To not want to pay the school’s voluntary contribution

[Millie2016]

This is light hearted because I will pay it, but AIBU to think the school asking for a voluntary contribution of £40 a year is a bit cheeky?
Last year my child attended 3 hours a day at the nursery and we were asked to pay it. It is an electronic payment against the child’s name so they know who has made it.
I reasoned it helped the school, improved resources etc.
Every week in the newsletter they published how much had been donated and how ‘short’ the fund was i.e. how many parents had not paid.
The thing is, with last years experience under my belt I now know that the school constantly asks for money/stuff. Weekly! Dress down days, PTA cake sales and even £5 to buy a piece of my daughter’s art work.... the list was endless and relentless.
So I’m left wondering, does every school do this? Am I just being a bit tight or are they taking the P?

The school are perfectly entitled to ask, but it is a bloody cheek and there's absolutely no way I'm paying it.

73Sunglasslover is absolutely right. This is not a solution at all. It will merely delay the point at which a solution needs to be found - ie proper funding.

I have always refused to give schools voluntary contributions.
My step d goes to a special needs school and whilst myself and dh were there for a meeting the school I was reading the notice board and low and behold they gave to charities inc Children in need hundreds of pounds plus other charities
It amounted to over £1000 .
And they have the nerve to ask for V cont to the school whos pupils are all disabled. Doesnt make any bloody sense to me.
Parents give and they give it away.

Re how much do the budget cuts actually mean - my DC's school is down about half a million over the four year period. I reckon (allowing for things like employer's NI and pension contributions) that's somewhere between two and four teaching posts depending on level of seniority. And that's set against a steady increase in pupil numbers (extra 30 this year alone due to bulge in the birthrate).

They ask for 20 quid - which I paid happily enough (the catchment is a weird patchwork - literally the richest area in the town side by side with the poorest) and they have a policy of making sure no kid is left out of any activity (outdoor ed, language trips, Duke of Edinburgh) because their parents can't pay. More than happy to support that.

But at the same time I have big reservations - the state education system is on the brink of collapse due to lack of funding, and this is helping the government paper over the cracks, and at the same time fostering and increasing inequality.

This hasn't happened at my school yet but as a governor I would want to look at the possibility of a gift list type arrangement so parents can actually see how desperate the school funding situation is and exactly where their voluntary contribution is going! It's hard to believe that primary schools cannot buy colouring crayons but a sad reality. It would probably be impossible due to all the red tape though!!

@MrsBethel
Why is it a cheek?

@reluctantbrit, no the alternative is that the government funds our public services properly and works to reduce inequalities. If this means higher taxes for the rich then do be it; that is how it should be. We should all work so that our society becomes more equal not more differentiated. None of us want to go back to Victorian Britain.

low and behold they gave to charities inc Children in need hundreds of pounds plus other charities
It amounted to over £1000 .

That will have been through charity fundraisers, not out of the school's budget.

Even cash strapped schools teach their children to think about people worse off than themselves, and run events on children in need day to raise money for others. Our special school did that, as well as raising money for other charities through non-uniform days.

You seem to be wanting to punish the school for being public spirited, @KUGA

If you refuse to pay it for any reason other than financial hardship, do you also ensure your children don't use the things/services it finances?

@SoupDragon; but the more we pay it, the more the government doesn’t see that there is a problem. We shouldn’t be paying. We should be lobbying our MPs. This is a crazy situation for a rich nation with allegedly free education.

Look on the schools website at the pupil premium and PE and sports premium - it will tell you there what they spend the extra money on. They get extra cash for children on school meals and service children.

My daughter started nursery at the school she'll be going a few months ago. When I filled it the forms and dropped them off to sign her up it started... "will you donate £10... sign this to say you have paid it so we can tick you off" (so not a donation at all!). I paid it, well I called in with it as I don't generally expect to need cash dropping a form off. But now on average, there is about £5 added in the payment app about once every 2 weeks, just payment for resources for whatever they happened to be doing (we don't actually know what it pays for, it'll just say "science day" or "music day").

The thing that annoys me is they will often be on days my daughter isn't actually there and I'm still being charged. It's not a voluntary contribution either, it's added to the payment app as something you can't remove (or ignore!). I realise schools are short of money but it's just the constant asking for money (well they don't ask they just charge you), it might only be £2.50 a time, but the frequency they are asking for it means it mounts up.

As an aside, our school is cashless. All payments are made through an app. The office won’t take cash (PTA cake sales etc are different).

The online payment systems charge annual fees. We used to have one at my old school but the costs kept rising and we had to cancel it. There is a fee on each individual payment too... it’s not economically viable... especially for a small school or in areas where a lot of parents are living hand to mouth and don’t have full bank accounts...

My husband became a school governor last year and it has been a massive eye opener as to how underfunded our state schools are when he gets to hear the actual figures coming in and going out.

YABU.

Oh and PTA funds are totally separate from school funds- a PTA operates as a charity :

I assume the school is broke.

So parents have a choice:

1. Provide additional funding as and when required

or

1. Accept a narrower curriculum and less opportunities in school.

It's rubbish for parents who cannot afford to pay but this is life under a Tory govt.

@Maryann1975
When was the last time you heard of an office worker having to provide their own desk?

Not bought my own desk, but I'm in the voluntary sector and have bought various things for use in work. Software, wrist rest, mouse mat, new mouse. I've replaced parts in my work PC to keep it going.

People I know in our local health board buy their own stationery.

It's not just schools feeling the pinch of reduced budgets.

my son's school doesn't ask for a set contribution, there are a lot of fund raising activities though. I contribute when I can.

It would be a massive no from me! It’s absolutely appalling parents are asked for voluntary contributions. Regardless of being able to afford them.

Sorry but over the course of my working life time (so far) I have consistently paid in more tax than I have ever taken out of the system. That includes my use of the nhs!!

The government need a rocket up their arses and actually sort themselves out regarding how shitly the fund schools.

I’ve also been anti private schools but now I’m actually considering it.

@LittleGin

The government need a rocket up their arses and actually sort themselves out regarding how shitly the fund schools

How would you anticipate that working given your apparent dual objection to the amount of tax you've paid?!

It’s the Conservatives who have done this to schools.

@SleepIsForTheWeeak yes it was added to the payment app and gets listed amongst your outstanding payments.
I guess if you choose not to pay it sits there as outstanding all year.

Some attitudes on here are appalling, yes we pay taxes etc but sadly we have a Tory government only interested in lining their own pockets.
People need to stop being so bloody small minded, I pay taxes, I pay the donation to the school, I do community gardening( council doesn’t maintain the flowerbeds etc) and I don’t mind because it benefits the community/ my children.

I need to put this thread down. The amount of posters who can pay but won't pay is awful, truly awful. The government won't pay. Whether they should or not is moot. So, if you don't pay, and you can, then somebody else is paying for you. The teacher perhaps or perhaps a parent with a better moral conscience but who earns less. Utterly shameful.
The poster who won't pay despite boasting they pay more tax than they've used. If you've got kids, that means you earn in to the hundreds of ks. And you won't pay. Shame on you. You're basically letting other people pay for you, whilst justifying it to yourself it yourself with a bleaty 'well the government should pay.' Well, they're not gonna.
Like someone else said, I presume those who can pay but don't, make sure their child doesn't play on the playground equipment bought through this, or use any of the pencils. Fuckers.

Seems a low amount to me. I'd pay and forget and pick my battles.

Unless we raise taxes or solve the school funding crisis, i'd get used to it. For state secondary school, we are asked to donate £20 a month plus we buy the vast majority of text books (£80 a year), maths equipment and craft/cookery/items.
My DD's primary school has asked us this year to provide writing pens, pencils, glue, colouring pens, rulers, calculators and highlighters as well as the usual PTA donations of £10 a term.
Id rather pay this, than lose staff.