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.

This is one of the reasons I became a school governor so I could object to this sort of nonsense - too often the people organising these things have no idea that for some people £12 is a lot of money etc
Everytime there is an idea like this put forward at school I highlight how 40% of our kids are FSM there for household income is less than £16250 so we need to make sure it’s accessible to all and no child is left feeling sad and left out for things they cannot control. There is nothing wrong with filling the tube with 5ps or 1ps - they are not going to send it back you could always fill it with a few 20pa at the top.

My school used to do this but it was for coppers . Schools are always after money just don’t it.

It's a rubbish fundraiser and I'd agree to just ignore it.

I also hate the "sponsored" events our school does for eg scooter laps round the playground. We are encouraged to ask friends / family to sponsor them to do it (but the money needs to be in before the event, so not quite sure they've understood the meaning of sponsorship). There's no way I'm bothering anyone else to have to contribute towards my children's PTA so I just send in £5 each (and begrudge it every time - our PTA also has a very healthy bank balance)

Wow I'm surprised that this sort of thing exists let alone hearing that it happens at other schools too! It's understandable that schools are under a lot of pressure in terms of funding but it's just not right to put that pressure on to the children and their families - competing to see who can fill up their tubes with the most money (and not even accepting anything less than 20p!) - ridiculous.

Complain to the school about it - that's an outrageous expectation for parents!

I would've seen red at being told not to fill the tube with copper, 5 ps or 10 ps. It really isn't on.
If you feel able, I would speak to the Head about it. S/he may be able to ensure that it doesn't happen again.
In the meantime, I would send DC in with one or two 20p coins, as a contribution to their class collection. If DC was robust enough, they would eat the Smarties and I would send nothing in. I hate stuff like this.

I wonder if we have dcs at the same school? My DD came home with the same smarties tube today

Our PTA do this every year and I know we have almost always just chucked in whatever change we have at the time. Definitely not £12!!

I’m pretty sure at least 10% of the kids eat the smarties and promptly chuck the box in the bin.

I’ve also helped on the school PTA and it was widely accepted that not all the boxes would come back, let alone be filled with higher value coins.

Just return it with £1 or £2 in pennies/5p’s

DCs school did this recently too.
We did it.
But I wasn't happy about it.
About £3or 4 worth went in the tube. I wasn't filling it right up, as we're constantly being asked for different items / money / volunteering. It never ends!

This week has been: bring in flowerpots, prit sticks, box of tissues.
Last weeks was: bring in luxury items to donate to school raffle and items for the tombola and pay £5 pp in advance to attend June summer fair.

Every week it's something else.

The more experience of PTAs I have, the more I think they're not living in the real world!

I would tell the PTA how you feel. I'm on ours and it can be tricky finding different ideas to raise money for the things parents want us to buy, but never ever would we want any parent to feel they have to give money they can't spare.

If they're normal reasonable people they will take your comments on board and be glad you said something, and if not then just ignore all PTA stuff from now on! We are a tiny PTA and sometimes things don't get fully thought out because there just aren't many of us, but we would want to know if we'd cocked up with something like this. If they're having a summer fayre soon too, asking for a random £12 now isnt really on.

Ignore it. The fewer people join in the sooner PTAs get the message that they are out of order.

Also the sooner you teach your DC the value of standing up to peer pressure the better and the easier it becomes to do later.
(Mum chooses to ignore the PTA pressuring her when DC are 5, makes it much easier for a 13 year old to follow the example with their peer group)

As a member of a PTA who has done something similar, I'm really sorry to learn so many people are unhappy with this . It was not our intention to make anyone feel under any pressure to contribute. We are very much aware of how difficult it can be, especially for parents with multiple children. Its purely voluntary and we try hard to make parents aware of that.

We did this just before Easter (although we did have diary free alternatives) and suggested kids do chores to get coins for the tube. We are also offering a prize but it will for the class who bring back the most tubes regardless of how much they contain.

Our PTA does have a substantial sum in the bank, but only because we are raising funds towards a new playground, its not because we are just sitting on it!

I know this isn’t the point of the thread, but I’m glad I’m not the only person who’s still boycotting Nestle.

I'm so glad dd is done with school!

I could not have afforded to do this and I suspect there will be families within the same school in the same position - is it possible to check stats on free school meals recipients in a school?

I'd be speaking to the head of the pta and the head teacher on how ill thought out and prejudicial this is to poorer family's and particularly the children of those poorer family's who could well end up very embarrassed or even bullied as a result of this stunt!

There's also the food allergy/intolerance issue which they clearly didn't check or even think about!

Appallingly badly planned all round.

Especially when as you say the pta funds are pretty healthy at the moment - why ARE they so good? Are they not spending the money they're getting and if not why not?

It's all sounding deeply dodgy!

I'd fill it with a few twenty pence pieces...no more than £2 worth. I wouldn't be filling it up all the way.

I'd fill it with pennies and send it back with a note daring them to mention the 'not pennies' rule to my child and asking them to make sure that future fund raising projects do not put pressure on anyone who might struggle to give more than 10p.

This is PTA CFery at it's best and needs challenging.

Then complained because I sent a 6 pack bought in ASDA for £3 (honestly... the kids loved them, still made £1.20 out of them and no FT working single mother and allergic child were harmed in their production)

My dd's old school rejected cakes I slaved over once because apparently they didn't accept home made. Zero mention of this in the letter. They looked at me like I was mad. Child 2 is in a much more middle class area school now and it's out of my league gold standard home made cakes at the school fairs.

Sophia I hope you take back to your pta that any fundraising activity that marks out poorer family's and their children is an unacceptable way to fundraise.

Isn't the government funding the school?

My DD and her DH are on a low income, and she's really struggling with the demands from the PTA and the playgroup committee within the same school. I often end up helping her out by donating items for raffles/making cakes etc and I've told her she needs to attend a meeting and express how crap some of it makes her feel.

Our school does this. But I would say that under half of each class actually returns the tubes filled with coins.

Doesn't stop them eating the Smarties though!

If every child just brought 5p each that would be a hell of a lot of money for not much effort.

If we'd done that at my primary they'd have raised the grand sum of about £7

I don’t buy Nestlé products either.

And this challenge sounds really cruel to lower income families. OP?”, if you do want to do it I suggest looking for money in the gutters. Any 20p the kids find they put in the tube, any other coin they keep. They’ll end up with a couple of 20ps and a £1 of copper I think. I used to pick up money as a kid and I found 20p just last week.

Send the Smarties back and say you are boycotting Nestle as a family I'd also ask what the money being raised is for and why are they sitting on £7k.

The way our PTA run it is any coins that fit (but 20p's are the best fit due to shape) no pressure to fill to the top. All returned tubes are named, emptied and put into a tombola. A few are pulled out and win a prize. (So no pressure to collect the most).

We are just happy if we make a profit over the cost of the tubes (usually 25p each).

For a PTA (or any other organisation) that relies on only a few volunteers this is an easy fundraiser to run.