To be furious by the school's attitude to this

[wotnochocs]

DS school have booked a trip during school day which is going to cost £21 per child.
It is not a trip he even particularly wants to go on, and I certainly don't want to pay for.I have explained to the school that DH is self employed and we are feeling the pinch.The teacher yesterday called out the names ofthe children who haven't paid yet and said if they didn't bring the money in tomorrow they would all be in detention.
I rang the school to complain about this and the HofD defended the teachers actions (!)and said that he would speak to the bursar to see if the school would contribute a third of the cost.I pointed out the fact that legally it was a voluntary contribution not a debt and I want my legal rights respected.i would make a small contribution and didn't expect the school to chase me or DS anymore.he was very put out and hung up.I was completely controlled and polite but firm in my position.
Feel very shakey and upset.Surely that is why the govt made such a law to protect people like us from this kind of crap

Absolutely behind everybody with the voluntary contribution. The last school I worked in was a poor one, and although we ran trips at as little cost as possible, people just couldn't pay. At the organisation stage we always calculated how many children we needed to pay in order for the costs to be met (school would contribute up to 10% of the cost of the trip). If the minimum number didn't pay, we didn't go.

On a lighter note wotnochocs, if the world challenge trip is in 2112, at least you've got 102 years to save up for it...!

Ring the LEA and complain about the school's treatment of you child. That is absolutely disgraceful.

So is the trip is listening to GSCE students readingt their poems?

Or listening to adults reciting poems on the GCSE syllabus?

Either way sounds dire and will prob put him off poetry for life. I wouldn't send him and would write official letter of co plaint to the head, copying it to the LEA and maybe OFSTED.

Thanks for all your helpful replies-glad to know i'm NBU
I think i have made my point to the English HofD know so the ball is in their court-I'll see what happens today.Ds's English teacher is new and actually a very good teacher so I don't really want to make trouble for her.If the mattr drops now I won't go over their heads to the HT/Governors/LEA

It was a very good point about obtaining money by menaces-that is exctly what it is.I will keep that card up my sleeve !

And helping Year 5s
Awful-i'd keep him home for the day, do some interesting activities with him, and again explain to the school why.

'So is the trip is listening to GSCE students readingt their poems?

Or listening to adults reciting poems on the GCSE syllabus?

It's the actual poets (such as John Aagard' reading their poetry.That's why it costs so much I guess.The English dept have just done another trip a few months ago to the theatre to see 'Journeys End' which was very good and helpful fortheir course work.That was £12 ish I think.i paid for that but I can't just keep on paying out and paying out.The school have also stopped funding instrumental lessons for the GCSE music students .When he committed to taking GCSE music at the beginning of Y10 they said they would fund instrumental lessons during Y10 and 11, but after a couple of months changed their minds, got rid of the county music service teacher and brought their own private teacher who charges alot more.So that has been another unexpected expense.
The schools policy on poor students seems to be f**k em.

What tosh. Regardless of anything else how would it be the child's fault if they didn't have the money.

I'd still send an e-mail to the Head, not just the head of department. This needs to be addressed, it's completely unfair for the poorer families to be treated like this.

id be really angry and would complain. if your son dousnt want to go, dont send him and save yourself some money too. id have a word with that teacher face to face aswell

Is it true that the school has to make provision for children not going on an outing and provide some sort of teaching instead?

Last year DD1's school took the children to the "school's" church for a carol service. We're Jewish, I didn't want DD1 to attend. I was told that either she had to go or I'd have to keep her home as there was no provision for children not attending.

I'd like to know my legal position if it happens again this year.

Was the detention threat really for non-payment (which would be unreasonable)? Or was it for non-return of the permission slip (which would be reasonable).

As an aside, how can they ban DCs from term-time jobs? That's madness.

Outrageous! In my children's school, if pupils don't go on residential trips, there is a week of fun and educational activities every day based at school - eg trip to local museum, cartooning, sports activities in local park - all free of charge. I would be hopping mad about this and write to the head and governors.

Non-payment
I suppose they can't legally ban them ,but they sent home a letter to parents and drill the students that they are not allowed and that it will seriously harm their GCSE results and imply it will harm their chances of getting accepted into the 6th form

Well - the OP said that the teacher called out the names of all the children who hadn't paid yet, and said that any who hadn't paid by tomorrow would be in detention, and that the Head defended the teacher's actions - rather than saying that the Head said that the teacher had said nothing of the sort - that made it credible for me.

detention for not making a voluntary payment actually doesn't make any sense as you can not be punished for not making a voluntary contribution - which means the payment isn't voluntary at all

i think schools are going to have to think long and hard about where or what they do with the pupils as some parents will be feeling a good pinch and not be able to fund school outings

That's absolutely disgusting. Even if you did have some sort of financial obligation to the school - which you don't in this instance - the matter would be between you and the school.

How dare they drag kids into it by singling them out in front of the whole class (humiliating, and possibly frightening) and threatening them with a punishment for something which has nothing to do with them ?!

And the Head of Department was bloody unprofessional and rude ! I'd insist on speaking to the Head right away.

We quite frequently say we can't afford school trips, and this has included a residential in one case. We later found the school had put a big markup onto this residential trip (it ended up costing £300 per child for transport 20 miles up the road and two nights in a dormitory in a Local Authority centre of some kind). We discovered they had set up an informal subsidy scheme whereby certain favoured parents who looked poor (but believe me, weren't always as poor as they made out) were going for free, and the other parents were expected to make up the difference. The school was also making a bit of profit on the back end of this 'to cover administration costs' Only this wasn't transparent at all. The school tried sending me a guilt-trip letter but I responded saying we just couldn't afford that kind of money for two nights away, and that was that. I offered to teach him at home for the three school days (I have QTS and experience with the age group) but the head refused permission. My DS ended up dumped with the year below working on his own in the corner for the first day they were all away. He came home in tears. DH then rang the head and for the subsequent two days they actually bothered to teach him.

Schools are not always very fair and honest in their dealings regarding such things, and should stop trying to be travel agents IMO.

Ooh, World challenge... my DS went on a yr 9 world challenge trip within europe for a week - cost was £795; they were urged to fundraise themselves (which isn't easy when you are 13/14, as you are pretty limited to paperrounds, and they are like hens teeth! DD is doing a similar trip this year (also yr 9), also to europe for 1 week - cost is now £1295! OK so it involves a flight rather than a ferry crossing, but trip content is still the same. We have committed to the trip, and she is fundraising by doing bag packs / bun sales / xmas fairs etc - we are in the fortunate position of being able to underwrite her trip if she doesn't raise the full amount, but i appreciate that many other parents won't be able to do this. Whilst I know that these trips are rewarding (DS had a fantastic experience) world challenge seem to have increased their costs massively - I think I read somewhere that they had been taken over, so they might be under more pressure to create larger profits.

I do think such expensive trips are out of reach for lower income families - and yes, this is a state school!

The legal position, by the way, is that if your child does not go on a trip for whatever reason, they have to teach the child in school, even if this means the head having to do it him/herself.

God that's dreadful, Boffin.

Ds's school spend five nights away at an activity centre a couple of hundred miles away, doing abseiling, kayaking and other hideous sounding activities, which costs less than that.

I would add there is no shame in saying you can't afford extras at the moment. Knowing what you can and can't justify in terms of family finance is the sign of a family who takes cash flow seriously.

Well, we priced it up against PGL and it looked pretty poor value.

I thought the head was actually quite spiteful. We don't use that school any more.

£1295 ?!?!

Do you get plenty of notice?

I would not spend £1295 on a school trip even if I were a millionaire.

That is mad money.

Thanks Boffin, I will keep that in mind next time they want to take DD1 to church!