Refused entry to school music evening

[squareheadcut]

my son plays violin been practising concert piece for ages. It said in weekly newsletter (in small writing amongst a million other things) that we needed to get tickets Monday. I didn't. I forgot. I also thought the music evening was on Friday not Thursday. So I'm a full time working parent with a million things to remember.
So we get there last night without our 3 pound ticket and are refused entry along with 5 or 6 other parents.
The teacher said there was no space but when we went in towards the end there was plenty of space.
So AIBU to complain about :

1. Not getting a reminder text msg about the music evening
   
2. Being refused entry - this is a school event for community surely?
   
3. Having to buy a ticket anyway
   
4. Expecting children to sit in a stuffy hall for 3 hours while they wait for everyone to finish playing.
   

I really feel like complaining bitterly as parents were never treated like this at my sons old school. My reference points might be off.

[echt]

At my school, all families/parents pay. Teachers do not. Teachers' partners/families pay.

OP, you need to ask for a spreadsheet of the breakdown of what the ticket price is paying for. That would be the one you didn't buy. Because you are, so, like busy.

[HeartsTrumpDiamonds]

Drip drip drip

Probably the £3 was meant to help cover the refreshments at the interval.

YAB massively U

[Topseyt]

I see nothing unreasonable in what the school did. Not at all.

I understand you are busy, but so are many others. You aren't an exceptional case.

Chalk it up to experience this time and get more organised next time. It's all you can do.

[Hulababy]

We don't always have tickets or costs attached to tickets for our school events (where I work) but sometimes we do have to. It's down to fire regs generally or if additional costs are occurring due to the event. The cost of the ticket is rarely, if ever, to make profit. It's to cover essential additional costs.

[exLtEveDallasNoBollocks]

Text messaging costs in a way that parent email/letters in bookbags doesn't. Maybe they wanted the money for the wine on the tables to make it more of an 'event' or maybe to pay for the extra tuition/sheet music/overtime.

Maybe they simply think that parents should be more on the ball where their kids are concerned. If the hall was nearly full, that's an awful lot of parents that didnt have a problem with the way the school managed the event.

Maybe the people that would normally be on the door wanted to see the concert for themselves (I had this at DDs school play where latecoming parents were pissed off I wasn't on the door to let them in - well duh, I was otherwise engaged watching my own DDs performance)

Suck it up. You screwed up. Make sure you don't do it again.

[Ginpopsgalore]

Sure this is nor a reverse?

It just sounds like op doesn't take any responsibility for her part in this t all, which I find off I and self-centred. Op ywbu (very) to complain however you would not bu to suggest a text message reminder service.

[Teabagbeforemilk]

For the last event, there may have been spare tickets. There may not have been this time.

Or maybe they had so many people expecting o pay in the door they had to turn people away and thought this would be better.

You shouldnt need to be told more than once about events. Schools are not obliged to text every bit of information for parents who are unorganised. They are there for your kids not you.

You say you are unorganised. You need to work on this, not expect the school to do more while you remain unorganised.

Maybe they did say what the money was for, at the start of the concert.

Also you must have known how long the concert was going to be.

Really you are mad at yourself but focusing that on the school.

[Ycoitsid]

Our school is short on good will however even they wouldn't refuse entry. They always put extra seats out

[squareheadcut]

Also ... At the last event which I did buy advance ticket for they did sell at the door!!

[squareheadcut]

I don't know what the 3 pounds was used for. They need to communicate this information as there seems little goodwill going on in this school compared to the old one.

[MythicalKings]

Schools are accustomed to having to "spoon feed" DCs about events. They really shouldn't have to do the same for grown ups.

[squareheadcut]

Thanks for you messages on this.
I think there are a lot of frustrated teachers who use mumsnet!
I did thank the teacher for giving up her time for the evening.
I did not leave before the end and would never do this but I do believe it was unreasonable to get kids to sit for this length of time in the heat.
They could have organised it better. They have an outside Ampitheatre! They could have split the performance and had the strings outside then there would have been plenty of space to accommodate all.
I come from a primary school where they would never charge for performances to see your own child and the school grounds there were much smaller.
The way they did it was uninclusive and mean spirited.
Uninclusive because the school had tables and wine bottles in the hall which used up space. One of the men I heard got very drunk!
Yes I should have bought the ticket Monday. But give me a break I'm human not some super organiser and surely this is the point of having a text message system in schools to send reminders!

[MayPolist]

but the op said the hall was not full.

[maddening]

Yanbu on point 2 - the others yabu

[TTWK]

YANBU.I have never been to a school event where you cannot pay on the door.

How many different schools have you been to for events? We need to know the size of your sample.

[LokiBear]

As a teacher who runs these type of events yabu. We sell tickets for 2 reasons: 1. Safety - fire regs mean you can not have more than a certain capacity. Tickets help us to carefully control this. We also record who buys tickets so that we can take a register incase of emergency. 2. To make money for the next school production. Performance rights cost between £500 - £1200. Costumes/lighting/photocopying etc all cost a fortune. In my school, these extra curricular activities are not funded by the school. We have to raise the funds. The school production takes at least 80 hours of my time over the 5 month rehearsal. I get a lovely "thank you' card from the kids, however, there is no overtime bonus to be claimed. It is all done in my own time, for free, for the benefit of the pupils. £3 a ticket is not much to ask parents to pay to ensure their kids get this experience.

[AsBrightAsAJewel]

"I have never been to a school event where you cannot pay on the door" - all our performances are ticketed. If not - hall capacity = 200, 250+ parents just turn up = huge safety risk if we just let them all in!

[candlesandlight]

You didn't organise yourself. And expect the school to make exceptions for you because you are so busy as a working mum totally unreasonable

[Fairyliz]

I work in the school office. We tell children about an event, send out a letter, put it on the weekly newsletter, enter on the website and send out a text.
Guess what? There are still parents who forget and shout at the office staff. We are the ones who miss our own childrens events because we are doing hours of unpaid overtime because other parents are 'busy'!

[fitnessforlife]

with out!!!! i finally see it! still YABU.

[fitnessforlife]

So we get there last night without our 3 pound ticket

Oh well...none of it makes sense. YABU.

[MayPolist]

YANBU.I have never been to a school event where you cannot pay on the door.

4. Expecting children to sit in a stuffy hall for 3 hours while they wait for everyone to finish playing

This really annoyed me.The children who played at the end sat for 3 hours listening to the others play.Height of rudeness to bugger off and leave them playing to a half empty hall.