Aibu to not want to fill a smarties tube with £1 coins

[Invisimamma]

This will be outing if any parents from my child's school are on here...

Both children came home from school and nursery today with a tube of smarties each as a gift from the PTA with instructions to eat them and fill the tube with £1 coins or 20p, letter specifically states not coppers or 5/10ps. Apparently the tube will hold £12 of 20pences.

There will be a prize for the class who brings back the most money.

Now I have a few issues with this:

1. my friends child has a diary allergy was really upset he can't eat his treat (she didn't know this was happening so couldn't provide an alternative)
2. we still have lots of Easter chocolate and don't need more
3. dp and I both work but childcare and other costs are crippling us at the moment and we're skint, an extra £24 is really beyond us just now
4. we've just paid £46 snack money to nursery and £12 for a school trip for one and £8 for a trip for another (amongst lots of other recent school costs)
5. does anyone even has coins lying around the house anymore? I use contactless payment for almost everything and don't draw out cash.

The children have been hyped up about it and both have said they need to raise money for the school. I guess I'm feeling guilty that we're not in a position to participate/it's a pain in the arse idea.

Because it really is the parents' fault for the bankers greed that has led to austerity, isn't it?

Do our kids go to the same school???

Have you got some of the old £1 coins lying around?

We home educate and I think this is a great idea. I'll give DD a smarties tube and see how much of her hard earned pocket money I can guilt her into giving back to support her education.

Or you know...not.

mike lol!

Its too much - it’s constant from schools.

Don’t get suckered in!

When DS1 first started preschool we were asked to do the same thing. Not wanting to be called misers my friend and I dutifully filled our tubes with £1 coins (about £30 each). However a few weeks later the grand total raised by 50 children was £128 🤔. Having raised almost half of that between us we chalked it up to a lesson learned and never did it again.

We got this from our school too this week, I declined ours.
We don’t support nestle for a whole host of reasons, couple that with the fact that it’s just been Easter and that I am sick of the sight of chocolate, it’s so unhealthy how much they are given. Plus at our school it seems a lot of the fundraising involves chocolate / sweets etc

One way to make money for the PTA is to set up easyfunding. Then when people shop online, the retailers make a small donation to the cause. I think that provided the PTA is a registered charity, it should qualify.
We’ve had this for 6 years and made a grand total of about £60. It should be an easy win but parents either want to use their own cash back site like top or just don’t want the hassle of downloading an app or tool bar to track cash back from purchases.

m3lon you almost had me there

PTA are really out of order. Any contribution must be voluntary and not imposed
I’d email HT explain your misgivings I wouldn’t get into a debacle with the pta cows
It’s a horrific thing to model to kids,that money will make you popular et a prize

As a member of a PTA who has done a smartie challenge this Easter I am a bit in shock at the high handedness of this. We are grateful for whatever contributions made whether they are pennies or pounds.
Also we gave them out at the end of last term so before the chocolate glut. We suggested that the kids earn't the money by doing little jobs over the holidays for either their family or friends/neighbours so at least the patents got something of it rather than just being fleeced!
We try to be really careful about how we word things so that people don't feel too much pressure.

They did this when our son was at primary school
I thought it was bloody cheeky, especially as they would constantly cancel events "due to staffing issues" but then expect parents to pour cash into the school coffers.
Needless to say, my son politely turned down the tube of smarties as we had promised to buy him 2 from the newsagents after falling to this scam the previous year. A few other parents did the same - lol

I'm all for donations - but it's on my terms, sorry

One way to make money for the PTA is to set up easyfunding. Then when people shop online, the retailers make a small donation to the cause. I think that provided the PTA is a registered charity, it should qualify. Our school does this, but so does our Scout group. I choose to donate to our Scout group, I haven't raised much though, as I don't buy much. I think the issue is that no parent can donate to everything, even when it's free.

I wouldn't fill it.
But I also see how desperate schools are for money (not enough pens and pencils etc)
It is not our responsibility to fund schools.

If parents keep on plugging the gap left by inadequate funding nothing will ever change.

In Wales they have cut education to increase NHS funds to health boards they say. Their opinion being we cannot have it all ways there is only so much money in the coffers. So schools are having to scrounge even more now. I look forward to an improvement in our health service (cough)

I’ve read some right ole chuff on mn.but this tops everything.utter fuckery
Look, if it’s a state school you really do have a moral obligation to contribute as much as you can even if that means going withoutholidays, new clothes etc. If you can contribute nothing then you don’t.Just explain to your children that you can afford it. It will be a good lesson for them

Let’s address those points
even if that means going withoutholidays,new clothes
There is no amount of money I’d give the pta that equals cost of our family holiday

Just explain to the kids that I can afford it. My kids know I generally give the PTA nada,nothing,nowt. I don’t give money. No money.ever. Occasionally I’ll rummage for some tinned food, a shop bought cake that’s it.only if I can be bothered

I’m on a PTA and am a governor. Neither the head teacher, the governing body or the PTA of our school would accept this CFery. We are a mix of fairly comfortable families and families who struggle. If we ask for contributions for tombolas we say one per family. I’m astonished by the number of posters saying their school does this. Please DO NOT engage with this. If a PTA has 7K in the bank then that is disgraceful- they are merely the custodians for monies donate to the school to spend on the school not to boast a healthy balance. No PTA in my opinion should have more than 2 or 3K in the bank!

This is shocking- for the expectation of monies plus the encouragement to eat sugar-the 'hidden curticulum' is important. I wonder what the reaction of the children's dentists would be 🙀

This is shocking! Not just the expectation of money but the encouragement to eat sweets. Surely that is at odds with the curriculum and healthy eating? I wonder what the local dentists would think?

It’s once a year, all you dental nuts, not once a week. Calm down

I would treat this in the category that I treat all such requests - as entirely optional. I do about a third of what is asked for our school Xmas fair. I often volunteer for stalls etc and that’s just as valuable, if not more, than handing over cash. I understand it’s difficult for DC but in the medium/long term, it’s no bad thing for them to learn that not everything is affordable all the time. I suspect they are not going to open them at school so if it really bothers you, fill with coppers and put a quid on top. I think that makes the point that it’s too much of an ask.

I live in a wealthy area and our PTA never asks for anything like that much. £12 per child is crazy. Are you 100% sure you are supposed to fill it up?

If you can’t afford it then ignore it or fill it with whatever you can. It’s very exclusive of the school to allow this to go ahead, as well as dangerous when considering food allergies - I would definitely complain