AIBU to want teachers to stop buying resources out of their own pockets.

[washandrepeat]

For years I've read about teachers having to pay for their own photocopying once the budget has been used up plus other resources. Now I am reading that some teachers are having to purchase their own soap and sanitisers for their classes as the budgets won't stretch.

We seem to be one of the only nations, not funding schools to deal with the pandemic. We also seem to have some of the biggest class sizes in Europe, especially compared to the wealthiest European nations. Since when did we accept this for our children? 21 is the average in OECD countries, 23 in France and 21 in Germany. These are some of the reasons why school there can go back with social distancing. Why do we put up with this as if we can do not better?

Why are property developers allowed to build hundreds of new properties in an area without a whiff of new schools to provide for the growing population in these areas?

This isn't a debate about should schools open or not or a teacher-bashing thread if anything this pandemic has shown how we never stand alongside the teachers. Perhaps if we'd listened in the past we might not be in the current situation.

AIBU to want the teachers to stop spending their own money to pay for the Governments failings and for Head Teachers to support them in doing this.

It’s providing enough for 34 that costs. Engaging science lessons require resources for experiments, art lessons require different media, history lessons and DT lessons require ingredients and all these things are required for some English lessons. To be hands on and engaging the children need things to put their hands on. This style of teaching has been recommended and lauded for a long while but unfortunately this has happened in conjunction with budgets being slashed.

If you want your kids to have a great time learning in a fun and memorable way then you have to put your hands in your own pockets. To be fair it is more fun for me to teach these lessons though and see their happy little excited faces so it’s not all martyrdom!

I have been buying scented reward stickers for dd's teachers for end of year/ xmas. I heard about glue sticks and pens too.

Can I add in science technicians.

Quite often Ive provided the onion for plant cells, or had to source things off olio like potato's for osmosis when our budget has been closed.

Not a wish list, just some of the things I have paid for out of my own pocket in the last 3 years. Current total is upwards of £15,000...

£15k over 3 years?!!! You spend over £400 a month on stationery?!

Sorry. I'm not buying it!

I spent a lot when I was working but in all honesty, when you're earning £40k a year, if you can't buy the odd glue stick without grumbling, it's a bad job really. Made my life easier and made my kids happy.

At the very least, if you're spending thousands, do a bit of freelance tutoring or exam marking and put it through as expenses on a tax return (along with union and other subs).

@MinnieMousse there are deprived families in Germany too! A letter is sent to all parents with details of charitable organisations that help to buy school supplies for those who can’t afford it. This includes the fabulously expensive school bags they all need! For the rest of us, we know that these are expenses we will incur in August, so we factor it in. I think the only problem with this system would be introducing it. Once parents were used to it, it would work all round...

I spent a lot when I was working but in all honesty, when you're earning £40k a year,

Not all teaching staff earn £40k. And TAs and other support staff aren't earning anywhere near that, many are much much less.

It’s easy to suggest that we just stop dipping into our own pockets, but honestly it makes our lives much easier when we have the resources and it’s quicker and easier to buy things here and there than to try and fight the larger issue of the money just not being available.

I wish it didn’t have to be this way and it is a kick in the teeth when faced with all the teacher-bashing, especially when your salary increase “because of your hard work during the Covid crisis” is decried by many as being unjust as most teachers did “fuck all”.
No mention of the fact that:

1. The pay rise was almost a year in negotiation and in fact had nothing to do with Covid (apart from Bojo’s choice to spin it that way).

1. The pay rise will come from existing budgets so some teachers will need to fund even more resources themselves.

Obviously this isn’t the case everywhere but you get the idea. Would be great if parents could supply stationary, books and textbooks, with additional funding to cover these costs for disadvantaged pupils.

It is surprising how little schools can claim extra covid funding for. Schools have had additional costs like cleaning and signage for social distancing. Yet the criteria suggest that additional funding for cleaning is restricted to known or suspected covid cases only. Many school budgets are on a knife edge already, they can't easily absorb costs of things like hand sanitizer for 100s of pupils.

I remember having a teacher who would lend out pens, but took one shoe as a deposit for the pen. I wonder if that would still be acceptable.

Sorry, just to add - just because school budgets are on a knife edge and covid funding barely exists, teachers shouldn't have to pay for resources.

@StrictlyAFemaleFemale
Honestly I wish everyone would stop subsidising their employers. Stop working through your lunchbreak. Stop working unpaid overtime. Stop excessively covering other colleagues' work when they are long term sick. Stop buying stuff. NONE of these things are the responsibility of the employee. They are all the result of pisspoor management and underfunding, but we dont know the extent of the problem because it is hidden by well meaning employees covering everything up.

Exactly ! I work with adults with learning disabilities , I am always saying to my colleagues that they shouldn't be spending their own money to buy resources that should be provided by our management. We earn a measly £9 an hour if the company wont pay for it then we certainly shouldn't!

Not every teacher earns £40k! In my most recent role I was part time, so on £16k. I bought breakfast for my pupils as I was in a deprived area. I bought food for cooking lessons, blue tack, paid for my own subscriptions to teaching websites like twinkl, specific teaching resources etc AND I counted myself lucky that the school bought paper and laminating pouches. In the school I taught in during my NQT year, we were issued one standard ream of A4 printer paper per half term and any more than that we bought ourselves. We had to buy our own laminating pouches.

In France parents have to provide exercise books, pens, pencils etc from primary age
As others have stated upthread the same is for Germany. Impoverished families get the money to finance the equipment/Schulgeld from the state/charitable sponsors as well as help with school trips. If you do not have a piece of equipment it is written in your home-school book so often kids help each other out too (which means I subsidised at least 3 pencils > for other kids because my child is a soft touch).
How that would work here is anyone's guess because although the emphasis for closing the gap has been placed on pupil premium and kids on low family incomes/free school meals afaik means schools get more money per head for those children, all the money is pooled/funnelled into one budget?

Stop buying stuff. NONE of these things are the responsibility of the employee. They are all the result of pisspoor management and underfunding, but we dont know the extent of the problem because it is hidden by well meaning employees covering everything up

Very well said - I accept that those spending their own money are well intentioned, but actually they're simply preventing anything being done

My ex was a tosser in many ways, but on becoming Head of a local primary he stopped this dead. Needless to say chaos ensued, with some things unable to be taught, but when the jobsworths advisers got involved he simply asked what they were going to do about it

They very quickly got their supplies, and so did several nearby schools who latched onto the same idea

Why should schools provide equipment when they know that the teachers will just cough up?

Or why should parents have to provide even the most basic equipment if teachers cough up? I honestly refuse to believe that parents cannot provide a pen and pencil, when invigilating exams I have had pupils sit with their hands up wanting to be provided with a pen, at the same time wearing eye-wateringly expensive trainers.

After 23 years, I refuse to do it anymore. I go on TES and I see great resources being sold by other teachers and I know they would make my teaching better, but I just think no, not doing it anymore. It's a job, I am not spending my wages on my lesson plans.

Most pupil premium money pretty much pays for general TAs in Primary Schools.

It’s scandalous that teachers have to pay for things that help children in a school environment.

Part of the issue is that (and I fear that this belief has been tremendously evident since lockdown) because school is ‘free’ to attend, there is a pervading notion that all aspects should be free. And in a time when the budget slashing tories were heartily voted in, we as members of the school bodies, are forced to plug the gaps. Parents refuse to see how bad it really is - you only have to read through the threads where schools have asked for money to support school budgets to see how people whine about it. And you simply cannot say ‘don’t’ or ‘well I didn’t vote for this shower so will sit back and wait it out’ because clearly enough people are voting for this condition.

My classroom has raw sewage that runs down the walls when it rains. It’s done this for the last seven years. People need to recognise how bad the system is and stop voting for the blood sucking conservatives. Actually fucking do something to support the education system instead of relying on us to supply your children with the equipment needed for a decent education.

Yes it is ridiculous.
The parents should supply their DC with all required stationary.
They should be supplied to students from low income families.
I provide all stationary for school if my DC don't have a pencil teacher might lend one but is not obliged to.
We get a list each year costs €15.00.

In France parents have to provide exercise books, pens, pencils etc from primary age
Ireland also.

In the US we as parents buy the the stationary pack, costs us about US$70. It includes things for the classroom like boxes of tissues, wipes and hand gel. Throughout the year the teacher will email if they need something for the class, I will always buy something and send it in. They’ll remind us to check our child’s supplies for run out things or lost items and replace them.

The teachers here get a room with desks and chairs, that’s it. Every other single thing is bought buy them, the charts on the walls, learning resources, storage boxes, decorations, shelves, books and cushions for the class library etc... they have to also empty it all out at the end of the year and take it home then set it up again for the new year. The best teacher gift you can get them here is a cash visa so they can restock their class if they want to. There are about 4 opportunities thorough the year promoted, their birthday, Xmas, teacher week in May and end of the year gifts.

In the US parents bug all the deployed hot Uhr classroom - blue, scissors, exercise books, pencils, colored paper, cleaning products. This was even before COVID. Go into any Walmart or Target in July or August and you will see a big display unit with shopping lists for every school in the area. Your find your child’s school and grade and year off the list and off you go shopping. Many companies (my employee included) runs s “school supplies drive” in the summer where we also buy items from the lists to help out families who can’t afford them. If there is still a shortfall this is covered by the teachers and they are paid a lot less over here than they are in the UK.

I work from home full-time - have done for years - and I’ve lost count on what I have spent on electricity, paper, pens, office furniture, my Varidesk, etc because I don’t see the inside of the company building from one year’s end to the next. If I had a problem with it I could change jobs but I don’t. It’s tax deductible also.

Parents buy all the supplies for school - crazy auto-correct!

I am guilty of this.
Despite our school having a ‘strict’ stationary guide they never have them and don’t get in trouble for not having them. Therefore we have to supply them or they can’t do the work. The school have given me a pack of 50 black pens in the two year been there. We are given 15 glue sticks for the entire year and if we run out we are expected to buy our own. No highlighters or Scissors. We are a very deprived school in a very deprived area and pupil premium means if a student doesn’t have something we (the school) need to supply it but we (the teacher) don’t see pupil premium. I only get board pens because I know that if I ask resources I can get them and they go on the stationary tab for the department. Most teachers aren’t told they can get resources. Budgets are tight and often heads guard them fiercely to the point they ration stuff out and deprive.
I buy pens and highlighter and sometime glue as otherwise when I get class book reviews I get penalised because there aren’t enough in book annotation or pictures (eye roll) and god forbid I don’t have glue.
I knew it got bad when I realised I was pre sticking things in students books so that I wasn’t wasting glue (children use a ridiculous amount when they do it themselves) It sounds extreme but some schools are stretched to theirs limits
I admit a lot of it is emotional pressure from schools and student as I am a softy.
I dread September. When I went in to set up classrooms there where three hand sanitising stations around the school and our block has no toilets or hand washing facilities. We won’t be getting more. And this is for a school of 1700.