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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

My ds has created a masterpiece.....

47 replies

VinegarTits · 05/10/2010 12:16

and the school want me to buy it....they have framed it...and are charging me...£6

He is 4, although i think he is a child genius and one day will achieve great things his 'materpieces' look like someone has vomited paint onto paper

and i have a ton of masterpieces he has created collecting dust on top of the kitchen cupbaords

AIBU to think the school are trying to rip me off?

OP posts:

Dylthan · 05/10/2010 13:51

This brings back terrible memories for me.

In the last year of primary school for our young enterprise project we all had to make these stupid cross stich salmon ( the schools emblem) and then they were to be sold at the school fête.

Everyones salmon got sold apart from mine ( granted I can't even describe what mine looked like but it certainly wasn't a salmon)

I still felt hurt that my mum didn't buy it like EVERY one elses mums did.

Not the same I know as your ds is to young to care one way or the other but I felt I had to get that off my chest I think I use mn like therapy sometimes.

NormaSknockers · 05/10/2010 13:53

YANBU

What a bloody daft thing to expect a parent to do.

nannynobnobs · 05/10/2010 14:01

DD's school did this in infants. They gave us a letter about it; the proceeds were to go to the PTA and the 'art' would all be displayed in the hall for the parents to go and see.
I was disappointed TBH :( because they had given all the children a set of the same shapes and made them all assemble the same picture (a flower in a pot). So it wasn't 'her' work at all. I would have happily paid for something that she'd painted as her own choice, even if it had looked like a big purple blob.
I did buy it because Dd would have been really disappointed and it was for the school fund. But I still want to pop it out of the frame and put one of her pictures in!

Skyrg · 05/10/2010 14:46

I don't see why it's their property. Their materials, yes, but they provide those for the use of the child and they are paid for by the parent if privately schooled or the government if not (therefore the parent through taxes). As for their time, it's the child's time. Have you never heard a teacher saying 'it's your time you're wasting!' ?
Unless they made the child sign a contract stating that all creations made on school time and with school materials belongs to the school, the child's work is still the child's property.

AngryPixie's DH had the right idea.

PatriciaHolm · 05/10/2010 14:56

Ours did this last year for a local charity, the frames were donated by a local company so the charity got the full £ spent. Each year did a different theme for the picture -DD's is actually quite pleasant to look at! Most people I know bought them. Don't know what the uptake would be if it hadn't been entirely for charity though.

Anenome · 05/10/2010 15:02

Our school does it too....it's a private school is yours? Ous also does things like have all the kids iMages put into crystal paperweights which you can then buy at 20 quid! Of course....they all bloody want them so you end up buying it! It does go to funds though....and my inlaws loved their paperweight which thoughtfully preseted them with at Christmas!

Anenome · 05/10/2010 15:05

nannynobnobs...ours did that too! 25 generic butterflies cut out of paper! I too would have rather had her own purple blob!

BitOfFun · 06/10/2010 13:13

Framing usually costs a bomb, and you'd be surprised at how good it can make any old shite look- the designers on '60 minute makeover' seem obsessed with framing up pieces of your own wallpaper at the moment , for example. I reckon that you may well end up keeping something of ds' if it's nicely framed, long past the stuff that is under a fridge magnet anyway. I've still got a lovely picture of dd1's from ten years ago on the wall, and it is holding it's own with DP's

Go on, it's six quid for something you'll treasure, and the school could do with the cash. It's one of the few things that they could sell that would interest me. Well, that and enormous carrot cakes

Tippychoocks · 06/10/2010 13:19

My school asked me to buy, for fourteen of your british pounds, a book of poetry that lots of children in our region had contributed to. But as DD and her classmates were 3 the poems were helpfully written by the company involved so they all looked like this with the teachers filling in the blanks:

My name is XXXX and I am XXXXX
I love XXXXXX and playing at XXXXX
My best friends are XXXX and XXX, they're the best they can be
I love XXXXXX it's the favourite food for me.

Bad enough it's such a swizz without the piss poor "poetry".

knitpicker · 06/10/2010 13:24

Our school did this too! It was to raise money for the school garden development. We had to buy the artwork from all 3 of our kids. We hung them up at home and they do look well. All the other million artworks we have are shoved into folders under beds.

TidyBush · 06/10/2010 13:26

This is nothing new TBH. DD's (state) school did this about 10 or 11 years ago as a fund raiser and I bought the painting quite happily (I was a rather militant PTA member then ).

iirc it was a lovely watercolour of an iris but it has now been lovingly shoved on top of a cupboard stored away for posterity.

AngryPixie · 06/10/2010 16:16

My dd painting was awful and framing it did not make it look any better, the teacher was obviously under pressure to produce 30 'self portraits' (reception) and whereas at home she would do eyelashes, eyebrows etc this was a circle with eyes, nose, mouth.

I know my dh was being somewhat glib, but I do think it's a strange thing to do. Are the children asked to donate their artwork to profit the school? Who has ownership of work created during school time? They don't charge us for the work that children bring home at the end of the school year..... yet

On a similar note our year group (y2) produced a recipe book once which was to be sold back to parents, the quality of these books were bloody awful; children writing with poor quality pencils which didn't photocopy well, entirely unedited for spelling, punctuation etc I didn't buy it as it wasn't fit for purpose ie i couldn't read most of the recipes! The teacher was embarrassed by it too, but I think she had quite enough to do trying to cover the curriculum without making something additional at the behest of the PTA

EcoLady · 06/10/2010 16:21

My DC's school do this on alternate years. It's a firm that does all the framing & displaying, takes a cut of the income and the school gets the rest.

Top tip - take the doting grandarents along to the exhibition

DreamTeamGirl · 06/10/2010 16:46

Are people really arguing about whose property it is?
FGS, Its a way to raise funds for the school, either buy it or dont, but to take it away and claim its your property???? Do you take displays down from the school wall too
Sorry but thats just pathetic.

My first ever

Skyrg · 06/10/2010 18:45

I don't think people are talking about storming in and taking it away (with one entertaining exception) it's the idea of being expected to pay for their children's artwork that's the issue, when it'll be sent home anyway.
The discussions about ownership aren't serious. . .

I still think it would be better to charge for entry to the 'museum'. Then the children who's work isn't bought wouldn't feel bad.

mumtoabeautifulbabyboy · 06/10/2010 20:50

It is a really common fundraiser in primary schools. The children at our school enjoy producing art work on proper canvas (which other wise we definitely couldn't afford to supply!) and like going round the 'gallery' looking at their framed art.

There is no problem if the parents don't want to buy it (it's the frame and the canvas that cost), the art work will be sent home unframed (otherwise we have to pay the framing company extra money).

Never had any complaints, school funds don't go on luxuries for the staff but are reinvested in the school!

Sending a child to a state school means that they will provide all the basics and an education but if we as a school community (staff and parents) want to put on the 'extras' for the cildren then we do have to raise funds.

I don't think they're trying to rip you off, just raise funds. Don't buy if you don't want to, no doubt you'll get the picture anyway.

zapostrophe · 06/10/2010 21:06

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

LittleMissHissyFit · 06/10/2010 21:09

You can get great picture/photo frames from these poundshops, and frame your own stuff!

loubielou31 · 06/10/2010 21:19

It is a school fundraiser! They are hoping that you might like to donate some of your money and in return you will get a piece of art by your child that they have framed. Hopefully you will not want your DCs picture to be the only one unsold at the end of the evening and you are therefore guilted into buying it making a donation.

loubielou31 · 06/10/2010 21:20

sorry the crossing out thing didn't work.

LittleMissHissyFit · 06/10/2010 21:26

put the -- either side of each word.

buying it

remove spaces: buying it

AngryPixie · 06/10/2010 22:33

Canvas??? Ours was on plain A4 paper.

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