To Be Annoyed With School

[grumpyoldbat]

DD'S whole school are going to see a panto next week and it cost £7. I paid it and got the receipt. Admittedly I pushed it to the deadline because we'd had a bad month and I had to wait for pay day.

Then the teacher stood out in class and announced the following pupils haven't bothered to pay so will stay behind and work. Dd's name was on the list.

I was at work so DH went in this morning. They said they'd see what they can do about getting her onto the trip list.

Dh thinks I'm over reacting but the more I think about it the more annoyed I am because:

A) I've paid, she's not broken any school rules that would warrent being taken off the trip so what do they mean they'll see what they can do? She should be going

B) they should have had her name on the trip list in the first place so I think they should have said sorry for their error.

C) more importantly, even if I hadn't paid it should not have been dealt with by embarrassing dd in front of the class. She is now being teased for not paying by her class mates. If I hadn't paid it would have been my failure not hers so surely her not getting to go would have been enough without highlighting it to everyone.

Errr .... take the receipt in?

totally agree with you OP, yanbu

Agree with previous poster. Organising trips are a big headache for schools, parents who complain ll the while run the risk of schools not bothering.

YANBU - school should treat anything to do with money very carefully. So many children are living in poverty and highlighting this only serves to humiliate them. Ring the school and complain, that must have been awful for your DD.

That is really upsetting. What about families who genuinely can't afford to go, do the children get a public punishment for being skint? I think I would be writing to the Head to query the policy and to insist that this never happens again.

YANBU. Take the receipt in, meet the teacher and calmly and politely make the points a, b, c.

really? so you wouldn't mind paying for a trip and then being told they would "see what they could do" about actually letting your child go?
and you think it's ok to humiliate children in class by naming and shaming them for something that actually is not even in their control?

that's all ok becuase it's hard work planning trips?

We did take the receipt in and afaic at that point they should have said something along the lines of "sorry about that we'll make sure the list is corrected" not imply she'd still not be able to go.

You think we shouldn't have complained? Really? So should I be saying to dd mummy did pay but unfortunately you're on the unpaid list so you have to accept doing extra work while your friends go to the panto. Really?

It does seem simple. Take receipt in. Explain why you're annoyed.

To be honest I would be complaining about rhe teacher if they did that to any child. How unprofessional and rude. No matter the situation a teacher should never single out a child in such a negative way.

I am a teacher. Technically school trips are called educational visits and should have an educational reason for taking place. Of course, fun trips often have tenuous links but are, I think, an important part of school. However, my point is that as an 'educational visit' the school must not exclude any pupil whose parent wishes them to take part. Any payment by parents should be a contribution and cannot actually be insisted upon.
Therefore the school are wrong on two points a) not properly recording your payment b) allowing parents to believe they must pay for trips. YANBU

point d even he she had not paid she would still be allowed to go if you are io england or wales assuming the trip was in school time

I'm not a school complainer but would absolutely be pointing out this sort of administrative cock-up. I would also be reminding them that trip payments are contributions and they can't exclude on the basis of non-payment.

I am a teacher (I seem to be commenting a lot as a teacher tonight!) and usually am first to stick up for/understand a teacher's pov but not in this case. Regardless of the fact that you had paid or not, I would never, ever read out a list of those who haven't paid and tell them that they will be working instead. This is not on.
No children at our school are aware of children who are in receipt of FSM or PupilPremium funding (unless told by the child them self) and that is how it should be. I can't imagine any teacher I know subjecting children to this.

It's horrid to refer to cash in front of the kids.

That's why schools insist parents have mobiles (text if you don't have time to talk teachers), ask for our emails etc. Financial conversations should take place well away from the children, who are there to learn as equals. The sealed envelope in a book bag is a time honored way of chasing payments for a reason.

This is an awful time of year for some families who are relying on food banks to ensure their kids eat, without some insensitive teacher piling on the emotional misery too. Your child is not on the list due to an incompetent cocking up the admin, but there is likely to be a kid in that class, whose shoes are too tight, going home to a cold home and already feeling left out of many Xmas festivities because they simply cost too much right now. The last thing that kid needs to be singled out as a bullying target right now.

The only thing worse than growing up in poverty as a child, is being made AWARE you are living in poverty. The only thing worse than that is being bullied for it, by staff or other children & I think the school has allowed both to happen here tbh.

Write to the HT OP.

Perhaps it's one of those obnoxious schools which use expensive trips, expensive uniform and subtle (or in this case, not so subtle) digs at those that can't afford them in order to massage their intake?

Of course, they're going to catch a cold now that (a) pupil premium is moving funding from affluent areas to less affluent areas (and about bloody time too) and (b) schools that get middling progress but good overall results with a benign intake are being put into categories by Ofsted (again, about bloody time too). But those messages take time to percolate, and in the meantime, a few expensive trips and a bit of humilation for the poor kids helps keep the riff-raff out of the naice schools.