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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Paying to do compulsory subjects at school

111 replies

SideOfFoot · 16/08/2016 20:24

DD has been asked to contribute £25 towards home economics at school. Considering she is at a state school and doing this subject is compulsory AIBU to think that it is cheeky to ask for money.

OP posts:

TheSilverChair · 16/08/2016 21:00

Way back in the 60s we paid for our own ingredients.

DragonsEggsAreAllMine · 16/08/2016 21:01

I wish ours did this, much easier and economical than buying numerous ingredients you only use a little of.

It's not cheeky to ask for money, it's a small amount for a lesson where they get to bring home or eat the things they make.

Schools can't win, somebody will always complain that their child costs money.

43percentburnt · 16/08/2016 21:02

Also saves the dreaded conversation/arguement at 9:55pm 'tomorrow I need apricots, sausage meat and a unicorn egg'. That alone is worth £25!

grumpysquash3 · 16/08/2016 21:06

My DD made a quiche/cheese pie at school. She had to supply bacon, onion, mushrooms, cheese, a green pepper and a box to bring it home in. School supplied eggs, a foil tin, and salt and pepper. She also had to pay £3.

It made Waitrose look cheap :(

But I do agree with 43percentburnt. Unfortunately we have both.

user7755 · 16/08/2016 21:07

43 - yes.

I also like the idea of everyone bringing in one ingredient to share (as per theimpossiblegirl's post) but then, i'm a fucking hippy

Original poster

SideOfFoot · 16/08/2016 21:09

Thanks, I'm not questioning the amount paid, merely that I am being asked to pay for something that there is not an option to not do. My DD has to do this subject, if she had chosen to do this subject then no question over the payment, but asking for money for something that she can't opt out of is cheeky. I will pay of course but if the amount of food brought home is anything like what DS1 brought home, it will not be worth £25.

OP posts:

Theimpossiblegirl · 16/08/2016 21:10

I'm a fucking hippy too.
:)

WeekendAway · 16/08/2016 21:10

It's for ingredients. The country voted Tory and this is what we get.

I'm in my fifties and we had to provide our own ingredients for home economics even when I was at school. This is nothing to do with people voting Tory.

I guess lots of parents find it irritating and inconvenient to constantly be asked to supply small quantities of random ingredients each week and for their child to have to bring them to school on the bus or whatever so it's easier to ask for a contribution once every term and allow the teacher so supply the ingredients in bulk, so everyone gets exactly the same.

Also this means that children whose parents cannot or will not buy the ingredients are not embarrassed publicly and excluded from taking part due to lack of the correct ingredients.

user7755 · 16/08/2016 21:13

Theimpossiblegirl - I'd want you to be my kid's teacher (if they weren't already in secondary and special school).

Emochild · 16/08/2016 21:26

Dd's school does this -£20 covers year 7&8 where they do a term each year of food tech

I did not know this as dd was ill for transition day so we didn't get the letter

They made her sit out of cooking and just watch

Groovee · 16/08/2016 21:28

We pay £25 a year in S1/2 and if in S3 and beyond £22 a term. It included all ingredients, container to bring it home and we got lots home which was tasty. Dd cooked twice a week which was ace. I miss it.

insan1tyscartching · 16/08/2016 21:29

I would gladly pay £25 if I didn't have to supply the ingredients for practical lessons as it's a PITA and it costs significantly more than that over the course of the year. Hate having to supply chicken breasts that are left in a warm classroom all morning are then cooked and left to fester in a warm classroom all afternoon.

acasualobserver · 16/08/2016 22:20

Home school. Problem solved.

Scarydinosaurs · 16/08/2016 22:23

What do you get for the £25? If this is instead of you buying ingredients, that's great. If it is on top of, that's less great.

BoomBoomsCousin · 16/08/2016 22:59

If you're in England the I think it's cheeky if they don't point out that you don't have to pay it unless you want the cooked item at the end of the day. Schools are obliged to provide the curriculum for free - and that includes all materials - but they aren't obliged to let your take home the end product (or eat it at school). Which seems fair enough to me. This is the case even if your daughter had chosen this our of a bunch of different options or as a GCSE.

School budgets are under pressure and it's a huge problem for leadership. Nevertheless, delivering the curriculum in budget is at the heart of the responsibilities for the school leadership. And you aren't obliged to help them out, however traditional it is for parents to provide ingredients.

Piscivorus · 16/08/2016 23:13

I'm sure it cost me more than £25 to buy all the stuff for a year, not to mention the hassle of weighing it out, going to the shop again for what we'd forgotten

OrsonWellsHat · 16/08/2016 23:16

In the 80's (under Thatcher) we had to take all our ingredients to school. I'd rather pay 25 quid than have to supply all the ingredients.

MachiKoro · 16/08/2016 23:17

I am very old, and we had to bring in the ingredients for Home Ec, pretty sure it would add up to more than £25 in today's prices!
Surely you've also had to pay for a calculator for maths, pens, pencils, colouring materials for English/humanities, a PE kit for PE/Games?

Decorhate · 16/08/2016 23:19

Schools are allowed to ask for contributions for materials in a subject where the pupil is allowed to take the finished item home.

OlennasWimple · 16/08/2016 23:21

It's like needing to buy a protractor for maths - you need your own, you get to keep it, you pay for it. As long as there is provision for those that can't afford it, I'm relaxed about it

SanityClause · 16/08/2016 23:23

Surely you've also had to pay for a calculator for maths, pens, pencils, colouring materials for English/humanities, a PE kit for PE/Games?

And don't get me started on art supplies.

I think Hobbycraft would go out of business if it weren't for my DC's art projects.

TheRealKimmySchmidt63 · 16/08/2016 23:23

Agree with machiKoro.
Your dc is getting something out of it whether the food gets home or not - a lot of kids eat their products by the end of the day - your dc is getting an essential life skill worth way more than the cost mentioned

ThoraGruntwhistle · 16/08/2016 23:25

I breathed a huge sigh of relief when DS no longer had to do Food Tech because having to buy the ingredients was bloody annoying. It's so wasteful for thirty lots of parents to have to buy a jar of nutmeg or mustard powder or whatever it was to enable each student to bring in one pinch of it. I would much rather have paid at the start of term and the school to have bought it.

unlucky83 · 16/08/2016 23:46

I think it is mainly a good idea...
In Scotland we had to pay £40 a year for the first 3 years - that was for food tech and design technology materials. It was reduced - maybe even free for people on FSM and you could pay in two instalments. Also I think if you had told the school you were struggling they would have come to some arrangement.
Design tech - she made a small (useless) box and a pencil holder and...I think that was it - not £20 worth of materials. Food - I guess it was reasonable value even though the stuff that came home was usually pretty inedible - and they did weird things -to make it 'healthier' eating - like adding apple to coleslaw (I find gross - no one in the house would eat it!) and using low fat spreads.
However a couple of times they made things that DD ate for lunch instead of buying something - so it wasn't all bad. And she learned to make a couple of things she will now make for everyone's dinner...
It probably cost me another £20 over the 3 years on plastic containers - we had to provide and she constantly lost them - sometimes with the food she'd made in them...
And it isn't a recent thing - in the late 70s (pre-Thatcher) and early 80s we had to take ingredients in - and it was a faff. Also there were some children from deprived backgrounds in my class and they never had the ingredients...had to watch.
The only advantage to taking your own ingredients in is you have more control over what comes home - so I wouldn't have sent apple in to go in coleslaw...(and butter instead of nasty low fat spread)- on the other hand I remember making Lemon meringue pie at school...we had to make the pastry case and the meringue but it specified a packet mix for the lemon curd. My mum said it would be horrible and made a bowl of it for me to take in instead...I was so embarrassed

greathat · 16/08/2016 23:49

Most places you have to take ingredients in. Then the kid leaves them on the bus.... Schools can barely Afford to pay teachers these days. I think it's fine!

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