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?

They should be stating that contributions are voluntary. As are all the resources, rewards and treats most teachers and TAs pay for out of their own pockets 🤷

@HollyGoLoudly1 the £300 is for one days special art and craft session though I suspect it's being used to subsidise the rest of the years activities. As a former teacher (who used to buy pupils breakfast, lunch and buy my own school supplies) working in a school where we had to use school funds to get kids shoes this is a reality BUT all these charges are voluntary and even if any parent or no parent pays no child can be excluded. We were really careful about how we asked for contributions. It was a church school and we fundraiser all the time for extras for the pupils

@MrsBadcrumble123 WTAF? Refugee children and many many economic migrants won't have any money. At present the legislation thank god ensures that children get education no matter what their family income is. It's a human right

The issue with school funding is massive. No government has got it right . Education is not free. We all pay for it. Use your vote wisely on Thursday

My school is at the point where it’ll either have to cut a teacher or multiple TAs. This is not acceptable and the level of underfunding is a disgrace. I suspect it won’t be too long before they have to ask for a large parental contribution. I’d rather schools were upfront and said they need £100 from parents rather than £3-5 for plays etc and then people would realise the underfunding. I agree that masking it means that the situation isn’t given the coverage etc it deserves. I’d also rather pay that £100-150 to avoid a teaching being fired but I realise that many couldn’t afford it.

@cremebrule when I was at school in the 1970s our school asked for a voluntary' contribution every term of £10 per child. It was a lot of money at a time when a shop worker got £1.50 a day. But it was up front and we knew it was coming. So my mum had to pay £40 a term for extras that meant we had decent school supplies and people ( like poets) coming into school to enrich the curriculum. We were in a very low income and it was very hard for my family to afford it. We never bothered to tell mum and dad about school residential trips like skiing or trips to France. We knew it was impossible. We had an active PTA and they basically paid for the swimming pool ( unheated and outdoors used may to July and in school holiday families paid £5 to use it ( no lifeguards!)).

Parents expect so much more these days but school ,funding hasn't caught up. Schools need technology and access to a wider range of resources for pupils as well as meeting special needs. It's very difficult on poor funding

My daughters high school has started to ask for voluntary contributions for wood tech (£2 per term) and for sporting event transportation (£2 per event) the costs of what your school is charging are ridiculous.

We don’t live in the UK anymore. We live in an emerging Communist country where parents are required to pay for “materials” for school. This includes textbooks, art materials, insurance and generally “something” each year for the classroom (For DS curtains, for DD a Christmas tree - actually both paid with the “leftovers” from the materials contribution).

Lunch is 90p per day plus they get a dairy product snack and some fruit each day. Free school bus as we are in catchment. A teacher travels with the children. DD does a free “after school” folk dancing class at school during the “free” and encouraged after school/homework time.

Despite having to pay towards schooling here, i pay far less now than I did in “voluntary” contributions and fundraisers when we lived in the UK!

Ask for a copy of their charging and remissions policy.
They can't charge for swimming but they can ask for a voluntary contributions for transport. It is voluntary though.
Re arts and crafts - they can ask you to pay for this if the children will be taking the things home with them. That said, £12 per child is ridiculous.

@Sooverthemill wasn’t talking about refugee children FGS! Always one that goes off at a tangent. I lived in SE Spain and had to pay for my children to attend school because we weren’t citizens. You can’t flood a system and then not expect it to crumble under the pressure. It’s not rocket science love!

And I won’t be voting Labour because they are happy giving our education and healthcare to the world

Education and the NHS have been severely underfunded by the Tories. Don't believe their weasel words about more money than ever, whilst technically true it hasnt taken into account the actual need. It is lies.
When my lot were at Primary I once thought I should just hand over my pay to the school and they could let me have what was left as that seemed easier! It was not like this under Labour, Schools were funded and Sure Start was a thing.

You are an actual idiot or a Boris Johnson supporter then. Hang on.. are the two things any different?

@MrsBadcrumble123 EU citizens have a right to free education for their children ( until we actually leave the EU). People who are immigrants to the UK from other countries also have the right to free education. Without education you cannot integrate. Not all countries follow this and I think it's a shame. I believe that education, health and social care and utilities should be free to everyone without a means test or citizenship text. But I'm a socialist

£12 for crafts is extortionate. I wouldn't pay it. We pay a yearly fee to cover all trips and visits including transportation. This is voluntary and cannot be forced and your child cannot be left out. DFE website has information on this. or just don't do it. This should include the £3 transport to swimming. The school should be transparent with the issues.

@HollyGoLoudly1 My child is in a full class already. We are paying for the reception and year 1 children to have smaller class sizes. Why should I be funding other children to get more direct teacher time when my child doesn’t?

@Symbollove Yes very rural school in an area with a declining birth rate. It’s only going to get worse as classes will keep getting smaller.

I know of teachers buying supplies such as pens from their own pocket.... Things are dire. But YANBU

Oh don't get me going! It sounds just like our school. We have continual demands for money including £18 for 6 cooking lessons (in school time) to cover the cost of ingredients. I could have bought a fancy Waitrose artisan loaf for less than it cost for my DD to make her tiny (bread roll-sized) loaf of bread. We pay £4 per lesson for swimming lessons which we are ordered to attend even though we do swimming outside of school and have asked to opt out. (The school lessons were taught by a school teacher who was not qualified). We pay for an author for Book Week, "craft" days, tech days (all within the curriculum) and at Christmas we are told to provide bottles of alcohol, fancy toys for a tombola, cakes and hamper items for the Christmas bazaar. And yes, the endless "mufti days". Oh and the expensive outings (eg £44 for a trip to Cadbury World). The average bill per year must add up to a couple of hundred pounds per child, before the £150 a head residential experience for Y3 kids, which always results in several kids having to be "rescued by parents because they are too young to cope".
The PTA raises lots of money for the school but the head refuses to agree to parents' requests for the money raised to be used to offset some of these costs. Parents even got charged for some musical instrument lessons provided by a volunteer who thought she was giving free lessons to the kids, only to discover the school was making a profit from her kindness.
You are not alone in being fed up with this.

It's an awful scenario. But it is the state of public services. I would just withdraw my child from Christmas stuff anyway. I'm not Christian so I'd resent my child having to take part in some ritual then expected to pay for it. I've never had to pay to watch the local school put on a Diwali or Christmas play thankfully!

Here you go, read this and tell me it’s voluntary! This was an activity that took place in school, during school time and I’m being chased for an outstanding balance!

£10 for the school play! Jeez. We don't pay - and actually I wouldn't mind giving £1/2. Our school is in a fairly affluent area and to be fair they don't ask for a lot. I had a bit of a turn last week when we had to take a bottle one day, cake the next and own clothes and £1 the next day but I see this is the least of my worries.

I've got to pay £1 for breakfast with Santa next week - can't moan at that. My biggest moan is that we don't have Parentpay or the like so I have to keep finding change and envelopes.

Do you know what other schools in the local area ask for?

I would write to the head again stating what you have paid the last few weeks for two children.

You are going to have to contact the school and say no. It's not your responsibility to finance their class staffing decisions, particularly since your own child isn't benefitting from a reduced class size.
I'd be inclined to say that since they exploited you for £30 to see your child's school play, you won't be contributing again.

Ignore those parentpay reminders. They don't mean anything, despite the slightly aggressive tone of them - you can tell the school to remove it from your account since you don't actually owe it in any legal or moral sense.
Just pay for the things you consider to be fair and reasonable.

Our school charges £3 for a Christmas show ticket. The school buys/hires most of the props (they did a massive performance of Oliver last year and hired professional sets) so there are costs. I don’t think that’s unreasonable.

That message does not say you have to pay. It's asking you to pay. You can say no or you can just ignore it.

The arts and crafts you definitely do not have to pay for. £12 is a fairly big amount of money and they do not have to do it. I would wonder what they are buying, they could ask for stuff from home to make into crafts and really think about what's really necessary. I would also ask about "poverty proofing" which was a nationwide initiative to ensure children who aren't able to afford all these "contributions" still get a chance to participate fully without being made to feel awkward or left out.