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.

Its.something that should have been sent.out in Sept.and give you the year

I’m in the PTA and I hate this idea (DC have had this challenge via sports clubs). I really think anyone in the position of the OP should write an anonymous letter to the PTA about the financial hardships that are their reality and that the group needs to consider the current economy.

You find with these groups that part of the PTA is affluent and among the ‘I’d pay it!’ because it’s a drop in the hat. The other part offers the reality. And then it seems to come down to which side makes their case the best. They NEED parents to tell them exactly how these things impact household finances.

Our summer fair is coming up. They want 50 volunteers some with food hygiene certificates. 200 pupils. Huge crowds in the building it is worrying fire escape wise being in such a crush. How they expect so many parents to get time off work to volunteer for this baffles me

Expectation of £12 per child is ridiculous. Why don’t you just put the 20ps in? doubt if they’ll open and check in front of your child if you’re worried about embarrassment (I wouldn’t be embarrassed anyway).

We did this at school one time (for the PTA) but with a few differences. We didn't specify what types of coins. We didn't specify the tubes had to be filled. We did't keep track of who was handing back which tubes, they just all went into a box in the office and the poor PTA treasurer had to count it all.

Email went out saying something like "Well done, we raised £500" or whatever.

I wasn't personally that comfortable with it as we don't but Nestle either and there's always one parent who objects to free chocolate. But from a PTA point of view it is a very quick and simple way to raise funds. We even got a local cash and carry to give a big discount on the smarties, each tube cost about 10p.

This idea is always bandied about on the PTA uk website and we’ve never taken it up because it works out very expensive.
Just don’t do it. If no one joins in the PTA will have to think of something else next time.
It’s hard thinking up new fund raising events so I don’t blame the PTA for giving this a try but none of these events are compulsory. Have you approached the PTA and told them £12 per child is too much and you’ll be doing coppers instead? It bet if a few of you did that they’d be forced to be more sensible.

aren't they meant to take the tube around friends and neighbours and ask them to donate to the cause? I don't think there's any requirement that you personally have to fill it.

I think some people are being very literal about this.

Ps prizes should be on a class not a individual basis too so as not to penalise children who can’t join in. Prizes are usually very small too like an extra 30mins of playtime so the other kids don’t fill hard done by,

The competition aspect of it is crap. Puts so much pressure on kids, that don't understand the value of money just yet. My school said no pennies- guess what I did!

I'd be tempted to write 'fuck off' on a rolled up piece of paper and slip it into the tube, but in reality would just put it in the recycling.
It's the 'no coppers or 5s' that angers me. Any money should be gratefully accepted but instead they are pressuring and alienating people by demanding more. Wrong.

It's a very manipulative way to go about raising money. We've given you Smarties so now you are obliged to give us money!

I find this approach very distasteful and would be teaching my children that donating to good causes is a great thing, but NOT when someone tries to manipulate you like this. So I would ignore it and we would think of something worthwhile we could do instead.

I'd also ask what the money being raised is for and why are they sitting on £7k.

Fine to ask what the money is being raised for.

As for the healthy bank balance - not unusual in May/April in my experience. School budgets are generally set from 1st April to 31st March (or at least they are in Scotland). At the beginning of April the Head crunches the numbers to see what they can afford to do and works out what extras they'd like the PTA to help fund. Our Treasurer often dished out loads of cash through May and June, booking things for the following academic year or committing to the purchase of ipads or sound systems. Then by August we'd be back down to very little and the cycle would all start all over again.

Giving children a prize for bringing the most money is disgusting imo.

The prize would probably be another tube of smarties anyway.

Sagradafamiliar

I'd be tempted to write 'fuck off' on a rolled up piece of paper and slip it into the tube”

If they had just said fill with any change and bring in whatever the amount that would have been fun and PTA would still have a nice sum. The competition aspect is awful and puts the children from wealthier families at an advantage. Activities like this can chip away at children's confidence from such an early age and I do think primary schools could do a lot better at ensuring children are treated equally. Our primary school did similar and went as far as photographing and naming the top 5 biggest fund raisers on their news letter. They also held an annual tennis tournament that the whole school had to watch and it was the same winning children year after year who were raved about in the news letter. They failed to mention that these children were the ones who received weekly tennis coaching after school at a hefty cost while the other children may have had a handful of PE sessions where they could have a go a tennis.

I' send it back, with the sweets still in it. I'd add a link to Milkwatch and Mark Thomas nd ask why n Earth they are supporting Nestle?

www.theguardian.com/business/2018/feb/01/nestle-under-fire-for-marketing-claims-on-baby-milk-formulas

www.babymilkaction.org/nestlefree

And then I would ask them to send the tube back to you full of pound coins or 20ps as you are fund raising to keep your family in good health!

Sadly PTAs are full of well meaning people who are well off enought o be able to spare the time and effort to be active on the committee. Few of them have the experience of wacthing the coppers and living a truly hand to mouth experince! £20 is wouldn't be much of an issue to moist of them and the would be very surprised at the pressures such a fund rainsing action can put on parents with little or no disposable income!

It really should be banned, along with all other advertising / fundraising that uses 'Pester Power'

I agree with you op. Saying no small change is unfair on low income families, who may only be able to give coppers.

When I was at school we were given film canisters to fill with coppers. This seems more acceptable, apart from the plastic issue, which people weren't so aware of then.

Personally I would rather give by bank transfer or direct debit. I don't have time to faff about with change or participate in cake sales.

Oh FGS!

Ours only got their smartie tubes on Wednesday and this morning a mum has already uploaded a photo of her child holding up Their filled smartie tube to the PTA fb page. this is really a competition for the mums.

Chuck some Monopoly money in.

The cheek. I bet the prize is a tube of smarties.

My daughters school do this every year!
I put 5 twenty pences in and that's it .
She enjoyed joining in and I saved myself a few quid for the next fundraiser that will be thrust upon us .

I was always taught that you gave a “gift” because you wanted too, not to get something back!
So kind of the pta to spend a few pence on their gift to the pupils, but want back many times the value of that gift!
We had this at my children’s school, and it was specified as £1 coins. Due to my husband being very ill and unable to work (off for 9 months, so on half what was already a poor wage, plus the extra cost of travelling for treatment) I could barely afford the extra cost of a multipack of smarties never mind fill the tubes up with £1 coins (3 children so 3 tubes). I spoke to the head teacher who responded to just fill 1 tube, and he would explain to the pta! I don’t think he believed how hard up we were and even 1 tube filled would make the difference between my kids being fed and not being fed!
In the end, to prevent my children being picked on, I sent in the 3 tubes, filled with 1p coins, which was more than I could actually afford! That’s the problem with pta’s which are run by the well off parents, who think that just because they can afford it so can everyone else.

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.

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.

No I don't.