Class Reps and non-contributing parents

[JJ2014]

I’ve just started as a class Rep at my kids school. All the parents have paid for the teachers kitty (they pay £25 per kid, and this covers all the teachers gifts for the entire year - Easter/ Xmas/ birthday gifts/ end of year gift) There is one parent who has decided not to pay. Part of me understands, but the other part is annoyed as they should. That means all the rest of us carry her kid. It’s a private school, so it’s not like if can’t be afforded. One of the teachers had an operation this week and so we got her a small get well gift. It was paid for by the kitty. So effectively her kids name was on the getwell card, but his parents didn’t contribute at all, and have no plan of doing so. How is this fair to do this to all the other parents? We can’t go ahead a give a present to them in 4 weeks time and say ‘oh but not little Johnny!’ - snd I would never do that to the poor kid! Clearly a hard conversation to bring up, snd I’m not sure if I can be bothered! I find it selfish that she’s comfortable with the others paying, but not her. But is this normal behaviour of parents, has anyone else come across it?! The parent has also mentioned that she prefers to buy the teachers something just from her and her kids, which while I do understand, it’s going to cost her more than £10 per teacher for the class, and that would then be £20 spent in one go instead of contributing £25 for the entire year.

We do this in my children's class. Not a private school.

It is a fairly wealthy area but last year I felt harassed by the parent collecting money for teachers. It is £10 each. I had just lost my job so was extremely skint and struggling for Xmas. The class rep caught me in the playground and said we are collecting. I did not say I would but she asked me around 4 times and I never had any cash on me or I would have caved. In the end she sent me her bank details and a text asking for the money!! It was just expected I would cough up and I did!
I am going to be tougher this year even though circumstances have changed and we have more money!!

I organised a group collection for the teacher and the amount was left up to everyone. Some parents gave me a pound which was fine. I didn't penalise anyone who didn't /couldn't put it, its entirely up to them .

Why is it singling out a child? By the sounds of it, the children have got nothing to do with the gift anyway, so would have no idea whether their name was on the card or not. And if I were a parent who had elected not to contribute to a communal gift (and perhaps had done my own thing separately), I would be beyond pissed off if some do-gooder parent in the class put in the money supposedly on my behalf (but more likely to make themselves look good).

Fair enough re putting the money in, but I wouldn't have made a song and dance about it simply have put it in and put 'from class 4' end of, if it felt such a big deal that someone HAD to cough up or it wasn't fair. I responding to the OPs wording: " So effectively her kids name was on the getwell card, but his parents didn’t contribute at all, and have no plan of doing so. How is this fair to do this to all the other parents? We can’t go ahead a give a present to them in 4 weeks time and say ‘oh but not little Johnny!’
Anyway like I said, I don't like the whole idea, so I'll leave it to those that do to work out the logistics.

What is job description of a class rep?

I’m glad my dc is at high school now so teacher gifts Are a thing of the past
Your attitude is disgusting, if they don’t want to contribute towards it good for them and the fact that you are on here bitching about carrying them says far more about you than them.

My DD never had a class rep in 7 years of primary school.

Thank God.

Clare4 / thanks for the details. Luckily for me my DT’s have got through schooling without there being a class rep. The parents at their school organised their own gifts if they felt the need and could read the school emails themselves without a reminder from another parent about different dress days. I’d have run a mile from parents social evenings!

Our class rep juggles organising the gifts with full time work and a toddler. Noone else wants to do it and everyone is grateful to her.

Usually there is a heartwarming personal gift (eg book of personal messages from the kids) plus a nice chunk of vouchers. So a bit of both.

I have a teacher friend who once told me that lugging home 30 boxes of chocolates/bottles of wine/personalised mugs etc wasn't much fun so we've taken note of that.

None of mine ever had a class rep, thank God. I can't think of anything more annoying tbh.
I just dropped kids off and picked them up.
Sent the odd thing in if note to request came home, homemade gift if dc liked a particular teacher.
It must be geographical.