Are you required to pay to see your childs school/class performances?

[Rivanshine]

AIBU to feel aggravated that we have to BUY tickets every blimmin' time our daughters school put on a play or dance performance?

Our girls are in years 4 & 2 and they go to a C of E voluntary-aided primary school. All the rehearsals and performances are done in school time and are orchestrated purely by the teaching staff so it's not an extra-curricular activity organised by an independent dance or theatre school for example.

In our case we have to double up on the tickets as well because they split the performances into morning & afternoon sessions and our girls are always in separate ones! Of course, we go to both. How could we not?

It's really been an eye-opener as to how much and how frequently this school asks for money nowadays. So much so that this Friday (Children in Need day) they've had to go low-key (by their own admission!) because they were getting complaints about the constant donation 'requests' for this, that & the other recently and I agree.

We're not in a middle or upper class area and the school is clearly not a private or independent one so quite why they think it's reasonable to force us parents to find all these extra sums of money to pay for whatever they want, whenever they want it is mind-boggling to me!

We're never consulted about any of the fund-raising ideas beforehand (or school trips either, and they chose really pricey ones to go to!) - we're just told what to do, how much we have to give and where the money's going to!!!!

Thing is though they've got you over a barrel because if you don't stump up the money your child is excluded from the activity and who wants to do that to their child? Exactly. Us neither! :(

Anyone else in this situation too?

No we don't but the PTA sells DVDs of the performance and various Christmas bits to raise funds instead.

I think it's reasonable in secondary school though when productions are a bit more 'professional' with proper arts etc.

I think enforced giving is fundamentally wrong.
I like the model of suggested donation , like museums do etc. £3 is nothing for most people, yet for some people it's a meal.
I tended to find working like that people would give £5 & tell us to keep the change & it generated more money than a blanket ticket price, for school funds

Did you choose to send them to a VA school or was it the only option you had? It's not unusual in VA schools to ask for contributions from parents.

The school residential is different. It's not a curriculum based trip so paying for it is not voluntary. It's only curriculum based trips where payment is a voluntary contribution.

At the DC's school it's £1 a ticket, the money covers the costs mentioned and raises funds for the school. Now that it's been academised I'd hope there'll be less need for fundraising.

Catholic primary in a rather deprived area here and dd is in year 1, I've had an older dc go through the school who is now at secondary and it has always been constant requests for money.
We do get charged for Christmas plays etc and there is always a raffle which is extra.
£1 per child for any own clothes days including children in need this week where dc can go to school in their pyjamas ( in this weather! )
The one that gets me though is the bi annual letter we get that"suggests" a donation of £5 per child or £10 per family if multiple dc which goes to the catholic archdiocese, this is entirely voluntary as my df is a governor there and told me this, but it's worded as though it's compulsory

Never paid in nursery or primary here. School provides parts of costumes that we would have to buy additionally (eg school provides halos and angel robes, we provide blue (pe) shorts for pirates. No child would ever be excluded due to inability to pay - this includes the whole year outdoor activity trip in p7.

I get very twitchy that the school raise funds for lots of different charities though. They are always super excited to be giving £499 to children in need etc.....when all I can think it why is it not for the school?

Our school are the opposite and practically never fundraise for charity. I've always thought that was odd as my own primary school did it constantly and other parents have commented that it's 'not very Christian' (CofE VA school)

I have to say though that my DCs school seems to do a lot LESS fundraising than mine ever did as a child (80s/90s) We were always have sponsored something or others for charity. Or 'sales' which we used to organise ourselves (my homemade bookmarks always sold well).
My parents had to buy tickets for our Christmas play. Strictly limited to 2 per family. That was my mums biggest bugbear. We HAD to be in the production and HAD to attend rehearsals/performances after school for a week. (This clashed with the expensive extra curricular activities my brothers and I all did). Then she had to help with bits of costumes which cost money. Then pay for a ticket and apologise to my Grandparents that they weren't allowed to come. At all. Under any circumstances.

By contrast DCs school play is free to attend. As many people as you want (although it gets very full sometimes). They film it and put it on a memory stick for free if you have one in. (A pta mum suggested we start charging for tickets and dvds. I blocked it by pointing out a lot of parents can't afford it)

I know it is all done with the best of intentions, and things like Children in Need are a very good lesson for the kids in giving and caring for others.

BUT we have to make cakes for Friday, and then I need to finish work early so that I can go to the bake sale to buy someone else's cakes! I know it is completely against the whole idea of it but wouldn't it be easier if we all put a fiver in and cut out the aggravation!?!

I agree about the cakes loopy, plus I hate the idea of buying cakes when I don't know who has made them and whether they have been made in hygienic conditions (but that bit is probably just me).

We never paid to see performances.

Six I only ever buy the shop bought cakes at these sales after a nasty stomach bug caught from a school cake.
Loopy just bring in a shop bought cake instead of slaving away baking. It's just a thing to sell to money. No ones fussed about the quality as long as you don't poison anyone

Why would primary schools be buying in expensive plays? When I was at school the plays were written by the teachers, sets were made by parents and teachers, costumes made by parents.
There is no doubt funding of schools has suffered under the austerity measures (like the NHS), I guess parents are having to make up the shortfall. It won't be long before we are all chipping in extra for our healthcare too.

I've never had to pay but I wouldn't really have a problem with doing so, there's always collections on the door when entering for charities the school supports but TBH I'd rather be donating to the school.

But you have chosen to send them to a voluntarily aided school?
So you knew you would have to pay for stuff before you sent in their application.
I think it's really bad form to apply for such a school and then resent paying.

arethere - I don't think you understand what 'voluntary aided' means. It has nothing at all to do with parental contributions; it means that part of the running costs of the school are undertaken by a foundation or trust - usually a religious organisation, and in the case of the OP, the Church of England.

1. It is illegal - not merely poor practice - for a state funded school to exclude children from activities that take place as part of the normal programme of teaching and learning (including trips/visits) due to non payment of suggested contributions.

1. Parents are indeed being asked for more and more money these days. It is because government cuts are crippling school finances. Ask to look at the projected budget for the next three years for your child's school, especially if you are in an area with relatively low deprivation - it will horrify you, I guarantee.

We pay for tickets to the annual schiool play - they rent a little theatre in town so the kids have a proper stage and they can fit the parents in. I think that's fine. Any performance held in school is free.

I think fund-raising for the school and fund-raising for charity are 2 different things and both should be encouraged, within reason. oUR SCHOOL DOES SUPPORT cHILDREN iN nEED BUT MOST OTHER CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES ARE THINGS LIKE BUN STALLS THAT THE KIDS ORGANISE AND RUN.

Apologies for the gratuitous use of caps

Our school charges £2.50 a ticket for the Xmas shows, and I pay it gladly. The PTA sell mulled punch (alcohol free) and warm mince pies for 50p each, and nice photos of the children in their nativity costumes that take me hours of unpaid work to take, edit and print for £1.50 each.

I'm on the PTA and we do poll parents annually on what activities they'd like to see run which we try and they don't fucking turn up and what they want to fundraise for -which they then resent contributing to--. Our school gets absolutely shafted by the funding formulae compared with others in the area and can't afford reading books for the children etc. The PTA can't win. We subsidise trips and they still moan they're too expensive. We have parents that will lift their children over the sides of a bouncy castle rather than pay £1 at the summer fair (they are the first to moan if we suggest not having a fair because nobody helps).

I'm getting quite sick of it to be honest. There are around 5 of us that are there, week after week, month after month, and it's like getting blood out of a stone.

Any school that excludes children from trips because of funds is breaking the law. Do you know for a fact that is why they were excluded from the trip? Some parents just don't want their child to go.

Lala. You do not have to provide cakes. The school has asked for donations. Nor do you need to finish work early to buy them. It is optional. There is not a teacher stood ticking off each child that brings in cakes and punishing those that don't. There will be cakes. The cakes will be bought. The money will go to children in need. If you would like to help raise money for children in need then take in some cakes. If you don't have time then don't feel pressured. I am not giving cakes for my school. It's not something I want to do. I will do other things in the year though.

Most people don't even cover their own costs through tax let alone theirs children's costs.

Yup. If you have school age children you are almost certainly not a net contributor, unless you are in the very top % of earners.

I think it's bad to have to pay :( We're living in poverty and I don't think we could afford a lot of this.

Yes, we have to pay £2.00 per ticket. But u do get a mulled wine and a mince pie. But we also have to buy our childrens costumes. So you are basically paying about £20, to go and see your child, in a play for abt 2 minutes. I always want to leave after dd has been on. I find the rest totally boring. They put on an elaborate play at dd's primary school. I is on for nearly 2 hrs and is shown 3 evenings. The kids are obligated to attend every performance. So it doesn't finish till abt 8pm and there are poor 4yo reception kids yawning on stage. It is so o.t.t.

no charge here, which is great.

I would gladly take part in a raffle (say £2 a ticket) for a reserved front-row seat though, as way of raising funds that's entirely optional.

Music service ensemble concerts cost £8/head though, which I think is a bit steep, as by the time we've paid PILs in that makes £40 a time.

Our school is so low on funds for the extra things for the pupils yet every week until Christmas we have a dress up day that we have to pay for and the proceeds will be going to an obscure foreign charity instead of the school. PTA are trying in vain to raise funds for the children and the HT is taking the little funds they have to pay for (non-essential and frankly pointless) building works and refusing to allow the Christmas Fair to go ahead as the school can't afford it.