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

Scary, that sounds like hire purchase law in the 1930s. Very dodgy.

If it really was not just about getting permission slips out of bags, then I would be inclined to take this to the governors.

Did you send back the permission slip saying you couldn't afford it?

Scary - that's [hshock]

I've not heard of World Challenge before. It seems quite worthy - but is it a bit like some of those gap year projects that benefit the rich kids who go on them rather than the villagers/orphans/orangutans they're meant to be helping?

S'OK, I http://www.world-challenge.co.uk/home.asp [hsmile]

Bugger. S'OK I Googled

I was stopped from going on a residential trip when I was at school, until one of the teachers who was friends with my mum took her to one side and told her we didn't have to pay the whole cost. With an alcoholic waster of a father and my mum paying all the bills, there was no chance of me being able to go at full cost. My mum ended up paying part of the money as a contribution (and that was more than she could afford as she felt bad) and the school kicked up a fuss. Legally though, they didn't have a leg to stand on and backed down quickly. Thanks go to that teacher who was brave enough to tell my mum the truth.

The teacher in this case, however, is probably seriously misguided rather than anything else, but it was a very cruel thing to do.

Jenai - a good friend DD has just come back from Ecuador - they helped to build a new wall around the orphanage garden (carrying bricks and building materials for the local building volunteers) , and totally revamped the play equipment, sanded it all down, and repainted it.

So certainly benefited where they were volunteering.

I'm never quite convinced by the "poor parents/rich parents" thing. My parents were in dire financial straights, massive debt left right and centre and I applied for a gap year when I finished school. I had to raise £3000 (was for a whole year). I managed it and my parents contributed nothing towards it. I did all sorts of fund-raising stuff - most memorable was a sponsored silence

You haVE to wonder whether the orphans would have benefitted more from being donated all the £4000s than from having their playground equipment sanded down

I'm a primary governor and we have reduced the number of residential trips as a response to the economic crisis. In addition we apply for funding for those who can't afford trips from local funds. Where we can't cover the cost of the trip or the children/parents don't want them to go then an alternative project is provided at school for those children so that they are doing something interesting and special while the other are away. This is the right thing to do and no pupil should be made uncomfortable when it comes to school trips.

wotnochocs - I've seen the photos of before (totally un-usable - and afterwards - they were able to play on it).

and yes of course these trips are for the benfit of the people going as well.

I benefited hugely from my (2 1/2yr ) Gap Year in Zimbabwe. But I also know I gave a lot back.

I know they did other stuff too but I can't remember what - I got rather tipsy on the afternoon when her parents had a housewarming party/welcoming her home party and she went through all her photos and told us

I work for a locally based endowed charity and we guarantee that no child in our local area will miss their year 6 residential trip due to lack of funds. Each year the schools write to us regarding the children whose parents need a contribution.It will be interesting to see how many more there are than usual this year .
We also help towards some secondary trips for example exchanges .We don't fund things like world challenge though

Trips are pricey no as they have to cover the cost of the staff coveringthe staff going. i.e. if 3 staff are gong for a day and missing hours then the trip has to pay for 3 x 5 hours of cover suoervisor time at however much they earn.

Wotnochocs, did ds return the reply slip?

If it's just for non-payment and the slip's returned, that's certainly NOT on, but if it's disorganisation / hasn't bothered to return the reply slip as he doesn't fancy it, then the threat of detention might be legitimate.

A lot of 15 yr old boys don't fancy a trip to see some poets The poetry section makes up 50% of the lit exam and a 25% of the language exam and Poetry Live can directly impact a student's results because the poets and the Chief examiner are there to give their advice.

You could look at it the other way and legitimately complain if a school did not offer activities/trips as a disservice to pupils' education. Schools try very hard not to just cram-to-exam but give the students a broader, enriching experience. The problem is that Arts Council funding is disappearing so there will be fewer visiting theatre groups, for instance, school's music provision is under threat so individual music lessons, which were part subsidised, will increase if the school is to continue to offer them etc etc. So it looks like hard-pressed parents might be asked to contribute more (and increasingly can't pay) or just costed out of the curriculum

The wording of "voluntary contribution" is a requirement by law, but is misleading as you can't exclude a student on the basis of financial hardship, but essentially it is a pay up letter.

If ds doesn't want to go, then alternative provision will be made, although it might be poetry Q&A!

As a governor at a primary school, I do agree with breatheslowly. We don't do many trips that require lots of money, but do take advantage of the local stuff around our area that's free or low cost.

However, the other side of the coin is that, like many other schools, our budget is stretched so thin we just cannot afford to subsise any but the absolutely most needy parents, and each subsidy gets a full discussion at governor meetings. Again, we fall back on suitable free trips related to the curriculum. At least, the kids in our school actually get to do some interesting stuff as the teachers can be quite creative.

We've stopped doing Poetry Live - a couple of years on the trot when we weren't going to get the poets we'd've wanted. Not to mention appalling behaviour by other (natch! ) schools.

Anyway - bringing back a slip saying yay, nay, or 'would love to but can't fund it' isn't a huge ask from a 15 year old - although detention a bit OTT.

Schools do often try to spin this 'compulsory' bit - of course it's not - because the logistics of having maybe one mixed ability group of 30 year 10s off-timetable in school all day is a complete PITA.

That's utterly shit that pupils are having to pay £15 to be given advice from the principal examiner. Talk about a two tier system. All advice (from an official like this) should be made available to ALL candiates.

Quite.
See p 19, para 2.5.4 of this report of teacher criticisms of charges made by exam boards.

www.esmeefairbairn.org.uk/docs/Education-Rep.pdf

I think you're conflating two separate things: training courses for teachers, delivered by 'moonlighting' chief examiners; & advice to candidates.

The Poetry Live examiner talks aren't great. The examiner feedback, both general & on individual papers, however, is freely available & widely used by teachers - I routinely share it with students when discussing their Mocks (the previous years' exam), & other past papers.

It's unlikely that, at a Poetry Live event, the examiner's going to suddenly divulge some electrifying, A* tip that any competent teacher wouldn't have already passed on, tbh.

ravenAK, I have to disagree with you. I'm a senior examiner for Paper 2 and it is often very obvious that pupils have not been taught the best way to approach the question. I think Peter and Tony always give very good advice on PL days that teachers and pupils would do well to heed.

I think she was arguing that the information should not be charged for.

To be strictly fair, they should put this out on YouTube or similar IMO, and tell schools it is there.