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.

[camsie]

YABU and ridiculous if you can't see you are unreasonable.

Fire regulations for the hall, extra staffing to sell tickets-any of these points resound with you?

[Fizrim]

fitnessforlife I assumed that her son knew when he was performing, and they had to take him on the right night. The OP didn't have any tickets though, was hoping to pay on the night but that option was not available.

The OP did say her reference points might be off, so perhaps things have been different in the past but we don't know how just yet.

[UptheChimney]

I wonder how many of the teachers are also busy working parents? And doing unpaid overtime. Do you do unpaid overtime to nurture other children's talents?

YABU. Utterly and completely.

[Timetoask]

Op, if you don't use a diary on your computer/iPhone I highly recommend it. I put everything on mine, DH has access to it so we both know what's going on and it sends me reminders as well.
I think it is silly to charge for a simple school concert!!! But I am guessing they had to cover some sort of expense?

[camsie]

Agree with UptheChimney.

[RB68]

I read the OP as saying she did have a ticket when she turned up...

sometimes its about safety around numbers at the event and the license the place holds

[Ycoitsid]

The School should have let you in but asked you to deliver the cash the following day.

[Mrsjayy]

Yabu you forgot many many parents have a million and 1 things to renember your just pissed off and looking for any excuse to shift respinsibility from you and if you were that concerned about poor children sitting for 3 hours you wouldnt have allowed your son to take part

[petalunicorn]

I think YABU but this never would have happened at our school:

• All performances are free
  
• No performances have tickets
  
• No performance is over 1.5 hours, which is how it should be.
  

This does mean we have parents who attend every performance of a play, meaning the performances get very busy, despite the head asking people not to, otherwise they will have to start ticketing.

[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.

[fitnessforlife]

So we get there last night without our 3 pound ticket

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

[fitnessforlife]

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

[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'!

[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

[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!

[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.

[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.

[maddening]

Yanbu on point 2 - the others yabu

[MayPolist]

but the op said the hall was not full.

[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!

[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]

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.