To think school shouldn’t be charging for this?

[Indella]

Our school has a habit of expecting parental contributions for everything possible but the latest 2 things we’ve had letters about I don’t think falls under what a school can charge for.

The first one is my child has now started the compulsory school swimming lessons. These are part of the curriculum and so can’t be charged for. However parents have to pay £3 per child, per week for the transport to the swimming lessons. Is this not the school’s responsibility to fund as the swimming lessons are compulsory?

The second one is an “art and crafts day”. Letter says children will be spending the day, still in school, doing Christmas themed arts and crafts. They have asked for £12 per child for the materials. This is being held at school, in school hours and is instead of the normal lessons. I legally have to send my child to school so it’s compulsory. Letter doesn’t say voluntary contribution so I assume again we have no choice but to pay but surely the school can do arts and crafts with the children that don’t cost so much. 28 children in the class so £336 of art supplies! Sounds like they are using parents to re-stock supplies for the year.

I know they are not huge amounts but add that to the fact we paid £3 each entry to the school Christmas fair (including having to pay for the accompanying parent) and £10 each for tickets to watch the Christmas performance. Plus the never ending non-uniform days it’s really starting to add up and it feels like the school are simply using parental contributions to fund what should be covered by the school.

AIBU to think these things shouldn’t be charged for?

It's when Parents who can afford to pay the pound or 2 towards things, but refuse that annoy me. I'm in an affluent area, and I recently found out that another parent refused any money requests to anything the school did. From coaches to swimming lessons to craft days to days out, they didnt pay....yet they had plenty of money for holidays, cars and luxuries. That's what parents like me who have minimal funds are paying for sadly! Too tight to contribute to school, and told me they didnt want to pay if they didnt HAVE too.....Grrr.

Our school don’t charge for swimming but the children have to spend a large chunk of their day walking the 1.5 miles there and then back again so if maybe prefer to help fund a mini bus. Xmas art activities probably cost that much per head but the PSA are very active and subsidise much of it which brings it down to £4 per child. I’m a bit at £10 for a school show though

The craft in itself seems excessive.

If walking to the pool is do-able then it should be done.

Making a teacher redundant, even with a voluntary redundancy can still be very expensive for the school and will not be a quick and easy fix.

If you’re not happy with the way that things are being done then stand to be a parent governor the next time a vacancy arises. I did a 4 year term and it really was an eye opener.

We have a pool at ds school which other schools and outside groups pay to use but the council are trying to close it down due to lack of funding. They have just given the school until January to find the funds or someone to take on the costs else it will close 😔

The problem is that schools in affluent areas do not get as much funding as those in poorer areas so us parents have to fill in the funds.... but on the other hand buying tickets to school plays is rank, I can understand everything else though

YANBU I don’t agree with all the extra charges unless it’s a club or extra activity requested. Some of us on very low income Working to pay the bills, single parents, no support, are unable to pay and made to feel ashamed for it (not bashing just stating my personal circumstances)
You are lucky it’s only £3 for transport for swimming as at our school the lessons are compulsory but it’s £6 a lesson once a week per child for 2 terms. Centre charges £4 a lesson so no idea where the extra £2 comes into it.
They have a bucket at reception for ‘generous donations’ throughout the year for books etc. Safe to say this is rarely used. This should be payed and supplied for by the council not parents imo.
My eldest child brought home a letter for a residential trip for 4 days costing £400 plus spending money. If you booked separately as a family for this place it would be cheaper. It’s appalling.

I work in primary. None of those things are charged for, only trips.

No. You don’t have to pay for these. If you don’t pay, where I work your child would still be able to got to swimming. I wouldn’t EVER mention in front of a class whose parents had or hadn’t paid. If you think schools should be properly funded, VOTE LABOUR this week.

Schools are massively underfunded so have to ask for contributions from the parents. Or cut out activities that benefit the children.
So if you’d like your child to have a broad education then you’ll have to put your hand in your pocket.
This will seem like small fry if Tories get in again and the cuts continue.

Yes, your contributions seem very high- £10 p/ticket for the show!! Wow! But schools are massively underfunded on every level so maybe the money isn't just going to buy craft supplies but to buy loo roll and pay the cleaners or other bills? Take it up with the head or the governors... vote for a party that will fund schools and education properly for all!

Wowzer! I agree, £12 for crafting is mental. I would be happy to make a contribution if this were my kids school, but not £12. That’s really cheeky. We don’t contribute to transport for compulsory swimming lessons and there is no charge to get in to the school fair or annual Christmas performance. How ridiculous! They wouldn’t get hardly anyone through the doors at any school around here doing that. There are other ways to raises funds than asking for quite a bit of cash from parents every term. What about the kids from underprivileged households that can’t afford? How embarrassing for their parents to have to broach this with the school. I get schools are underfunded, but the way to tackle it isn’t to rip parents off. I have 3 kids, I’d be spending probably £20 a week at that rate on extras alone. 🤦🏻‍♀️

I have no issue paying for transport to places as schools are on an increasingly tight budget and the children will simply lose out somewhere if we don't offer our support. We pay £1 to go to the school play, which a lot of people get annoyed about, considering they have paid for costumes but I don't have an issue with that. I would be very annoyed at £12 for Christmas arts and crafts. Maybe £2 per child is fair but £12 seems extreme. It does always seem like you are being asked for contributions and I do find it a bit annoying but I can afford it, I worry more for those who really can't afford it and it is just extra pressure or those kids miss out. It is difficult as schools are really being squeezed but so are families 😔

I can’t believe the number of people that seem to begrudge paying for their child’s activities at school, and suggesting that it would be preferable to have a higher teacher:pupil ratio instead.

I dislike the constant requests only because I never have any cash on me. The school haven’t yet got around to sorting electronic payments. I’d far prefer they worked out requirements for the year and then requested a termly fee to cover this. There’s not a lot in the budget that I would prioritise over my child’s education. Fair enough if you really can’t afford it, but I would assume most people moaning socialise, enjoy a few takeaways, even take a holiday or two.

The school is trying to provide opportunities for your DC. I feel sorry for schools - they’re expected to teach absolutely everything and get nothing but complaints in trying to do so.
I think it’s really positive that they’re trying to maintain smaller classes at the different developmental levels, and if it’s an affluent area, then I would hope most parents would want to support if they can afford to contribute.

If you’re struggling, talk to the school, I’d hope they’d be willing to help out, or agree instalments, etc.

I’m a bit shocked at the £10 ticket for a baby though - never heard of that before!

Ask for a breakdown of what they're spending £300 on for art supplies. We never paid any money for art or swimming. The swimming is a good price and life skill so I wouldn't object but I'd refuse to pay £12. If they made a fuss I'd keep the kids off but they can't make you pay.
School play also unreasonable. We used to pay £3 a ticket. Your school are taking the piss. Why should you pay because they decided to have another class? Their decision, they pay

To previous poster, schools aren’t ‘ripping parents off.’ They can only charge parents enough to cover the cost of whatever activity/trip the kids are doing. And because the government doesn’t give schools enough money to do all of the things the government tells schools they must do, schools need to get the money from somewhere. In my school the head crams 33 into each class and has cut back on TAs. I am worried about what the Conservatives will do if they win given the dire state of school finances already

Schools are underfunded but they spend money on things I sometimes raise an eyebrow to. Our school which is an academy pays for speakers to come in for parents, hardly any of the parents attend these talks because they are during the evening, the last one cost the school £1,500. Just seems madness to me. I am not sure if this is some sort of Ofsted outstanding requirement? Then, just recently our school purchased text books - there was a calculation error and the books were three times what they had budgeted for so parents were asked to make up the shortfall. It just all seems such poor management.

Maintained schools all over the UK are having to make tough financial decisions in the current climate.
If you could choose, would you rather:
A) continue to stump up voluntary contributions to receive a good education which includes things like swimming, art, science experiments?
B) get rid of 'non-essential' staff e.g. teaching assistants?
C) only hire inexperienced teachers and get rid of anyone who costs a little more?
D) pay for a private education?
E) vote in a government that funds schools adequately?

The parents that are saying 'my school doesn't charge for xyz, that's ridiculous' have no idea what cuts have been made in other areas of their school budgets. Does your school have less TAs than they used to? Is SEN provision the same quality that it used to be? Are the premises as well maintained as they used to be? Are teachers dropping like flies because they're trying to do the work that TAs used to do? Or perhaps you're just one of the lucky ones that has a huge surplus in the budget to carry forward...

Option C isn't legal but experienced teachers will tell you about the pressure they face in schools now and how many are being forced out because they're too expensive.

I think its expensive to pay £10 for the school play its normally about £3 if asked, one of the schools I work in have been asking for £1 donations for own clothes day/children in need. The high school my daughters go to ask for a voluntary donation of x for DT we don't pay it as that would be for 2 children but we give for non uniform and charity days. Maybe suggest to the PTA could craft materials be collected as I'm assuming that the school are getting in an outside person or company for craft.

The school
Is funded by the government.
They aren’t funded well enough.
The school Is trying to give your kids a enriched experience, however is grossly unfair on those who haven’t got spare money to spend on these things.

I was thinking the exact same earlier. In the last week or two. It’s been school play tickets, then added costs of school play programs, school disco, then had to buy a Christmas jumper and a hat for Christmas jumper day and Christmas lunch (I don’t mind but the likelihood is that DS will wear them once and that’s it). School trips etc. It’s been a lot lately.

We also have to pay for the transport to the swimming pool. They travel 11 miles to the pools and it costs £2 a week. I don’t mind but I have two in school now..

The school system is so underfunded which is a huge reason why this is happening. There’s always gonna be costs but the school play tickets were £2 odd each when DS started now a lot more.

I must add. We can afford all of this. But many other families struggle. I know a lady who couldn’t afford to let her children go to the school disco the other day 😓 I felt like offering her the money but she’s the type of person who wouldn’t accept it!

@scottsparkteacher Have you read the letter I posted. The school openly admitted that the fees they are charging parents are to cover the cost of the extra class they have put on. It’s not just “covering the cost” it’s deliberately using parents to fund their management decisions.

YANBU, I've lost count of the number of times in the last year we have had the school wipe out our money for other things at short notice, and yes it often seems to be a ridiculous amount of money.

It is still happening now and we're a few weeks from Christmas. There always seems to be some planned arm-twist to it, too - like the children are asked in front of each other or it is for something that is 'compulsory'.

We're not that badly off so I dread to think how people on lower incomes are coping.

Schools are funded per child. Each child having a deprivation score provided by the council. So school do have some idea of those with much and those with little.
Secondary has far more funding.

Both Conservative and Labour have given money to schools with one hand and then deducted it from another area. Labour and Conservative Councils top slice money before it gets to school. Some more than others and some hold onto that money.

The wages bill is generally around 80% of your budget and it is for schools to decide what they can afford when advertising for jobs.
Just as it is for parents to decide what they can afford to pay for enrichment and what may not be offered if the school can not afford it

If you can pay it then please do so and if you can not, go and speak to the Head who may be able to access other funding.

There are additional grant streams separate to school budgets for children without access to public funds and under the FSM entitlements. There are always pots somewhere for those in genuine need if the Head knows about it