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.

PTA ghouls... . Get off your high horse, Lipstick (and put your bloody hand in your pocket, instead of sneering at those prepared to try to make a difference)

I'd have sent the HT an email on the night the Smarties came home, tbh saying it wouldn't be happening in my house.

I suspect the HT would have given zero fucks.

Jesus, emailing the Head... Just don’t let it happen in your house . No banner waving necessary.

Our little school raised the money for the computer room, laptops for the SEN pupils, a shed for the outdoor toys, leased a field from a farmer fenced it, bought a mower, so the children could play on grass. This was when Tony Blair was in power. Successive governments have neglected education. I have come to the conclusion they have given up on the poor. Perhaps because the poor are too big a problem for anyone.

Expert goady fuckery on this thread, don't you think?

the Only high mindedness is this notion that Pta are altruistic goddesses
It’s staffing a stall not working in the peace corps keep it in perspective

This has made me realise though that asking the kids to bring in any spare coppers for a school jar could be a decent fundraiser and no one would know what they've each contributed.

My grandson goes to a nursery which is part funded by the government. The little ones were coming home with pictures drawn on the back of wallpaper begged from a shop. They had a fundraiser 5ps collected for paper, pens, glitter, glue. I gave, as did others. Other mums went to the Works and bought bits and pieces for crafting, colouring. That got them out of this mess.

My friend a teacher, twice a week makes up sandwiches, cakes and squash, she gives extra help to GCSE students who come to her classroom after the end of school bell. They get extra help with afternoon tea thrown in. Some families are in dire straits so helping out when and where you can is called caring in my book.

It is quite common for nurseries to use paper such as wallpaper for drawing.

I would send a unsigned letter to the head teacher and the pta .Put everything in it you have said on here and how it wrong to do this as it's pressuring the kids and not everyone is in a position to do this and you are being pressured and SHAMED into it.

If you would really send such a letter then you should not be ASHAMED to put your bloody name to it, rwalker
Honestly...

TheGrey1houndSpeaks I absolutely would have emailed the HT over this because if they're content to have the children hyped up over this money collection for it to be turned into a competition then they need to accept responses from the parents. The HT, also, needs to be made aware children with allergies were not catered for and not only that they were handed the products they're allergic to.

It's not fair to put this sort of pressure on people. Children don't understand finances and at 4 or even 8 they shouldn't have the worry of mummy and daddy being unable to affford things. I, also, disagree with paying your kids to do chores then your child having to hand that money over to a third party.

There's many, many ways for the PTA to raise money but this isn't one of them.

We had this before the Easter holidays but it stated 20ps.. we filled it up with about 1.20 each in total.. after the first day the kids forgot all about it and I just added the odd 20p I had in my purse. sent it in this week. Job done.. I was a bit meh about it too!

It is quite common for nurseries to use paper such as wallpaper for drawing. Yes, it's not functionally any different to using a roll of drawing paper from IKEA, and it's recycling something that isn't needed anymore.

We had this, I had 4 children to fill them up for. Filled them with coppers. I struggle to make ends meet as it is without school pressure to give them money because they bought the kids smarties

I don’t think you would have been outing... this is quite common practice in many schools and nurseries UK wide.
But the solution is pretty simple. Either don’t do it or put in other coins and coppers. They can’t force you!

My daughter came home with this over Easter half term but the kids had to help out family and friends to earn the money going in it. There was no stipulation on what change though so she got a mixture really until it was pretty much full. It’s a ridiculous way to do it. If they had stipulated that it had to be £1 coins it would have gone back empty!!!

Its bad enough when school want a bottle tombola prize donating by each of my 3 primary aged dc!

I'd prefer this to the smarties tube because it allows for all budgets. I've seen bottles of champagne down to bottles of shower gel!

What yogagirl123 said! If schools were properly funded by our government we wouldn’t be asking parents to subsidise basic equipment through fundraising. I work in a school in a very socially and economically mixed area. We’ve had three sponsored events last term and another one in the coming weeks. It’s too much. Many of our families have multiple children within school, have low paid jobs or one or more adults in the household out of work and are repeatedly being asked to subsidise our school budget. It just isn’t good enough.

My childs nursery did this. I ignored it purely based on the fact that I got two shitty notes about “healthy lunchbox choices” over a homemade flap jack packed full of fruit, chia seeds and nuts for my notorious fussy eater. I was fuming! Don’t critique me then send bloody chocolate home which we don’t have at home! And also charge a fortune in fees!

Fill it with pennies and tape it shut. Tell your child it’s 20p pieces. Tell the teacher what you have done and why (so the child won’t be embarrassed by their family not being able to afford to donate £12 right now.) Teacher should be happy to promise not to open the tubes in front of children, but just collect the tubes and deliver to PTA unopened. Everyone will get the message that this is not acceptable and they will hopefully think twice about it next year.

Schools are short of funding but many parents just can't afford that much cash. I would send in 5 x 20p in each tube. Explain to children all the money the children bring in will be added together so school will get dome funds. I dread the book fair where all books are so expensive and children are all hyped up by school taking them class by class to choose which books they want, then a slip of paper comes home, your child has selected to buy x,y and z books and total cost is often over £20.

@caringcarer get the slip and order them off Amazon or 2nd hand from World of Books. The kids dont have to know where they came from 🤷 or do it with them and use it as an exercise in how to budget and save a few quid they can then earn for treats with simple chores.

Eat the Smarties and recycle the tube. Tell the kids and PTA you don't do blackmail/kid/family shaming!!!