Never mind uniform, £120 Y7 invoice before we even start!

inancing education directly. Parents should refuse and force the LEA to argue with the govt, instead of taking the easier option of tapping us for the difference.
And this is exactly why this government have pursued the Academy Agenda so there is no LEA to take action. Just academy trusts and chains many of which are financially dubious.

When I said for parents to refuse, I meant the requests to contribute money each month, which the school would decide how to spend. I wouldn't trust the HT of my local comp. As a parent, I have still bought text books, paid for printing at home, trips, cooking ingredients etc.
I guess I am just pissed off, because I've also had to spend a shit load on private tuition to cover gaps in A level teaching. Just feeling a bit resentful.

My local schools are not academies, so we can still contact the county.
I know it is hard and desperately unfair to be a dept head or class teacher and have a tiny budget, which hinders you from doinf your job as you would wish to. My dc's teacher told him that she literally had no money left, so we have bought books, printed off worksheets etc. But parents don't have infinite resources either and some schools really don't get this, with their constant fund raising drives and instructions to purchase X every five minutes. It is galling if you see money being spent elsewhere, but not directly on the children.

Iwanna I do agree with you though, to an extent. The thing is, as a parent, I wouldn't be willing to gamble on my child's one chance of education - my DTDs have just finished Year 7. We had to pay for a locker, a french workbook and a student planner when we went for the induction evening - that cost us £11 in total. Throughout the year, we've paid out for various other things for DT, for cooking and for textiles, plus art sketchpads, a sewing kit for textiles and the usual pens, calculator and maths set (sometimes dictated by the school, sometimes left up to us) The Head, who has now retired, had a fine line in pretty aggressive newsletters talking about the school budget.

Some of what we've paid out for has been a bit unnecessary IMO, but it would take a very brave parent to say no to everything - and it would take a lot for an entire school of parents to say no to everything, and even more for a lot of schools to do this, before the government took notice. And in the mean time, your DC are in maths with one text book between 4, no printing, no practical lessons etc etc. That's why the govt will never act - parents will keep paying as their DC have one chance at education, and therefore schools will keep asking.

I'm not saying this is right, by the way, but having been in teaching for as long as I have, I can't see the point where parents will be willing to gamble their DC's education for a point of principle, to force the government's hand about school budgets.

force the LEA to argue with the govt

Every single secondary school in my county is an academy. There is no LEA. This is the root of the problem. The school I used to teach in was run by one of the big MATs. The CEO was on a massive salary - he earns more than the Prime Minister. Meanwhile, I was running a department on less that £400 per year, all in.

I would refuse too. My dc's comp is the only one in town - they are oversubscribed and don't need to compete for pupils. They already benefit by being in a middle class area, with parents who are invested in positive outcomes for their dc, who will pay for books and school trips etc and support the school generally. There is no way I'd give them money every month on top of that, for the head to spend on making the reception look pretty, while they have poor resources for the children.

By contrast, the comp in the nearest town (different county), doesn't look quite so pretty but has plenty of IT etc. Different spending priorities.

The more parents are willing to fill gaps caused by budget cuts/poor spending decisions, the more the budget will get cut in future and the more parents will be expected to pay. We will end up paying tax and financing education directly. Parents should refuse and force the LEA to argue with the govt, instead of taking the easier option of tapping us for the difference.

Speaking from experience of being involved in school finances across many schools, there is a real problem here that is frankly being exploited by many schools to extract money from parents. No one disputes that finances in schools are tight but there is a reluctance in too many schools to face up to reality and actually plan to not spend more than they have available. The schools simply see parents as being the easy option to balance their books.
As an example I would give you the comments in the education press today that many schools are saying that even when the government is funding 2.5% of the 3.5% increase for teacher's salary, they will still not be able to make ends meet because when they did their budgets for this year they did not allow for the 1% increase that the DfE said was already in the funding for 2018-19.
The idea that schools did not budget for any increase in staffing, even though they had been told 1% was in the budgets, is frankly bordering on lunacy. They could not seriously believe that there would be no rise for school staff, so they were just ignoring making some difficult decisions and hoping.

I have total sympathy for all school staff wanting and expecting a reasonable pay rise but there is a price to pay for that rise and that is finding the money for it from within the current school budgets. School Leaders and their Governing Boards are completely responsible for setting a budget based on reality not fantasy land. They are culpable in not setting a realistic budget and by not making difficult decisions over the last 18 months are now putting themselves in even more difficulties.
I would not recommend anybody pay anything to schools in terms of voluntary or otherwise payments unless you as a parent feel it is totally appropriate for your child. By that I mean going on a school trip will always be a voluntary donation and most parents will want to pay for this. Just being asked for sums like £65 a month or £1500 a year I would absolutely refuse to pay.

I do wonder if it's something that prospective parents look at when choosing a school. It wouldn't have occurred to me to ask these kind of questions. It all came as a total surprise after primary school. Along with school uniform costs, it could be a major consideration for some families.

We don't have to pay for lockers they are free - we just have to provide a padlock which i got for a fiver on Amazon.

We did get sent a begging direct debit form though with the registration pack after we got her place and a bill for £40 for a bonding day out at an activity centre (which I really wouldn't mind but her primary school did the exact same trip as their leavers day out just 2 weeks ago)!

Yanbu Op. God knows what parents of twins do. I couldn't find that.

The problem is that a tenner here and a tenner there can add up, especially if you have more than one child.
Maybe it wouldn't be as 'annoying' if they worded it differently. Such as minimum voluntary contribution. Don't say its vonultary if you're going to make parents feel like they are in the wrong by not paying for whatever reason. Maybe see about doing more fundraisers for school instead or asking everyone to cough up money that they may not be able to afford. When you are told education is free and then are made to pay what is essentially a monthly/term fee, it's easy to see why people get annoyed. Are parents told upfront about all these expenses? It could make a difference in what schools parents can afford to choose.

LadysFingers - that sounds just like my oldest DS. Would love to never have to do food tech / art / D&t and counting the days of year 9 until he gives them up. Other son about to start year 7 will probably be the opposite!

I don't quibble about the amounts - I suppose most families won't miss the tenner paid for the art sketchbook but that's a saving of £320 per class to the school which must add up for them.

Sad that it's necessary and I am painfully aware that if it squeezes us then it must be a real issue for other families. You don't have to be on free school meals to be not very well off and struggling.

Schools are practically looking down the backs of sofas to try and make their budgets balance.

Buildings budgets are different from other budgets - you can’t just swap in and out of one another.

So far ive had to pay 30 for a team building trip and if we want it 20 pound for a locker and 10 for a bike locker. Undecided on those at moment.

Sounds fairly cheap compared to Every one else though.

Although said school have gone down the online supplier route so what we save in costs not covering overheads in a shop we loose in lack.of availability, delivery fees , long waits for refunds and a stupidly slow turn around time...

#schoolshavenoideahowstressfullthiscrapis

Migril

How would you like it out your kids never did any practical science or food tech or D T, these subjects all require quite a lot of consumable items to run.

My children were very academic, admittedly they loved science; but hated art, DT, woodwork, food tech, materials tech (or whatever they call sewing these days) etc - the bane of their school lives and our's. Both were much happier, when they got to Y10 and could drop all those subjects! DD must have shed her own personal lake of tears over these subjects, which she just could not do and felt a complete failure in them! (Such as when she mucked up the threads in the interlocker!)

ITA with PP that when parents' income is standing still, and they are already facing price rises on things like council tax, fares (on commuter trains in the SE anyway), etc, then its unfair of schools to pass their financial problems onto the hard pressed parents.

The photocopy credit is probably the printing credit. Everything they print out in lessons they pay for. We give ours £5 a year and students top
up after that.

MigGril many schools are part of academy chains now because the government encourages this by paying more per pupil if the academy has 5 or more institutions and over 3000 students.

I do not like academy chains either. But financially they are more valuable than going alone.

IWanaSeeHowItEnds but you’ve missed the point somewhat- as a teacher you will know that each child brings in funding, so in order to attract those students, the school needs to do better than have a good OFSTED if a nearby school has similar. Also with the current demographic dip each pupil is really important so ‘tarting up’ facilities for some (not all as I’m aware some schools are over subscribed) is a vital attraction to get those students through the door.

In addition things like photocopy cards are vital for students who don’t have computers and printers at home (we don’t have a printer for example) so £10-20 in a year could be vital.
School budgets are shocking for the services that a school provides. The building maintenance etc, heating, water, electric, insurance, staffing costs, departmental budgets (which inevitably go over!)

I’m a governer for a successful school but even so, next year projected budgets are in the negative for the first time ever. We have no choice but to now ask for a contribution of £100 from each student in September.

By the way we built new buildings last year worth £700,000 but these came from grants so some of the ‘tarting up’ of schools come from grants and specialist funding applications and not directly from yearly budgets.

Yes one of the reasons why I don't really agree with academy's. But new schools have to be academy's and a falling school has to be taken over by an academy trust.

Although a head of an academy will often be a charge of 3-4 or even more schools in some cases, not just head of one school. The trust then needs all the admin that would have previously been done by the council to be done by them. I don't think it's more cost effective at all.

£10 refundable locker charge and £10 a term contribution if doing cooking or woodwork or metal work - depending on parental circumstances. No ‘voluntary’ contributions to school funds, high street uniforms, assistance available with trips. Our school seems to manage.

EvilTwins
Schools can be a bit free with parents' money, sometimes

Are you kidding?

No, I'm not kidding. Former teacher here. A lot of my colleagues were seriously out of touch with how little money can be available in some households. Many of them were middle class professionals, in dual income families, who had little real life experience of what it is like to not have spare money.
I am well aware that budgets have been cut, but schools cannot reasonably expect to retrieve the loss from parents, who are already paying tax and are being stretched in all directions.

My dc's comp has plenty of money to make reception and public areas of the school look good and to tart up the sports facilities, then says there is no money for photocopying. As a result, I print everything off at home, pay for text books and additional resources. I can't help thinking that the head should reassess their spending priorities and worry less about school areas that the public see but the kids barely use and spend that money on the areas where they actually work!

Maybe if the pay at the top was reduced then the schools wouldn't lack basic supplies

www.tes.com/news/exclusive-top-earning-academy-bosses-revealed
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/12/high-pay-education-university-bosses-leaders-academy-trusts

I think the team building trip will be a great thing if your DC wants to go. I agree with other posters that pupils rarely need to photocopy anything, so you could ask for more details about that.

I'm fairly aghast at some of these voluntary contributions. How do people afford £1500?!

People voted for cuts, we got cuts. That's why schools are in dire financial straits and can barely afford basics.

Lots of schools are now recommending the classwiz which is £20+ as it does so much more than a standard scientific calculator.