To think the pre school I work in is being discriminatory. .

[Twomky]

They have asked parents to pay £2 for a Father's Day gift to be made by the children. Fair enough as a fundraiser, but the children of any parent that doesn't pay up will not be able to do the activity.. this strikes me as wrong and unfair on the children, we are talking about under 4s. Apparently it would happen in schools, but I've never heard of it in my DC's school. Staff have tried to resist it but Fundraising Committee are formidable and make statements like 'its only a couple of quid' and talk about parent's apathy towards helping out. I think its out of order.. but maybe its just tough??

Well it is quite discriminatory and aside from that schools rake in a shed load of money for pupil premium students so they are not unaware of the desire to not exclude pupils on socio economic grounds. They are quite possibly doing something wrong here.

Lots of families are struggling to find " the odd £2" actually, and if you have more than one child then £2 x 2 or 3 quickly puts a hole in your budget.

Yet again another example of a parental committee who try & dictate to.qualified staff with OFSTED breathing down their necks.

Mothering Sunday is a traditional church day and has been historically celebrated for hundresds of years, Fathers Day is a Hallmark invented day which is hugely overhyped.

In my old school we had several children who had lost their fathers due to cancer/car crash. Not to mention the host of children who don't have fathers in their lives cos they've buggered off.

I think it's dreadful. Same on Mother's Day. There are plenty of other ways to make money.

I think it's ill advised by the committee and not properly thought through. But I do not consider it a money making exercise, more a way of a very financially stretched preschool trying to make ends meet.

What about the kids whose fathers have disappeared? That was always me at school. Dad ran off, everyone knew, teacher told all the other kids to be 'extra kind' to me while they all made fathers day presents. My mum offered to pay so I could still make something but I didn't want to.

Dd hasn't made a Father's Day card since starting school. They don't celebrate it like Mother's Day. I assume it's because there are one or two children in her class who don't have dads.

Thanks all. Just wanted a general feedback as I do think its wrong in lots of ways but people do have different ideas! Time to tackle this I think!

I assume there will be children in this session using their free 15 hours, in which case it would not be acceptable to ask parents to make an additional payment for them to participate in activities that are on offer. In fact it could put the pre-school's ability to claim this funding at risk, couldn't it?

Good luck tackling this.

ZoMbie you've never considered it unreasonable to single out a child by not letting them take their work home if they don't give hand over a Measley £1. Surely to God your school isn't short of a pound here and there!
Yes a Measley £1 to you and to me but for some parents/ families a pound could be the difference to whether they eat or whether they have the bus fare to get to school.
You're a teacher you're supposed to be there to nurture enjoy/ encourage them to flurish. Not penalise them for families struggles.
And I'm going to say this and if I upset on then that's just life. I'm afraid. I might get flamed but I'm a big girl. I can take it.
Schools well the one's I have experienced at least have been noted as mo eg grabbing places, well by your comment "It's a nice little earner". I've heard that from the horse's mouth!

Two. Well done on your decision to challenge such discrimination.

Zombie, you think children won't notice that they're the only ones not allowed to take their gifts home? When everyone else is rushing up to their mum, offering in hand, and they have none?

For the sake of £1 - I think it's inexcusable.

I feel sorry for the children who don't have a dad on the scene for whatever reason. It must make them quite sad and make them feel like they stand out like a sore thumb when the activity is pointless for them.

Parents that I know with private school place for their kids also moan about it. To each other but they wouldn't dream of losing face by bringing it up at the school. In my experience. And they may also be skint sometimes but it's a different type of skint to having your family budget buggered up if an unexpected 10 gets swallowed up.

What is different about the materials used for this compared to the ones used every day to do crafts? Or have they started charging every time a child takes a picture home now?

My primary school did this once, we spent hours making advent calendars and at the last minute were told they were to be sold at Christmas fête. They never repeated this so I think they had a lot of complaints

This is common in preschools ime.

As long as all children do the craft activity, it's allowed.
The unbought ones are binned.