when did state education stop being free? eh?????

[Clary]

DD has come home with a request for a voluntary contribution to school - for her art exercise book.

Yes it's only 50p, but I really really resent the idea of paying for her blimming exercise books.

We send her to school in uniform, with pens, pencils, calculator and PE kit; is it really too much to suppose the school will provide her with the paper to do her art work?

I said in a bit of a temper "well art is bobbins expecially at that school" (DS1 has had a difficult time of it with a very negative teacher) and DD rather upset said if she didn't take the money she wouldn't get the exercise book (so much for voluntary then!).

DH agreed with me and started going on about the thin end of an enormous wedge. School is an academy (as so many are) so is this the way it is going to go? This week 50p for an exercise book, next week £10 or we won't teach your child music?

about 4 years ago I "took the bullet" and bought a complete class number of revision books + a useful textbook that we recommend, this was done to placate the complaints from parents.

By the end of the first year (even with counting them out and in) a third of the books had gone missing. By the end of the second year most of the remaining books have been defaced or where at a stage where they could not be used.

My department cannot afford to replace books year on year.
TBH If you pay for the books your children are less likely to destroy them because if they do destroy them their parents will tell them off.

YABU, education is free and your child will benefit from numerous teachers. School budgets mainly cover staffing and heating, is it really too much to ask that you buy a few supplies? Same for cooking ingredients, if your child chooses it at GCSE level then you know it will come with costs.

Some children have very little respect for books and equipment and schools cant afford to keep handing them out.

This attitude is one of the many reasons that I hope my children won't go to state schools for most of their education. 50p. Good grief.

I blame Michael Gove. I like blaming Michael Gove for most things, though.

Toomanydaisies, I think you might have missed quite a lot of points here.

FFS! Who would ever have thought that parents might have to be responsible for paying for things that their children need!? What a ridiculous notion that is! Especially when there are so many taxpayers that are willing to pay for everything that children need!

I think you'll find I do pay for my children's education, through tax.

DD this week has cooked two different soups and a lasagne from scratch. Though we DID have the lasagne for dinner - it was big enough for 4! And there's still leftovers in the fridge.

Next week she is making fresh fruit tartlets and something else she hasn't informed me of yet...

I know it comes with costs, but a bit more notice for those on very tight budgets would help. And if they don't have the specified ingredients then they lose marks.

So I had to buy fresh lasagne sheets for DD when I would usually buy dried at home. I had to send her in with olive oil instead of cheaper vegetable oil. I had to buy separate jars of oregano and basil when I usually buy mixed herbs in bulk...

These things add up when you have only budgeted £6 a week for ingredients.

YABU. State education remains free. Blame the stinking government for binding schools into fixed rate maintenance contracts which means your school has to pay £90 to have a lightbulb changed. £90 pays for a lot of sketch books.

We have always paid. I am older than most on here and a lot of things had to be supplied as extras. e.g. we had to take in all the ingredients for cooking, provide materials, zips, buttons etc for needlework. It isn't new.

DD isn't doing Food Technology GCSE, she's doing Catering GCSE. Which follows a different syllabus. And it seems to be getting more expensive by the week. To bring her soups home, she needed TWO flasks. Even buying Tesco own they were £4.50 each - I didn't include that £9 in the ingredient costs!

DD also has to buy the fabrics she needs for Textiles. THAT adds up too.

Yet those doing the more Academic courses don't have all these added expenses. THAT isn't fair!

motherinferior

I suspect you probably don't cover your children's education costs through your tax unless you are a top earner or have never been ill or only have one child.

I guess we should be grateful we are not in Ireland. I believe they have to pay for all books there. £100 ish even for the little ones.
I think the thing thant annoys me most about my dc's school is that they don't even bother to tell us it's voluntary anymore. Letters are worded "the cost of this is £x and they chase you if you don't pay.

No, I don't; I do, yes, expect other tax payers to contribute to the costs as well. I think state education is a mutual responsibility. So what?

I'm a teacher. This morning I went out and bought some coloured paper and A3 plain paper so that my Year 8s can do some group work next week. I also buy the pencils they will use, the pens that I have to lend out every lesson, the rulers that the kids like to break, the stapler, the staples, the backing paper for my display boards etc.

We do send a letter home about revision guides. That is because if you buy through school they are cheaper as we get a discount for buying in bulk. There is no compulsion to buy and we will provide you with free paper revision guides that I have typed up myself and bought the reams of paper to photocopy.

I don't know any teachers in my school that don't subsidise the children's education.

It costs £9000 a year per child to go to school (2008).

Plus all the medical care they get from maternity to routine jabs and GP time.

You would have to pay a lot of tax if you have 2 kids to come anywhere breaking even, so this attitude that I pay tax so why should I spend 50p on a book is quite unbelievable.

It's so ignorant to use the "I pay my taxes, so I pay for my kids schooling" argument. It's so entitled and IME the people who incorrectly say they are paying for their kids education through taxes also claim to be paying for all the benefit scroungers.

Make up your minds you can't be paying for your kids education and benefit scroungers too unless your on at least a six figure salary

I bet it is one of the special art exercise books with the thick paper. We used to have them at the school I work at but we are not all allowed to order them anymore as they work out too costly. Instead they have to use normal exercise books, or art paper for display work. But not more art sketch books due to cost. Normal plain exercise books are no where near as good, esp if using pens, paint, pastels, etc.

I assume school are asking for a contribution to assist in their cost. TBH I would happily pay it but can imagine/see why some people may not wish too.

Maybe the letter should have spelled it out a bit clearer and maybe give an option - free normal exercise book or 50p for proper art sketch pad.

motherinferior
"I think you'll find I do pay for my children's education, through tax."

That is what you wrote, not that you contribute but that you pay for their education, which as you probably don't independently leaves me to wonder why 50p is a problem.

I have a relative working in a (state) school. The budget is simply not enough. There's no more to it really.

I know someone who works in a (private) school. The budget is not enough. Stuff is 25 years old, falling apart and dirty. Some stuff is plenty older than that. Exactly like the state sector - both have horrendously tight budgets.

In either sector, it is helpful if parents can provide a bit of support. If you don't want to pay towards exercise books or whatever, then why don't you join the PTA and try and do some fundraising.

Er...please take me out of that 'benefit scroungers' generalisation. And as I have said upthread, I do not think that my tax contributions cover the cost of my children's education.

And the point about the 50p is not that I am scrabbling around looking for 50p; it was in response to a post implying quite strongly that people objecting to the creeping additional costs are, in fact, 'benefit scroungers'.

I pay for quite a lot of stuff. An increasing amount of stuff. I understand, fully, why this is being asked of me. But, as the OP says, it's getting quite acute.

I am currently making my KS4 classes make a donation if they want a new book to replace one they have lost, or if they want to borrow a pen. Because last year, I spent £20 of my own money on pens and they all got destroyed or lost.

We will be giving the proceeds to charity at Christmas. If they don't want to donate they can borrow a pen from someone else. One kid has donated enough so far to buy himself a dozen pens.

x2boys - schools are not allowed to make any profit on school trips. They should have a breakdown of all costs and the amount per child should be clear. They may not send this out to parents though. Part of the problem with school trips is transport costs - the cost of a coach these days is astronomical.