charging for school disco's, wwyd?

[charity2]

Tickets for the primary school disco are charged at £3 each. Approx £2.00 of that covers the drink, snack and dj costs for each child and the other £1 is profit for the school.

I am thinking that bearing in mind that £1 from each ticket is profit towards the school then the charge for tickets should be £3 for your 1st child and £2 for each additional child. I know it seems petty but there are many parents with more than 1 child and I think its a bit unfair to profit more than once from the same parents.

I am helping to organise this and want to suggest it but not sure how everyone will feel. I know that many people are struggling at the moment and to save £1 might not seem like much but for those with 3-4 children it all adds up.

No-one's forced to go are they?

No, of course not. Thats not really a helpful reply though is it. We are talking about primary school aged children here trying to have fun and parents financially struggling at the moment. Saying that they arent forced to go is an obvious, unhelpful, pointless comment.

At DS's school, it is £1 entry, £1 per hot dog, 50p per drink.

You don't tend to get discounts for having multiple children for things. I imagine that parents expect to pay the full whack for multiple children. Also depends on how much of a fundraider your want the disco to be - if you don't make money on siblings and you have a few less children than usual you may end up not making anything at all. If you're considering the disco as more of a fun event then I guess it matters less if you reduce costs.

(DS's school disco is only £1.50 and the school's main fundraiser so I am thinking your disco sounds very expensive anyway and maybe you should look at reducing the core price).

Ours pay £1.50 each or £3.00 per family (so 2 kids pay the same but more get discount...) ....but have to take their own tuck shop money....

Who do you think pays the caretakers salary to stay late and lock up?
Who pays the cleaners?
Who pays the electricity bill?

red, I dont see it as a discount for multiple children, I see it more as only profiting once from each set of parents. Each child would pay the same cost but the £1 profit is only charge per parents, not per child. After all, its the parents that pay, not the child.

Its helpful to hear everyones opinion though. I would like a few more though before I decide whether or not to suggest it.

Our school charges £1.50 per child and runs a sweetie bar. I don't know Jo wmuch the school makes, but I know that as PTAs go, ours is quite well off.

I don't know why you are providing a snack and a drink? Do you think that is really necessary? Ours just has water on offer for free, and the children can buy squash, sweets and glow sticks. That leaves it up to the parents how much they want to send in for sweets.

If you're running the disco as a fun thing, do it for no profit and charge everyone £2. If you want to raise funds, charge everyone £2.50 if you're uncomfortable asking £3. Penalising people with one child doesn't make it fairer for people with more than one. If you set the price and they can't afford it, they won't send the children

I think it's a thoughtful idea and certainly worth mentioning. Perhaps nobody has thought that an extra one pound, or two pounds would be a big problem for the parents (if they've never been there, they may think 'it's only ONE pound, how can you not manage ONE pound' iyswim) but might see, if it's pointed out.

However, it is a fundraiser, and surely the school is having it because they want/need the money for something?

Maybe suggest other ways that the money can be made back? optional extras? raffle tickets? guess the number of sweets in a jar?

Or 'suggested donation' or 'give as much as you can', that sort of thing?

All the children are benefiting from the school not just one of them. So, the profit helps each of them. No?

trois, i dont really understand your point. I am not saying that the disco should not be charged for. The volunteer parents generally clean up. And the electricity bill for a couple of hours is neither here nor there really. The school caretaker is paid a salary and this incorporates events such as this anyway.

What is the point of holding a fundraser with EG space for 100 children if each of those children has a sibling? that would reduce the fund raising element to 50%.

The purpose of fund raising is to, well, raise funds. I assume these are used to fund further treats etc for the children? Such as the leavers dictionary (or whatever gift your school gives their Y6's) or run the school mini-bus for the swimming trips etc etc.

Wow, ours is pricey. They paid £4 each but everything was included (drink and sweets and luminous glow-bracelet type things).

Personally it has never occurred to me to feel aggrieved by paying the same for each child tbh.

At my DCs school it's £2 per child for the disco but you only pay for 2 maximum. So, say, if you had 5 DC at the school, entry for them all would only be £4.

What about not including the snack and drink and then children can buy them if they/their parents wish. The school could then charge, say £2 per child and make around 50p profit per child I would think.

YABU

I've never worked in a school where the non-teaching staff didnt get overtime outside of their core hours. Clearly other areas work differently because an army of (paid for) cleaners descend to put the hall back to assembly standard straight after. It's only the PTA that gives their time for free.

You aren't really making a salient point re the money to be charged.

£3 x 2 children = £6 - Doubt a parent will quibble over £1 'fundraising'.
or even £3 x 4 children = £12 - not going to quibble over £3.

Whatever the school use the money for is going to benefit all of your dc though. Suppose they build a new play area or use the money to fund someone coming into the school to put on a play or something. Should only the child who paid the extra pound be allowed to attend the play or use the new equipment?.
It is annoying paying out constantly (I have 5 school age dc) but lots of schools are really struggling with lack of funds. I don't think a lot of parents realise just how much there dc would miss out on if it wasn't for fundraising.

So I think YABU.

How about a £3 per ticket and then £5 for a family ticket which would be for people with more children.

I have four kids and am priced out of lots of events (pantos etc) but I kind of don't mind because it's my choice to have lots of kids and I don't want others to have to subsidies me because then they'll resent me.

trois, at our school its parents who volunteer to run discos etc, such as myself, we are not paid and we all stay behind to clear up afterwards

Are you sure the caretaker is paid a salary that expects the extra hours for locking up? We have to pay ours overtime.

I wouldn't expect it, or offer it. You choose to have more children, you choose to have more expense.
I'd rather see only children whose parents were struggling get a discount, than siblings whose parents were doing fine.
Not that I'm suggesting you should start means testing disco tickets!
If you are selling things once the kids are there, and you want to do the sibling discount to increase numbers - then that's a business decision and I'd say go for it.