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.

But you still have school staff on site. Legally, a designated keyholder has to be there. As does a first aider. These people are usually staff.

Anyway thats by-the-by.

spidermama, its exactly parents like yourself that I'm thinking about. And yes, it is your choice to have 4 children but, I think that to profit 4 times from you is wrong. It shouldnt really matter how many children you have in the school, you shouldnt be expected to donate to the school profits depending on how many children you have in the school.

Afterall, children whose parents cannot afford to pay for school trips do not get excluded. I know the trips are in school hours and that is the reason but still, there are many parents who stump up for the cost of the trip and a % of their fee goes on subsidising the ones who dont/cant pay.

school profits

So its a business is it - running a blance sheet and returning accounts to share holders?

Exactly what are these profits funding? Are they for the benefit of the children or the staff Christmas party??

YABU

If you have two children then you pay twice, but you also benefit twice (because your two children are able to have/do whatever the school buys with the profit).

I think 3 per child is fair. I can't see why extra children should have a discount, since each child benefits from being at school.

Pta's and the likes of this disco have a main aim and that is to raise funds. Why would they bother to do these things if they were going to make no money

trois ??? I am stumped with your latest message, are you asking me what the school profits go towards at my school?

I am aware that the profits are for the benefits of the children but you cant expect to ask 1 set of parents to contribute more profit to the school because of that. What about the children that dont want to go to the disco, should they not benefit from any funding the pta raises because they didnt buy a school disco ticket?

Lockets, crossed message, my point exactly.

I can see your point, at one stage there were 4 of us at primary at the same time.
What I'm more shocked about is the comment above re a leavers dictionary???? A gift for a child finishing year 6?? I've never heard of this and would definitely not support school funds paying for presents. That's madness.

Either call it a suggested donation of £3 per child, so most people will pay it but those who would really struggle with it can pay less OR charge just enough to cover the DJ and make them pay for their own snack and drink. Then parents who are strapped for cash can feed their kids at home and pay less still.

"...you shouldnt be expected to donate to the school profits depending on how many children you have in the school. "

I don't really understand your philosophy here. You are obviously expecting people to donate to school profits(?don't think this is the best term!) based on having a child in the school, so I don't really see it as a stretch at all to be looking to raise money on a per-child rather than per-family basis. In fact a per-child basis could be considered fairer in some ways.

On the other hand I think trying to make sure that all families can afford to participate is a laudable goal for PTA activities.

At DS2's school tickets where £5 and no we are not in London but Liverpool! That did include food and drink though. From my understanding the 'profit' didn't go to the school, it went to the PTA who bought things like video cameras, football team kits, new playground equipment, that sort of thing..

I have to admit I wish more people thought like you charity2.

Our school discos are £3.50 per child. I am on the PTA so I know that figure is arrived at because the DJ alone costs £350 (for 3 hours). So they need 100 kids through the door to even break even. And thats not even factoring in the refreshments and biscuits. Bearing in mind that there are only 210 pupils in the entire school means that the highest possible profit made is £385. I only have one child at the school at the moment so I can't say for sure if there is a concession for siblings, but I doubt there is. Our school discos are organised by the School PTA. It is a fundraising exercise and I think that they work on the basis that the more profit that is made the more that children and parents benefit.

We are very good at raising funds and have been made to make around £15,000 in one year which I think is excellent. This money quite often goes towards school trips that would otherwise have to be funded by the parents, which some parents might not be able to afford. So it's not really profit for the school but profit for everyone.

At DDs school it's £1.50 and then tuck/drinks are 20-40p each.

All in the cost is usually around £4.50

I agree it's not cheap if you have X amount of DC.

Such, but the problem is is that many children dont attend the discos and other fundraisers anyway so their parents never contribute to these things even though their children are still benefiting from the money raised. So how is it fair to treble/quadruple profit from 1 set of parents when some parents contribute nothing.

The children come to the disco because they want to, not because the parents want to help fundraise, the money raised is just an added bonus really.

We got a gift leaving year 6 nearly 20 years ago, it's not a new thing.

As a mum of 3 with another on the way I'm inclined to say I'd rather pay full price if (as currently) 2 of my dds are getting benefit from the school then paying in for only one isn't fair. Just like I buy tat I don't really want at the fair etc!

We run ours as a no profit social event, £2 per child and they get a glowstick, carton of juice and two sweets (eg 1 x haribo pack and 1 x Freddo bar) each for that, so they don't have to have any money on them (get given a raffle ticket at the door to exchange for their stuff). I guess most of the money therefore goes towards the DJ. The school does not ask for any contribution for cleaning etc (we clean up, not cleaners).

This system wouldn't work for us as we have separate KS1 and KS2 discos one after the other and so a lot of siblings are split for this. Also, it is somewhat chaotic at the front entrance (small foyer) but having a straight £2 per child cost keeps things simple.

In my area £3 feels like a lot for a school disco, especially for parents with several children. Is there any way of breaking it down, so they pay £X for the disco and snacks are seperate and those that can't afford it can just have a drink of squash if they don't bring snack money? But maybe your area is different?
We do get good turnout for our discos set up like that £1 for the disco, etc. It doesn't make a huge profit, but the children enjoy it and the parents enjoy a couple of hours child care for just £1!

It's fair to profit more from one set if parents because they have more than one child listening to the music, eats ng the snack, drinking the drink, and taking up space in the hall! Of course it's fair.

Families with more children don't get to go into a shop to get winter coats for three children and get told they only have to pay for one because it would be unfair otherwise! Three children need the benefit so three children have to be paid for. They get three lots of child benefit don't they?

I have to say, I am finding your logic very wierd! You are basically saying that parents with more than one child deserve something for free. They don't.

It's not about families as such, though is it? You have to calculate costs on the number of children that attend because all the children will benefit from your fundraising. Also, anyone with, say 3 children, won't be sending three-quarters of the third child will they? Therefore it needs to be a unit price per head which, if necessary, you reduce by cutting out things that aren't essential (snacks) or providing snacks that can be bought.

I've had (nightmarish) previous experience of trying to set family prices for membership of things and you tend to open a can of worms because you'll invariably, albeit unintentionally, build in some sort of inequity regardless of the price model you adopt.

Keep it simple, keep the price the same for all but look to see if you can reduce the price for all.

How many families would take part? It seems hardly worth the effort of the PTA to organise, supervise, do the shopping, decorate, crowd control and the like for a measly £30 profit.

£3 is far too cheap anyway. Make it £5 per child.