If you are comfortably-off and have state educated children, do you donate money to their school?

[LabradorsByTheSea]

A friend, whose business has done extremely well (now a household name) has recently donated money for a beautiful new sensory room at her kids’ state school. They are multi millionaires but will never privately educate as a principle. They’ve got great kids who attend lovely non-selective state schools. And we’ve always sent a fair sized cheque at bonus time to our son’s school, and pay for two spaces on any trips/ residentials.

We’ve got one in private and one in a lovely village school ( he will move to independent for secondary, but DD also attended a prep school so suez had a much costlier education), and it seems fair to give something, considering we could easily afford fees but DS is getting a fantastic, free education. We cannot fault his school, he’s had an amazing experience there. The HT always sends a thank you card and lets us know what the money has been spent on, so I assume it’s appreciated. And it always feels more worthwhile than our respective Oxford colleges who endlessly press us for cash.

I was just wondering how usual this is. And also, weather we should thinking about matching donations to a school in a less affluent area, as DS’s school has a very enterprising PTA, who already pay for great activities and facilities and I’m aware schools just down the road don’t have this. I’m not quite sure how to make an approach about that without sounding patronising or a bit odd.

I don't. I don't donate to anything in the developed world though - all my donations go to developing world charities of various sorts. It just seems ridiculous to make a school in one of the wealthiest (despite Brexit) countries in the world slightly better rather than give some children in the developing world a much better life

I can appreciate that point of view. We’ve always donated to UN relief funds and a couple of charities run by people I know in the country I did VSO. But I worry with other charities about whether the funds are well administered. How do you decide how to donate in the developing world?

We make regular small donations, the amount that is suggested by the school.

Yep donate money fairly regularly and also donate books that my kids have finished with.

If you saw state school budgets you'd see that they are absolutely skint. If you want the school your child is at to have anything vaguely nice, it has to be funded from donations

Yes, we donate and also give huge amounts of time (am on the PTA committee). I am so grateful that my children are essentially getting a free education that friends are paying £££ for...(eldest left last year and is at Cambridge, younger ones do fencing, have rugby and cricket matches vs big public schools (usually lose but that's not the point 🤣), have amazing drama and music, debating competitions, foreign school trips etc etc).

We don’t give big sums like that, but smaller amounts, yes. DD’s primary is a CofE school, so there’s a maintenance fund that you’re meant to contribute to (£40 a year) but this year due to the cost of living crisis they’ve only received about half the contributions required to keep the maintenance fund going. We gave more like £200 as we can afford to donate a bit more. Same with the termly resources contribution for Reception - it’s only £8 but we topped ours up to £50ish to cover a few of the families in DD’s class who won’t/can’t pay.

Schools are in such dire straits at the moment (I know ours is in deficit for the first time ever, along with most other local schools) that it’s good to help out wherever we can. We’ve also donated books and other resources that the school have said they’re short on.

We had a family that donated yearly because they said we were saving them paying for private school as we were educating their children so well. It was usually used for books and there is always something needed and it was much appreciated.

I did at primary. I donated materials that the school needed, especially when they were in "bubbles" during the Covid times and needed extra resources.

I think if we were multi millionaires then yes, if the state school was super special.

I read their reports and the analysis published online. There is a risk of course that some money is wasted but I don't take the view that administration is a bad use of charity funds, some admin is necessary for big impact

I think it’s a lovely thing to do, we give small amounts as cost of living crisis and a disabled son has meant we are a lot poorer than we used to be, but I’ve said to my husband if we ever win the lottery I would keep our children in their school and donate large amounts to enable better SEN provision and extra teachers and trips.

If you fancy donating to a school in a poorer area can I suggest a school in a deprived area out of London - places like Hull or Great Yarmouth for example. They receive a lot less money and often have higher needs than average. You would be like a phenomenal fairy godmother.

Yes. The schools are grateful. And on need. And it’s impactful on your children’s education. Would give more if I could.

Just do what you feel comfortable with.

Yes. Not enough for a sensory room but more than the suggested small amounts. We donated £100 to the school library to buy new books when DS1 left will do similar again for DS2. I always inflate suggested donations when they are small e.g. £5 instead of £1. We can easily afford it and state schools are being crushed by soaring costs and no increase in per pupil funding in real terms. I don't know how they're going to survive.

Always donated to our DC primary and more recently have donated substantial number of books to other less well funded primary schools.

Just to add, it's a good school in a fairly affluent area and I am happy to donate like this but when it came to deciding to be a school governor I chose a school in requires improvement which serves pupils who are extremely disadvantaged and parents mostly not very engaged so rarely become governors. I've done it for years and enjoy it. I consider the gift of my time to be greater than financial help.

You sound lovely. This is a really nice thing to do!

We don't have money for large donations but we always contribute more than the recommended amount to the annual fund and extra when school trips etx are mooted.

Dds dance school is totally amazing and has a huge mix of students so we are currently paying for a other student to attend their annual showcase- which gets expensive. We don't know who and they don't know who is donating but I know the school appreciates it.

If I had MORE money, I wojld donate to other localish schools with less wealthy parents. There's one up the road that I would absolutely love to send money too. If I was rich, I would seek out schools in more deprived areas.

I have never given money but did donate £100s worth of art materials and DD donated most of her books.

I have no dependant children in school. I donate to schools, it's in societies interest to have educated people. My donations are usually called taxes.

I always think schools should have a link to donate on their website. So many would give more if they made it easier to do anonymously.

Yes, in money and in my time. But really I should do the “school down the road” thing, because ours is wall-to-wall barristers and CEOs and could probably manage without me.

Yes - our kids school is quite deprived

Paid for someone's else's residential - this was £££ and school handled it so confidentiality could be maintained

Paid £250 for books for library when they restocked

Offered to pay for travel for trips

Donate to PTA and raffle prizes

We also support with work related items but that is outing

No, because the schools most in need will be the ones who are at the bottom of the financial pile, with parents unable to make donations. It just exacerbates the gap in resources between disadvantaged and more advantaged schools. Unless you are donating to the schools with the highest proportions of children in need.

Plus, I am wary of creating a system where 'big society' (!) pays for schools. It should come from tax and spend.

But also because for me, I am a lot less financially comfortable than I used to be following divorce, illness, and cost of living crisis plus a public sector salary that is less in real terms than it was 12 years ago.