about Food Tech? And the cost?

[AlwaysInBed]

I think Food Tech is way too expensive.

DD's first term of doing Food Tech (she missed a term and a half of school last year, due to a serious illness, so missed a term of Food Tech) is next term. Today we got sent out the recipes/ingredients osit (why now?) and we can't afford it, end of.

AIBU to think there should be a way of receiving financial support? Alternatively, in each class, every student pays in x amount and then people receiving (for example, FSM, tax credits, etc;) don't have to pay as much or anything.

There's £5 worth of ingredients, roughly, per project, and cooking is once every two weeks. How does that work out? I will end up having to get food off my mother, who's not exactly well off either, but for many people, their mother isn't an alternative. What do they do?

DD does GSCE food tech and it does cost a lot.

What really pisses me off is that it's always a meal for two and we are a family of 8.

Often I end up throwing it out :(.

Yes, other students should subsidise your child...

My dd3 is doing food tech and I dread the list of ingredients, it nearly always consists of some sort of meat and assorted obscure herbs and spices and half of the preparation has to take place at home.we are also a large family on a small budget and the cost hits hard YADNBU.

Why don't you have a quiet word with the food tech teacher or the school office and enquire if there are any arrangements to support pupils to be included without incurring expense?

When did you have to pay? I did GCSE HE in 2006 and never had to pay throughout school.

Its a fucking disgrace

I think maybe the cost involved should be made clearer before choosing the course, although my dd is not sporty or musical and she had to choose one subject from the 'block' so we didn't have much choice.
Some schools charge a termly fee that covers ingredients,but I suppose that would be yet another job for over stretched staff.

I don't know mollypup but it would work out cheaper for them too. In bulk, buying is often cheaper. Even if it costs £3 a meal, every fortnight, for six weeks, that's £9, and for twelve weeks, that's £18 etc; but buying in bulk means that instead of subsidising my child, they would be saving money too, as well as time and energy lugging it to school. Say £10 a term, from 20 kids or whatever, that's £200. Buying in bulk saves a lot of cash for everyone, it wouldn't be a case of subsidy, it would be a case of everyone saving. Also, for compulsory school trips, we have a thing where normally you end up, in a round a bout way, paying for other people. That's what we did until a few years ago (when we ended up in this position!) and we were fully aware of subsidising others, for their trips.

Why should everyone else pay but you dont? Children come with costs and home ec has always had ingredients to buy. Its like for some people having to actually pay any of their childs costs is simply awful

I dreaded this when dd went to secondary, but they charge £15 for the year and the ingredients is provided. Its definitely worth £15 I think. I think all schools should adopt this policy.

OP, no other parent subsidises any other child on trips, the school are not allowed to make a profit and have to show how they calculated the cost per child. If there is a shortfall from non payers the school decide if they can stand the cost or cancel the trip.

Things like this are reasons why using FSM as a marker of which children need financial support in the form of the pupil premium is ridiculously unfair.

Buying in bulk and paying a smaller amount would work well for parents, but isn't really fair on the teacher that has to do the shopping after they've finished work for the day.

On the whole, I think parents should just deal with it and pay for these things. Children cost money, and parents have a responsibility to pay for the things they need for their education. But if some children get their ingredients for free, then all children should get them for free.

But for your £3, you get a meal for 2? Doesn't sound too bad to me.

after paying a lot for ingredients and a squashed mess coming home I wrote to the school to say that ds would cook the food tech meals at home and to give him theory work in class. He cooked the meals at home and I took photographs.

I don't get it. DD does home economics. Most of the ingredients she has needed so far are standard ones I would have in my cupboard anyway. Occasionally I have to buy one or two things to add to it but not always.

I don't know, we thought we were. Was it non compulsory? We paid in. Sorry for my mistake.

I just don't want my child to be barred from a subject which is compulsory in our school (whether it is optional or not nationwide?).

Sorry for wrong information, o obviously got the wrong end of the stick there. We paid into something to do something - I don't regret it or anything, just wish I didn't look like a complete idiot on here

Like The Pink my dc pay a set amount each year. £20 I think. Then the school supply everything right down to the takeaway container to bring their offerings home in.
That alone is a saving tupperware boxes going adrift in school.

Talk to the school. If you know other parents who are in the same class, see if they think the same as you.

But even if they dont, speak to school.
Even 20 years ago, I was surprised how much Food Tech cost. I can understand that there must be several parents who also think that the cost can just be too much.

And thanks everyone. I don't want others to pay for me btw, I'm not a schoolworker, or have anything to do with school, and I am bumbling around, being a bit clueless. I just feel hurt for my DD, although my way of sorting it out would be unfair in others, I get it! I just want to help her (and I admit that this want probably makes me immune to common sense sometimes!) so thanks for bringing me back to Earth. I just want to do something, ifyswim.

YANBU! I've told this story before on here, but our record spend was about £27 for chicken curry ingredients!! Which then went to waste because the teacher was absent for the 7th time that term, and the ingredients were lugged round school on a hot summers day!
The final straw was when DD cooked chilli con carne. Again I forked out for the ingredients, again it went into the bin. This time because it was cooked first thing in the morning, the rice was added to the meat and the whole lot was left to fester, hot, in Tupperware containers under a desk in the food tech lab for the entire day! I went absolutely SPARE!
I sent a stinking email to the school listing at least 5 different types of food poisoning that could be caught from this meal, how this was in breach of safe food hygiene regulations, that maybe the teacher needed to undergo further training if she didn't know better and that it might be worth the school reassessing their food hygiene practices before someone, me reported them to the EHO! AND, that DD would not be participating in any more food tech practical lessons, because I was sick of wasting money on food that was at best inedible and at worst dangerous!

What about sending her with smaller portions of the same to just make smaller meals?
or speaking to other parents if you know any others in the class about maybe each family providing for every other lesson and splitting the portions between two pupils?
Most meals are doable by halving all of the ingredients same techniques for prep and cooking.

You still have to buy the ingredients though. The chicken curry I mentioned had 17 ingredients. Most of them were herbs and spices which come in jars. I had to buy the jars regardless of how much was sent in.

Saggy- I guess that is a clear instance of where buying in bulk would be an advantage! Presumably, a jar of each spice would have been enough for the whole class to do the curry!

I have found the answer is to team up with a friend to buy the ingredients.
I find it frustrating that all the ingredients have to be weighed/ measured out at home.

I don't think that £5 every two weeks is that unreasonable. Its part of the cost of bringing up a child. To put it into proportion £2.50 is the cost of one school dinner and often your child will bring home a meal that will feed a family. (Certainly the case at our school)

We share with two other people in the class as well, makes it much easier. You need to get your dd to team up with someone in her class that's reliable. Although relying on someone else comes with it's own problems, so need to choose people wisely!

I don't think £2.50 a week is a lot tbh especially because you get to eat the food afterwards.