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?

The winter isn't the best time to be walking kids who've just been swimming.

I think you will find that they are voluntary- they have probably jus put it upside down in the smallest font to try and mislead more parents. It could be considered discrimination for excluding a child from a day of lessons for not being able to afford to buy the school a prick stick!

prick stick!!! sorry to laugh but that has tickled me no end!!

YANBU really but schools are facing huge cuts (at our school £600 per pupil per year) that if you can afford it, send it. It will enable them to support kids whose parents can’t afford it. Looks awful going forward though - once we run out of people Abel to subsidise the gov cuts will really show.

Re walking. Ds’s primary was practically next door so parent volunteers helped each week.

The school plays are not free to put on costumes, script , music .

Our school fairs are free.

I do find secondary much cheaper . We have had to pay for tech materials and provide cooking ingredients

There is an election this week. If you want this situation to continue or indeed get worse, you know who to vote for.

no problem with swimming get that . £12 for art what the fuck are they making couple of pound tops and tell them to bring something from home they can make/recycle into a Christmas decoration .

My children's previous school charged £10 for a course of ten lessons at the nearby senior school. The children walked there and back.

Current school charged £26 for 5 lessons last year at main leisure centre, this year it's £33 for 10 lessons at the same senior school as previous school used, but they have to pay for a coach.

£10 for a play is ridiculous, was that for ONE person/ticket???

The school don't get enough funding for basic supplies never mind anything else. Remember this when you vote on Thursday.

I just read that the school has tiny classes (28 in year 4 is tiny! 12 and 17 in receptions/year 1 even more so). it probably won’t stay around for much longer so your problem will be solved.
year 4 at local schools is 32-34 kids, so funding for 6 more kids...

Here in NL I pay 35euro per child, per year (it's voluntary, but expected) for arts, crafts, sporting events etc, plus 45euro per year (this goes up as kids gets older) for schooltrip. Then in addition, parents make food for Xmas meal and help out at all events (and are on committees for all activities).

YANBU. We don't have to pay for swimming lessons, they do walk to another school for them (about 10 minute walk). The pta do a great job of raising extra funds. We only have to pay for non-uniform days which is usually for charity not school. Discos are obviously optional but cost around £3. None of the after school activities cost anything and there is something on nights a week. I'm not doubting that schools are under funded but a lot of them seem to have bad money management

Look at the schools policy on their website - they have to list what they charge for and what they don't.

Oh we do pay for school trips but is made very clear it's a voluntary contribution but if not everybody pays it will be cancelled. If you can't afford it you can speak to school and I assume they will pay

Don't know if it's been addressed OP, but it's not as simple as "merge reception and Yr 1". They are in different key stages (EYFS/KS1). Ideally you need to merge 1/2, 3/4 or 5/6.

And the problem if they DID merge Rec/1 and make six classes instead of 7 means they have to then make next years reception intake a max of 15 (or whatever), so they can merge with the old Reception class who now becomes Yr 1. If a class size goes over 30, they need to have more than one teacher due to Infant Class Size legislation. So then the "new" Rec/Yr 1 are merged, and what happens to the Yr 1s who are now Yr 2s but still only have 12 kids?

It's a really complex decision to mix classes, and it affects the whole school for years to come.

I would far prefer to pay £10 for a ticket to a school nativity and £12 for crafts and keep the school how it was, and I say that as someone on universal credit/free school meals etc with no spare cash at all. Supporting the school is always a priority, over everything. It's not their fault they don't get enough funding to provide necessary equipment to educate our kids.

Like everyone said - if you don't like this situation, you have a vote on Thursday. Use it wisely.

So, we’re all agreed we should vote for a party that promises to properly fund schools on Thursday?

Great.

Schools cannot charge for anything on the curriculum but can ask for voluntary contributions. That means you don't have to contribute. You should contact school and ask if this is a voluntary contribution and for copy of their charges and remissions policy

I've seen west end shows for £10. That's crazy money for a school concert.

I would far prefer to pay £10 for a ticket to a school nativity and £12 for crafts and keep the school how it was, and I say that as someone on universal credit/free school meals etc with no spare cash at all. Supporting the school is always a priority, over everything.

It's fine for you to prefer that. What's not fine is for the school or even the school and a majority of parents to push that decision on to every parent - some of whom will not think the way you do.

We have to pay £2 a week for swimming lessons and these are for the pool that's at the school. Every week throughout the year and it's actually £4 because I have twins. I don't mind as it's a lot cheaper than private swimming lessons. They make out it's a voluntary donation but they need it for pool maintenance.

@BoomBoomsCousin the problem is, the solution is to close the school and merge with a bigger school (probably further away). reception snd year 1 small enough to be merged, but year 4 is way too small as well (op said 28), but too big to be merged with year 3 or 5

It doesn't matter if the school is underfunded or not, you shouldn't be paying. That's what taxes are for. Just don't pay

Coaches were upwards of £300 for a days hire when my eldest was at school 10 years ago.
I used to organise part of the PTA and it was something I was always shocked at the prices of. The school might already be subsiding the £3 they have asked you to contribute.

Perhaps not ideal, but I think lots of schools have to have classes covering more than one key stage.

When my children were at primary school, they had a mixed reception/yr 1 class and a mixed yr 2/3 class.

There were different numbers in each year group and every year the school had to look at numbers and work out how best to fit the pupils into the fewest possible number of classes.

I was previously a primary teacher (SLT) and my thoughts on this would be:

1. This is too much in total. The HT does need to keep an overview of the costs that are being passed on to parents at any point in the year.

2. Christmas performances. Unfortunately expectations have risen over the years amongst both parents and teachers. Costumes often used to be a piece of cheap fabric put over the head to make a skimpy tabard, with the child wearing a pair of coloured tights underneath. As long as it was approximately the right colour and the child was wearing something on their head to indicate the animal/character it was fine! No teacher would send a child on stage these days in a skimpy costume. The advent of ready-made costumes has also set a much higher benchmark for what parents expect and what teachers like to provide. The licenses for Christmas productions have to be purchased too.

3. If the children walk to the swimming baths they will lose curriculum time. What should they miss? It won't necessarily fall in a break.

4. An art day with a visiting artist can be a really worthwhile experience. In previous years that would have been paid-for from an Art budget and parents would be none the wiser, but I suspect that has gone by the wayside.

5. On the other hand, art and craft has also been affected by the arms race of cheap imported goods from China. Again, in previous eras a Christmas take-home craft might have been a pattern of hand-prints with a small calendar glued to the bottom, or a folded-over painted card with some glitter on it. Made by the children, with the emphasis on the child leading the design. Then one year Mrs Smith decides to put her class's art work some IKEA frames or buy nice ready-made bits from Hobbycraft to save time and make it look fab. Mrs Jones begins to feel that her efforts look a bit home-spun and she too decides to up her game and buy special materials next year. This was fine in an era when class teachers had small budgets for expenses, or before the credit crunch, but teachers are less willing these days to spend their own money on resources and school will no longer foot the bill.

6. The HT is prioritising teaching and learning by avoiding mixed-year groupings, which is better overall for the cohort of children in the school.