Is this school normal?

[pinkiepie1]

Does anyone else's primary school charge to see their childrens concerts?

DD is 5 and had her Xmas concert. The teacher has her favourites so they were in the play while 12 other 5-6 year olds were just sat quietly shoved in a corner.

It doesn't bother me too much about the favourites, this is about the fact we had to pay for tickets to see our dd sit on the floor for 40 minutes.

Then we got offered to buy her work.
I felt like a bad parent but I didn't buy half of her stuff.

Is this just the norm now? Or is dd school just trying to get as much money as they can?

A voluntary donation to go towards school activities is fine, but charging every parent is a bit off unless it's a private school because any state school should be aware that not all parents can afford it, especially at Christmas when lower income parents will already be struggling.

No charge for concert but yes to favourites. Basically an array of all the precocious kids who’ve been mean to DD most of the year.

We have had the option to buy these things in the last month:
Christmas cards
Craft the kids have made at Christmas Fayre
Self portrait in a frame

Ours is £2 per ticket which goes to a charity. Secondary charged £5 each for a music concert which I thought was steep.

the 12 children just sat occasionally standing to do a few songs

In many a Primary school / Early Years production, the 'choir' are the key children, who actually carry the performance. They can be the specially selected ones. Don't put the children down.

Yes, it isn't unusual for a school to ask for a small amount to come to watch the nativity. Never anything people can't really afford, but if you can sell tickets or programmes it is a little bit more funding into the school. Budgets have been tightened recently but charging isn't a new thing in many schools. It might cover buying in the music, or go towards some costume or scenery updates or if there is a 'profit' it will go toward things for the children.

I think ours were a couple of pounds each. Sounds more like you are sour she didn’t get a leading part.

Teacher having her favourites should be a cause for concern. For the children who are the favourites, as they may have a hard landing of disappointment when they are not when in another class in future.

No my daughter is very shy so even if I wanted her to have a "main" part I know she wouldn't be able to cope with the pressure/audience so would never want her to do something she hated.

Yes it does annoy me when the same children get picked for everything but that might be more to do with my school years.

As for 'putting children down' I wasn't and that was never my intention, I felt bad that my dd and dozen of my dds friends looked miserable and bored through the entire thing! And felt like it wasn't fair on them.

I live my son's school more every time I read another of these threads. One show per class, everyone has a speaking part, free admission, and it's over and done with. Fantastic.

Ours charges £2/ticket to go towards the costs of costumes etc. But every child had a part to play and a line to read. It's a very small school though (the entire KS1 is less than 50 children).

we went to my son’s nativity yesterday and it was £1 per ticket and then you could buy keyrings, cards, and calendars with a picture of the kids in their costume for £2 each. then there was tea/coffee/juice and mince pies afterwards for 50p each.

What happens if parents can’t afford? That would be so bad and cruel on the kids whose parents couldn’t afford. I know it’s only small amounts. But if money is really tight and you have more than child’s concert some people might struggle.

And anyway, parents already pay for schooling via their taxes. If they pay their tax to the government and the government doesn’t reinvest it in education so the parents have to pay twice to to maintain their children’s education, I can understand them being miffed and it is the government fault.

Our school didn’t charge, but I’d be happy to pay a reasonable amount, given that schools have no spare money.

And I’d pay extra on top if they banned selfish parents who stood up filming and taking photos and completely blocking views. Those same ones who are so desperate to catch their child on camera that they don’t give a shit about the poor kids who can’t see any of their family in the audience.

What do they cost?

Ours was £2 a ticket. £1 of that was venue hire (tiny school hall).

To buy the script/cd plus the performance licence was about £40/45.
Tickets included cake (donated by local shop) and tea/coffee - the school administrator kindly supplied those. Raffle ticket with prizes donated by our very small staff team (couldn’t ask parents as there was a PTA event very soon after).

The costumes I bought, I’ve built my collection over the last few years using eBay and supermarket January sales though I needed to add a few characters this year which meant about another £25. School supplied £20 of materials towards scenery but I spent the same at least plus countless hours including weekends to make. I do love the Christmas show but every year I think I need to stop spending so much.

As mentioned we are a small school so really don’t make more than a few £, and that’s not including all that we as a staff choose to spend.

^this^^

Teacher subsidise it a lot. Both in terms of time and money. We don't have to do a show but parents would be up in arms if we didn't. If they are doing evening shows, do you think staff are paid extra? Who is looking after their kids? Do you think they get to go to their own kids shows if they are during the day?

A pound or 2 to cover the cost of materials, scenery and costumes and the script cost really isn't a lot to ask. If you can't afford it honestly please say and of course we'd waive the fee so no one misses out but we have no money to put on events like this without asking for a donation.

I have a nursery class of 52. My budget for the year is £150. Less than £3 per child for art supplies, stationary, ingredients for playdough and baking never mind actual resources and toys.

We charge £3 for all of the xmas shows.

Tiny school, struggling for supplies. Usually they save the money from the xmas shows to buy laptops or software for the children.

Shows cost in terms of painting backdrops, props etc.

It DOES cost a fair amount to put on a show at school (Y1 Teacher here 😊). We buy in the script/CD which are usually between £20 and £30 (ours this year was £27). Doesn't sound much does it...HOWEVER...when schools purchase these from companies like Out Of The Ark or wherever, they HAVE to, by law, purchase the Performance Licence...this massively bumps up the cost. Ours this time was £55. So £82 before we've even made any of the costumes, props, setting etc. With no budget 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

We didn't charge but did ask for donations on the way out.

And ffs...the money DOES NOT pay for 'teachers drinks' 🙄. That's incredibly insulting!

In fact, I spent over £50 of MY OWN money to buy tinsel (angels), face paint (stable animals), card and sequins (crowns) black cloth (backdrop) and glitter (to make stars!) because we didn't have money in our class budget for these 😩

And ffs...the money DOES NOT pay for 'teachers drinks' 🙄. That's incredibly insulting!

I did actually get a cup of warm diluting juice after the evening performance!

(I didn’t get home for dinner until about 10pm as we had to clear the hired hall for the next morning, after being in work at 7.30am and spending lunch setting up chairs. Still, I’m obviously a CF )

I went to my dd’s Play tonight. It’s the first one in juniors. I usually paid £2 a ticket in infants but tonight was free! Also at the end of the performance the head teacher stood up and told us that year 6 had scripted, financed, cast, and organised the whole show!
It was well produced and set during WW2. I was very impressed!
However every class teacher was there, several TA’s, PTA etc all worked really hard to support this. I doubt they got paid a penny in extra wages. The parents supported by providing costumes. The Parish Chirch supported by providing the venue. It was a true community effort.

No. Our school is hyper-inclusive and would never charge for an event that most parents would consider essential that they attend, and some parents wouldn’t be able to afford the charge and so wouldn’t go.

The PTA raise a lot of money through fairs instead.

And ours is a school that has lost a lot of its funding. It would still never do this.

We paid for our primary school shows back in the 80s. It was £4 per adult, £2 per child, which was far more expensive than the local cinema (£1.50 each) and comparable with local amateur dramatics (£6 adult £3 children).

There were 3 performances a year too for the older years.

I’m in Scotland. Our school would never charge parents to attend a school play. We are always conscious of the fact that 1 in 5 children in Scotland lives in poverty and try to remove any cost related barrier that prevents parents and children from engaging with school life.

We have to buy thickets for our school Xmas play, £1 each maximum of 2 per family . Goes towards school supplies, I'm perfectly fine with it, we are really lucky to have free education so paying £1 here or there a few times a year is fine. I have 3 in school and I've never paid more than £12 a year in total.

Schools who put on a production have to pay for the scripts, music and performance licenses, which can vary from a few pounds to hundreds. There will also be other costs eg making scenery,some costume provision, overtime payments for TAs who stay with a child who has 1:1 support, props... there is no money in the school budget for this (apart from staffing costs which are budgeted) so if schools are able to recoup some costs through voluntary donations, tea and cake sales etc, it brings down the amount that teachers fund from their own wages.

OP's daughter was among 12 who say and did the occasional song. She also states that
my daughter is very shy so even if I wanted her to have a "main" part I know she wouldn't be able to cope with the pressure/audience so would never want her to do something she hated.

Then despite knowing her daughter would hate anything more, goes on to say it does annoy me when the same children get picked for everything but that might be more to do with my school years.

Teachers really can't win