy
no contributions

Comprehensive academy (has formed it's own small MAT)
The school itself doesn't ask for a donation, but the PTA encourages parents to set up a standing order when they join in year 7 and sends out occasional reminders that this would be a jolly good idea.

There is no "recommended amount" (and they are alarmingly grateful to anyone that actually bothers, which makes me think not that many people do!)

Comp, semi rural, next to massively deprived area of neighbouring city, 25% of pupils come from there.
Rated inadequate, forced to convert to MAT.
No contributions requested.
We do have to pay for all trips/events transport etc,
Fundraising at parents evenings, cake, tea & coffee etc,
Does try to get sponsorship, so sports teams kit sponsored, local coach company provides reduced fees.
We live in one of worst funded LEA's and 100% of secondary's have budget shortfalls, leading to teacher redundancies. Not wealthly enough area to ask for parents to make up for woeful government underfunding, by successive governments, packed with ex private school attendees and present users
That's where problem lies, not asking parents to bloody pay for fundamental right in a 21st century developed country.
For Christ sakes, both our primary and secondary schools raise money to sponsor 3 girls through school in Africa, are you suggesting we should do same for our own kids?

2 different grammar schools here. Affluent area but quite a high proportion of pupils come from neighbouring areas which are more mixed. So overall, kind of a range of incomes.

One school asks for a voluntary contribution of around £20 per month. No idea what the take up is.

Other school doesn't ask for voluntary contribution but does get extra money by demanding (compulsory) payments for things like photocopying (£25 a term).

PTA raise significant amounts at both schools which go on essentials - new books for science dept for instance or musical instruments.