To question how much a prom venue wants to charge per head for non-eating members of staff?

[Ginmere]

This isn't as much as an AIBU as a -has anyone heard of this?

I work at a secondary school and have got a prom booked for the end of the month. There are about 160 students attending and around 40 staff. The venue quoted £20 per head for the students for buffet food and unlimited soft drinks all night. No problem with that but..... have now said that they charge £20 per head for all attendees whether they eat or not!!!' In other words they want £20 per head per staff member attending who won't eat the buffet food and will buy their own (mainly alcoholic but not to get drunk drunk) drinks at the bar.

Is this normal? Has anyone heard of this, we are thinking it is pretty shocking to be fair 😳 but it is mainly a wedding venue so wondering it they are right?

Or don't have any food tell the kids to eat before they come and just do a disco.
Or charge more for kids tickets to cover total cost

The fact it's a Wednesday night is heavily in your favour when negotiating. The fact it's a marquee is against you, as if they just didn't have you there for the event then they wouldn't have to erect and power the marquee, could have a much smaller staff on, etc - the economics are a bit different to if they would have an empty space that could fit 200. Hosting a prom in the garden is also going to kill off any other custom that they might have done that evening.

Ultimately, they're probably going to try and call your bluff if you refuse to pay this, as they'll calculate that you're going to find it harder to find another venue at this point than they are to cope with just not having this event. Still worth asking, though.

Also, why has this only just come to light? If the venue knew about the teachers and out of nowhere say they must pay when that wasn't originally included in the cost then they're being v unreasonable and I would argue that, hard. However this - 'We thought that on a Wednesday night the venue would be happy to have 40 staff buying drinks' - makes me think that you assumed this but didn't actually mention the staff to the venue until recently? If so, I do think that that's on you.

Just order the Buffett for the 40staff then. Surely adults need feeding too.

do you pay to attend work functions you’re expected to attend? Yes it’s a celebration but ultimately as a staff member you are there for work and expecting people to pay is a bit much in my book.

Yeah, if it were a school trip I'd agree because they are arranged by the school and without staff in attendance it wouldn't go ahead. If a random extra staff member wanted to tag along tho they'd obviously have to pay. Equally, the OP said that slt are there to supervise, so the presence of ordinary teachers isn't actually required. It's nice that they want to go, but asking parents to fund it isn't okay. I've only worked in two schools, but in both places teachers pay for their own places at prom. This years (up north) is £35.

We usually have a sit down meal that students (and staff who want to pay for) then the other staff can come later when the food has gone. They can come for.free but get literally nothing for it.

Why cant they just provide the food for the number of people you've paid for and leave it at that?

That’s cheap my dsd is going to hers next month and it’s £40 plus extra for soft drinks I think it’s so the teachers are covered
I’m promed out in our house-it’s cost almost a grand for a party that is gonna last 5 hours

In think they should charge and staff should be able to eat too! Seems weird staff not eating

Oh and our school would pay for staff (not alcoholic drinks). I don't think they'd expect staff to pay because they're there to support the students, and as someone else said, whilst not technically on duty, you basically are.

We pay the same as the kids but get the same deal as the kids- three course meal and a welcome drink. Kids get tickets for a free extra soft drink or two depending on how well their fundraising has gone, staff buy their own drinks.
Seems to be the easiest way to do it but does rely on enough staff being willing to go, and to pay. The kids generally leave around 11pm for their after-parties so we have a bit of a staff do after they've all cleared off.

Paying £20 to give up a Friday evening and spend it with teenagers is not my idea of fun.

No, nor mine - so why are 40 members of staff trying to do it ?
Most school proms involve some staff members volunteering to supervise, and obviously you wouldn't expect them to pay. Some schools might insist it is the form tutors or whatever, others might ask for volunteers, but it is a much lower number than 40.

The additional per head cost has been announced this week by the venue so has come as a surprise.

That will be because it has come as a surprise to the venue that you have turned this into a staff night out, too.
The venue will need a bigger marquee, more staff, more toilets, (toilet paper etc etc etc) for 25% more people. This clearly isn't a few staff supervising prom as the venue expected, this has turned into a staff outing.

No-one is begrudging the staff who have to go, or volunteer to supervise in small numbers, to pay, but this isn't the case here.

All that said, it is an extremely cheap prom!

Ours was in a lovely 4 star hotel. No charge at all for staff, they even laid in free drinks for staff as they were there to supervise and help the hotel staff keep order (should the need arise) it was £45 per head though.

I used to work in a high school. We all went to Prom. It was a celebration of the year11s. We all dressed up and it was viewed as an event. It is a very affluent area and it was worth going for the 'one up manship' that went on- the different ways of arriving- horses, carriages, smart cars etc. We all had great fun.

We didn't pay. The staff were paid for partly by the school as a thank you and partly by the students.

@Rainbowknickers how has it cost you nearly a grand?!!

£20 for unlimited soft drinks is really good!

Sorry still out and trying to keep up and focus on my evening at the same time! The venue has the marquee all year round, they have weddings every weekend so not hiring anything extra for our prom.

They knew the numbers from the get go - students that needed feeding and staff who would be there so we haven't sprung anything on them. The £20 a head for staff not eating came through this week, they didn't explain this before to us.

The prom is costing more than this, the £20 is just the venue payment, we aren't in a rich part of the country so this isn't unusual.

Teachers do want to go to prom and celebrate with their students and the students love them being there - nothing strange in staff attending. They interact with the students, it's not some staff do.

Thanks for the opinions so far.

When I got married the venue said if you're having 150 evening guests we'll charge and cater for 120 as not everyone eats it and that will be ample and it was...

Teachers do want to go to prom and celebrate with their students

This is the key - you admit the staff are there to celebrate, not to supervise. And this must have been clear to the venue with 40 of them going. If it was 5-10 staff you would be in a stronger position.

Is it possible for the school to pay, or at least share the cost?

I would expect a venue to charge for every person attending. I would expect them to provide the buffet and soft drinks package for everyone too.

How the tickets are paid for is up to the school. I would have thought that some kind of fundraising to subsidise the prom would be reasonable. Alternatively staff paying themselves (apart from those actually working on the night) is reasonable as long as they get the food/drink and are not obliged to be there if they choose not to attend.

The more I think about this the more I think the staff are being CFs expecting to go to this event for free. That's FORTY people, who yes, maybe they'll buy a drink or two each, but as you say OP, aren't going to be going crazy at the bar, who'll be using all the facilities, who'll mean that the venue need to allocate a larger marquee, and on top of that the 160 who are paying are only having soft drinks, so there's absolutely no advantage to the venue in this arrangement at all. There is a cost to them being there and someone needs to pay for it.

I can't see any reason for it should come out of school funds. I think it would be ridiculously unfair to expect students to pay for their teachers. I CERTAINLY don't think the venue should pay!

So yes, if teachers choose to go and celebrate with their leaving students, they need to put their own hands in their pockets and pay.

Furrydogmum, that's really not how most venues work. They know how much to provide for the numbers that are given, and work out the costs accordingly.

That’s reasonable! Mine dd is £50!

Your prom committee should factor the price of feeding staff into student tickets or the school should pay.

That's so reasonable,ds's prom is £35 per head plus drinks plus mini bus!