If you are a low income household what kind of help do you want from the PTA?

[WineIsMyMainVice]

I live in a village where the average house sells for above the national average. People also move here because there is a really good school. So there are a lot of ‘well to do’ households. But - I know of families that also struggle….
The school have been without a PTA for a couple of years for various reasons and I’ve joined the newly formed committee. We’ve decided to put together an assistance fund for the funded kids, so that when we put on events they can (anonymously) get a free place etc.
We’re also looking at things like Xmas jumpers etc that could be passed on so that these children aren’t left out.
So my question is, how do we communicate this to those parents/carers that the PTA is here to do that? If you’re in that situation how would you like it to work?
If you were to get a letter from the PTA which is sent out by the school saying that we don’t know who you are but we’re here for you and you can always request a free place at our events etc (I.e only the school office would know), would that work? So the idea is that the parent would contact the office and ask for the Assistance Program to fund their child’s place, and then the PTA would pay it (whatever it is - but not know who it’s for) and that’s that.
Would that work? Or if not does anyone have any better suggestions?
Thanks a lot. This is a cause close to my heart so I just want to make sure it’s done in the best way possible and without causing anyone any embarrassment etc.

If the school is holding Christmas jumper or WBD dressing up events, please let children who need a costume/jumper choose from the PTA stash before the event itself. They will want to come to wearing the costume, not to have to change at school.

@kitkatsky

I think it'd be better as a letter from the school, eg Class 3 are going to the zoo next week and we require a contribution of £x for transport and entry. If you are in receipt of free school meals, the PTA have kindly agreed to find your place if you're unable to afford it. Please contact the office directly to set this up

This

@SE13Mummy

If the school is holding Christmas jumper or WBD dressing up events, please let children who need a costume/jumper choose from the PTA stash before the event itself. They will want to come to wearing the costume, not to have to change at school.

This, absolutely this!

We used to organise good as new toy, equipment and clothes sales. Parents priced up their outgrown clothes and toys themselves, and then we’d hold a sale in the school hall and the sellers would give the PTA a commission. From memory 20% of the selling price. It was quite a good fundraiser and also eco friendly.
Another popular event was a free teddy bears picnic, children brought their favourite bear and families brought their own picnic or snacks. We had lots of completions such as the silliest smile, softest, cuddliest bear etc making sure that everyone got a little prize, like a sticker. But it meant all the families and the children could have a fun and cost free event. We made sure to promote as a non fundraiser.

Have a uniform & Christmas jumper donation bin so anyone can donate old school uniform. The PTA can sell it on dirt cheap at the PTA shop. While it's a good idea to support very low income families, it's important to give them the opportunity to buy something for their child too. My mil was a proud single parent & fiercely independent so wouldn't have accepted assistance. Yet she scrimped and saved so dh wouldn't miss out so a cheap 50p uniform rack would have been welcomed.

Ask the school if you can sell on any lost & unclaimed school uniform in the PTA shop.

Our PTA has a uniform swap at the end of every term. They just put out a big table and everyone brings their outgrown uniform to donate and takes away what they need. It works brilliantly. If they know someone who’s child is about to start reception they’ll invite them too and when DD started I got almost everything she needed from there. She is year 4 now and I still haven’t had to buy her a blazer.

As well as more formal second hand uniform sales, the PTA also leaves a stock of 2nd hand uniform out in the school medical room (clearly any space would do). It's made clear that you are welcome to help yourself to things if you need them for an optional donation (and billed more as a "to tide you over because your child ripped their trousers yesterday and you can't get to the shop for a few days, or "your child has lost their jumper and you are still hoping it might turn up" so clearly some people use it short term, but it's not policed).

It is very annoying that parents always have to be in receipt of free school meals to
Qualify for anything. We were always the family that struggled to pay for school meals and still had to pay for everything else. Low income families that work don't qualify for the support.
Looking back we would have been financially better off not working which is ridiculous. The whole point of tax credits when they were created was to make sure working was beneficial, then they ruined those and it became a mess again ( rant over )

You have to be very confident to cheerily announce you're low income and want the special assistance. I am - but not everyone is. It can feel very shaming.
I would donate an amount to school to add to their PP fund and let the school do the contacting etc.
My school does fund uniform, trips aren't paid for by FSM families. It's not publicised just done unobtrusively. Are you sure your school doesn't do this already.
I got a hamper at Xmas tho. It was lovely. It made me cry cos it also had 1 tube of handcream and some body lotion in. I hadn't treated myself to those in a long time.

Scrap all the dressing up days. It causes problems for most people. Try finding things that parents don't have to buy extras so their children can participate
What happened to sponsored walks, silences etc? (not a competition who raises the most money) wear odd socksto school, a wackiest hair day, an old fashioned jumble sale? Everyone is having a clear out and it's echo friendly
FSM is not an indicator anymore

Really thoughtful of you.

If the PTA have funds getting a stash of nice ‘nativity’ clothes (either donated or buying some) that can be used by a whole class year after year would be great.

Uniform swops/sales at the end of each term so people can pick up what they need for the next term (even better if run on a token scheme so most would buy tokens from the office, but those who need can be quietly given some; no one on the day will know)

A month before book day/ Pudsey day/ Christmas jumper day to have a swop/donate of those too and encouraging school to announce the theme of these early eg if it’s pyjamas/spots for CIN etc so there’s time to collect items needed . If it’s spots and there are funds might be nice to get a stack of white T-shirt’s and fabric pens so kids can do their own (maybe as a lunchtime activity that week)

As an ‘eco drive’ our school did painted noses for Red Nose Day (rather than the plastic ones) which went well.

A very simple thing was at sports day moving from insisting kids bought in a tshirt in their house colour for that day was the PTA buying sashes that can be used year after year.

I guess I take view you don’t always know who is struggling and it’s better to shift the focus to making activities as inclusive and as stress-free for everyone. Some families might be money poor, but plenty of others are time-poor if they have other caring responsibilities etc

With Covid we could do donations online for things and this worked much better I thought, and the amounts coming in were similar. Certainly easier for me with 3 kids trying to find pound coins, and much less anxiety provoking for children who know there isn’t money for a donation watching their classmates hand theirs in and being worried someone will comment that they haven’t done it

Good luck, you sound just the right person to get things set up

@picklemewalnuts

Set up systems so it's not essential to spend on extras- have a jumper swap day, or have spare jumpers in that DC can choose from of they don't have one on the day.

If it's made normal to use those systems, people can do it without shame.

Make the invitation for a trip clear that it isn't compulsory. Letter return by day x. Ask the parents who don't sign up why not and would it be easier if it were cheaper? 'We can cover that from the school fund, if you'd like Johnny to go.'

"We have a system to allow trips to be paid for in instalments. Let us know if that would help" Then don't chase for the payments.

This. So for eg in our old primary bus travel was usually the most expensive part of the trip. So we worked hard to either take public transport (which meant PTA members putting in a shift) or we funded bus hire. That usually brought the cost down so much that the event was affordable for the majority of parents - eg, going into the next town to look at Victorian buildings and go to the free museum costs nothing; panto tickets actually quite cheap for schools once we'd negotiated a deal and paid for the bus.

Agree also that fundraising events should be cheap. We still have lots of things to do for 10p at our Christmas fair. Else you get into a loop of families who are in the middle paying twice - to fundraise for the event then pay for the event.

Finally at one point we had a parent with 4 kids in the school at once. Just totting up how much she'd be expected to pay for any event helped keep some of my wilder ideas in check...

We always talked about school uniform recycling rather than second-hand uniform. It was part of our eco school stuff. Took away any stigma and the kids would get quite into finding a new recycled jumper.

Our school fair games and jumble stalls are cashless. We sell tokens (online) then slip the kids who haven't bought tokens a few freebie tokens. No-one would ever know but that's what happens.

We run an online payments system for the school so nobody has to bring cash to school. Too much hassle. And for school camp when you 'online order' your camp fee you can elect to add $20 or so into the fund to pay for the kids whose families need help to be able to afford for them to go.

Unobtrusive support for all the things that parents have to do for their child to fit in that cost money. Don't make people request help and working families might be really struggling too. School uniform, music lessons, trips, cakes for everyone on birthdays, Christmas jumpers, nativity costumes, school logo on everything, charity dressing up requests, school shoes, branded pe kits etc. Schools put a lot of stress on low income families when a child is going to stand out if the parents can't afford the same as everyone else has.

How about a free book a month for kids who the school receives a PP for. Our local school lets these kids go to the library once a month to pick a book to keep. The PTA could raise funds to buy some extra books!

For things like costume days, I think actually the PTA should be lobbying the school to provide more support/understanding.

So rather than expecting a nativity costume, suggest your child needs to provide a light coloured T shirt and will then make a sparkly headdress and wings at school rather than buying an angel costume. Or for dress up days provide instructions as to how to cobble something together from what you have at home (DC's primary did this and stressed there was absolutely no requirement to buy a costume, so we ended up with children wearing a variety of things).

Often the poorest families are working really long hours to make ends meet, often relying on favours or working back to back to get the kids to school.

So one thing which I think is helpful is if the pta can provide some money to each teacher to reduce the things they need to ask parents for. So that you don’t get a text home asking for baking ingredients on Tuesday, an orange on Friday, an old jam jar on Monday, an apron on Tuesday etc.

Also having spares of things like water bottles, wellies, warm hats and sun hats etc so that it’s not as upsetting for kids when parents forget

I honestly found the constant drip drip of own clothes days, pyjama days, Christmas hamper donations tough from a money viewpoint but also a single working mum with 4 kids and no family, it impacted on being able to do them other necessary things lime homework.

I would have preferred the PTA to just ask for a termly donation from each family and skip most of the events.

School discos and paying to go to school concerts also put a strain on me. None of it was dear of itself but mounted up considerably.

@wildseas

Teachers are busy as well often with their own kids! So I don’t think they should be expected to go shopping for others as this could be weekly and for loads of kids

@OnceuponaRainbow18

I completely agree with that in theory. But what happened in my kids school before the PTA supported with it was that they'd still have to shop for those things for the children whose parents forget/didn't have time / can't afford it and often did it out of their own money.

So having the fund there meant they could just jump online and order what they needed for the whole class rather than faffing about with working out who had what and who needed extras.

My grandchildren's school and nursery provide the vast majority of Nativity costumes built up over the years.Seems very sensible.

Anything which needs to be applied for and is targeting needs to be managed by the school. No parent wants other parents to know their financial situation and no parent should wish to. So the pta needs to liaise with the school and let them manage it.

For anything else, like second hand toys or uniform sales then it should be for all.

Don't forget to register with HMR. to claim back gift aid on regular online donations parents make. Our PTA made an extra £6k per year doing this, they also did the following:

• funded music lessons for low income families because they wouldn't have the opportunity otherwise

• paid for a theatre company to come into school so kids could watch a Christmas panto for free. My old school, you had to pay £15 per child to watch a panto which is v £££ for most families at Christmas.

• made links with local businesses so they advertised in return for cash donations. For eg: local estate agent would pay £10 per advertising board people would display in their garden for a month. Easy £200-£300 pcm.

I also think schools should encourage parents not to buy teacher gifts and contribute instead to a school fund so all children can benefit. My niece's school has asks parents to buy craft items or vouchers for classrooms at Christmas instead. Apparently lots of teachers were spending their own money topping up supplies so this was a way round it. It also highlighted how underfunded schools are that they have to request for basic items.