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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

its only a frigging £1

110 replies

PepperPigsPorkScratchings · 11/09/2011 15:31

a few of the mums think its unreasonable for the school to ask us to pay £1 a week for the children to have some fresh fruit everyday.

am i the only one who thinks you'd be hard pushed to buy fresh fruit for your child for a whole week for under £1?

tight arses

OP posts:
pramsgalore · 11/09/2011 16:22

and our school could not afford a bike shed when the school was being extended, but the staff got a lovely block paved carpark!!!!!!! Angry Shock

troisgarcons · 11/09/2011 16:23

Cake Days.

Now there's another one.

All this healthy eating drive, the fruit, the low sugar no salt no additives - and we have a PTA cake sale ..... please end in your obligatory quid to buy back the sugar laiden additive filled crap you had to send in because they won't sell home made cakes due to H&S and eggy salmonella.

It's relentless twaddle!

Three swears now!

Bunbaker · 11/09/2011 16:24

"and our school could not afford a bike shed when the school was being extended, but the staff got a lovely block paved carpark!!!!!!! "

The council will have paid for that. Our school used PTA funds to provide bike stands - something the council won't pay for.

troisgarcons · 11/09/2011 16:27

Mind you I do like my middle sons school - send them 20 quid at the beginning of the year and we don't get any of this awful dreadful drip drip drip of wanting your pennies. I think most parents would prefer to pay directly into the school fund like that.

arrgh! has anyone had the £3 for materials for the Hindi candle making lady?

pramsgalore · 11/09/2011 16:30

we have cake sales and icecream sales and just before the summer hols they were selling sweets after school and the cakes are made by parents, so we are buying our own cakes back !!!!!!!

Bogeyface · 11/09/2011 17:13

Troisgarcon, I love that idea. I suggested this a couple of years ago, only half jokingly, and the head said it wouldnt be as much fun for the kids!

Let them have a few mufti days throughout the year (paid for from the annual "subscription") and the kids wouldnt care less!

starfishmummy · 11/09/2011 17:14

Its the "voluntary" donations for various things that annoy me as they send reminders if you haven't sent the money quickly enough.

Maisiethemorningsidecat · 11/09/2011 17:16

Trois - if only it were just £20!

We didn't have a quarter of the things that they get at school nowadays and managed to survive the whole school experience unscathed and none the worse for our lack of drumming workshops or bug zoo experiences.

Bogeyface · 11/09/2011 17:17

"This trip may have to be cancelled if there are not enough donations"

In other words, "If we cancel it will be YOUR fault and we are not interested in whether you can afford it or not"

MummyTo2MonkeysAnd1Bug · 11/09/2011 17:20

My daughters are both KS1 and although they get free fruit, parents are asked all the way through the school from reception to yr6 to pay £1 a week per child on a monday.

This is used by the school to cover the majority of the cost of school trips, and extras such as party food at the end of the school year/christmas and easter eggs for the children.
Once the children are above KS1 it also covers fruit costs.

It seems to work very well, for example a recent trip my daughter went on cost us £6 as the majority of the cost was already covered by the contributions made.

If however the £1 a week was purely for fruit i would consider asking if i could simply provide her fruit myself!!

pramsgalore · 11/09/2011 17:25

i wish our school would just stop and think before the endless requests for money and gifts and selling things at the end of the day, which i may add they put at both exits so you are forced to walk past at least one of the stalls.

scottishmummy · 11/09/2011 17:28

it never is only £1,its the ongoing money for this,tins for that
its the habitual pta gurning for donation,time,money accompanied by their inflated sense of worthiness.

no wonder folk feel weary of it

troisgarcons · 11/09/2011 17:32

I will turn this on it's head though .....20 years ago, in the real world i worked with someone on a 6 figure salary (yeah equate that to 20 years ago) who used to gloat that his childrens school policy was if you had 4 children you didnt have to pay anything.

That also used to piss me off royally!

Oh no - 4 swears now !

My big issues are with timings. Teachers get paid 28th monthly and assume the entire world is paid then. A lot of people get paid 30/31st or even 1st of the following month. When you are budgetting, as most of us are these days, I object to that letter home with 'demands' for money when you simply cannot rake up the cash (x3) Two days later and it wouldnt be a problem. I also object to the tone of the letter which tells you quite bluntly 'no £2 no swim' which I think does mark out those on a lower income and really have to account for their pennies.

Frankly, working within the EA and knowing their finances and how things get paid for - any supermarket would fall over themselves to sponsor a primary school and send in fruit ast cost price. Trouble is, the EA will always have preferred suppliers who screw them over.

HappyMummyOfOne · 11/09/2011 17:39

There are always threads on here alone about people moaning when schools dare ask for a contribution that benefits the children be it in the form of fruit, a trip or a fun day out. Its very sad and disheartening.

Those on low income get CB and CTC every month so no excuse to not pay.

Presumably all those moaning about the PTA having the cheek to attempt fundraising dont participate in any way with the PTA.

Hatesponge · 11/09/2011 17:44

Thankfully DS2's school provided free fruit via some kickback from the local supermarket. I would have heartily objected to paying £1 a week for a few slices of apple (they never got a whole piece of fruit, just slices of this and that).

The swimming thing massively pisses me off - it's part of the national curriculum yet at DS's school they only do swimming in Year 5. And we're still expected to pay. Not for transport - they walk there - but for the cost of using the pool.

Oh, and the bloody cake sales -woe betide you if you send a bun in your DC's lunchbox thereby incurring the wrath of the lunchbox police, but at least twice a term you'll be tapped up to send in a selection of cakes & pastries (home made of course) only to have to buy it back at 50p a slice in an after school sale....

pramsgalore · 11/09/2011 17:53

but they don't just ask for money for the kids like fruit, trip or funday, its for some charity over seas or for the elderly

hocuspontas · 11/09/2011 17:54

Still not clear as to why the op is paying for the fruit. Maybe not in the UK or at a private school?

slavetofilofax · 11/09/2011 17:55

It is ridiculous that people would complain about this. It's about providing your child with food that provides them with vital vitamins and minerals, helps boost their immune system, allows their bodies to work at their best because they are not hungry so they can learn better.

Who wouldn't want those things for their child? Confused

I understand that it may be a struggle for some people, but given a child heathy food is a priority, and those people should be grateful that their child gets a piece of fruit every day for the bargain price of a pound a week.

PontyMython · 11/09/2011 17:56

Not read whole thread yet but to me £1 seems overpriced. You can get an apple for about 16p loose in Sainsburys (at least last time I checked) and 5x16p is less than a quid

troisgarcons · 11/09/2011 17:56

I have my office in a school - the canteen was outsourced to an external providor.

50p for 7 grapes. That was the biggest apoplexy I had. I queried it and was told 'if you buy those bags in the supermarket they are the same price'. Well I went and bought one, only to make a point, and waved it under the canteen managers nose - 18 grapes for 35p!!!!

Seriously though - the whole point of FSM is to give a rounded and balanced diet to all children. Some serious questions have to be asked re outsourcing to companies who need to make a profit to survive.

Slate me - but we should perhaps follow the Scots system and do FSM for all - I would happily pay an extra 1/2p a month on my tax to fund that across the board. If only to save me stacking £1 coins on a daily basis Wink

And for the poster who asked ..... my time is free, always willingly given and it's often available - I'm your gal on weekends manning stalls or doing extra curricular things

pramsgalore · 11/09/2011 17:57

bacause schools take the piss and will bug you until you pay up, you have to pay for swimming at our school and you will get asked

BertieBotts · 11/09/2011 18:02

But half a banana or half an apple, 5 times a week? I could buy a pack of 6 whole apples for a pound, or bananas are about 50p for a small bunch. If it was the same price as fruit would cost anyway then fair enough, but it's not!

Bogeyface · 11/09/2011 18:03

Those who say that it is a bargain or that low income families get CB and CTC so have no excuse, I can only assume that you have never had to bring up a family on the breadline. Have you ever tried to feed a family a decent diet, pay for clothes, uniforms and shoes, pay the bills and keep a roof over your head when all of the above consistently add up to more money than you have coming in?

I have, when my husband lost his job because the company he worked for went under owing everyone 6 weeks wages. Trust me when I say that in that case an extra £4 a week on fruit or £6 a week for swimming (I had 4 in school and 3 doing swimming at the time) would not have made things a bit tight, it would have been impossible. We were lucky in that he found another job within a couple of months but some people have no choice but to live like that all the time.

Suggesting that "its only a pound you have no excuse" is not only insulting but shows an amazing lack of awareness of the real lives of those that are less well off than you.

eurochick · 11/09/2011 18:06

Hang on hang on. I don't have kids yet so not sure why I clicked on this thread but is it really the case that you have to send it shop bought cakes for school cake sales???

(I am so shocked it has made me overpunctuate.)

Elf and safety gone mad. I haven't bought a cake in years. We eat them rarely but they are all homemade with good quality ingredients and zero additives. It's really sad that cake sales would have to sell something made by Mr Kipling than my lovely homemade brownies.

GeneralCustardsHardHat · 11/09/2011 18:08

Half an apple? They're fleecing them then. Perhaps they need to source from local suppliers like they do round this area. Dinners and snacks provided by local butchers and farms so really cheap. Failing that offer to provide the weeks apples for them. Usually a couple of lb's of apples is a quid or two from a market!