To think that schools do too many "pay a pound to..." days?

[NewSwimmingMum]

It isn't an issue for us to pay £1 here and there for mufti, odd socks, Christmas jumper etc, although remembering is a different matter!

Am I wrong to think it might add unnecessary pressure to families who are struggling? There will have been 2 in October, 2 in November and then at least 1 in December.

I guess one good thing is that it is a little more anonymous now school asks us to donate via the online payment system-at least a parent can imply to child they have paid. But not sure they should have to.

We also don't pay for wearing chirstmas jumpers?! They do it every Friday during December!

Even there, though, kids whose parents can't afford to actually buy a Christmas jumper for their child - never the most economical or long term of clothes investments in the first place - will feel left out.

Don’t send your child then. Keep him at home if you’d prefer. Your attitude towards the school doing something nice is horrible
What would be nice is if the leadership teams at some of these schools spent time considering the impact of their various initiatives on the families in their school, and then planning accordingly.

To be honest fangs it's interesting that you're head of the PTA given your attitude towards members of wider school communities. Why should anyone keep their child off school because someone else has decided that the children need to wear neon green socks on Thursday and next week it's yellow day?

No school has to do endless charity fundraising days for assorted charities. PTAs can, and should be able to, think of ideas that are mindful of the school community.

@beatrice82

Disagree - we have 300 families at my school. If everyone donated a quid then we'd have £300 which can make a huge difference. It's only a quid.

It’s only a quid. For families that have more than one child that £1 can build up or can be the difference in putting £10 on the gas instead of £5 for the week.

World book day was the worst. It was either themed or for a few years the kids had to wear Wally or Wanda clothing from Where's Wally. I didn't understand as surely the idea was to dress as a character from your favourite book but no school insisted on this. So I had to fork out for 2 outfits and then pay £2 for the privilege.
Other dress up days were generally okay although in reception and Y1 there were a lot.
Secondary school is better but we still get requests for money. £30a year per child for DT supplies (okay) odd sock day, Children in Need, Christmas jumper day, non uniform day all add up. We are also asked to make regular donations to the food bank.
We live in a deprived area yet ths school seems to think we all have an endless supply of money.
Luckily eldest rarely wants to join in but DC2 always does.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

No one is brushing them away as irrelevant at all.
Like I said, if the school has approached this subject in this way, it’s appalling but needs to be dealt with.
My experience has always been that those that complain about these things are the one that can afford it but don’t want to.

Imagine being under my wing of the PTA where I tell parents repeatedly “you don’t have to get involved but we do need funds to pay for your precious ones to use laptops and read books.”
It’s unbearable.

I appreciate it's a thankless task on the PTA, and that you're under a lot of pressure to find money that isn't there - but I still don't think that transferring that pressure to the poorest parents is fair. I'm all for optional events, with the opportunity to spend a lot on even tickets, raffle tickets, charity auctions, if people wish to (and can) - my only beef is when it's nigh-on demanded and falls on the shoulders of the wealthy and impoverished parents alike.

I think it's often a case of managing expectations and, if necessary, showing people the balance sheets and asking them what they propose. That said, school budgets must be in a very parlous way if there isn't even enough to buy books.

My school had a non uniform day this week and specifically said it was free on the flyer? Usually the point of non uniform day is to make a few extra quid, so this stumped me.

My experience has always been that those that complain about these things are the one that can afford it but don’t want to.

I don't doubt that at all in many cases; but conversely, there are likely to be others who are too proud to admit that it's a struggle and will quietly cut other important things from their budget and just pay up, so as not to stand out.

@LolaSmiles

I can almost guarantee that they do spend a good portion of their time when conducting these various events that the impact it has on every family is talked about endlessly.
However, most Children's education is free so some financial request is not unreasonable when the government refuses to adequately pay for even the basics.

I didn’t say they should keep their kid off if someone has suggested children wear X item of clothing. I said they should keep them off if their child doesn’t want to go on a school trip and that school is refusing to mark them down as an authorised absence. I’d also be questioning policies and procedures within rather than moaning about the actual event(s)

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

It isn’t transferring it to the poorest. It’s transferring it to everyone across the board including staff and those that comprise the PTA which are parents too.
School budgets are garbage. State schools can’t even afford to repair computers that are a must as part of the curriculum. If they don’t have them and don’t complete that tick box during ofsted, they become inadequate and no one wants to attend. This then means intake is low which means budgets per student are lessend and the cycle continues.

Our PTA has been asked to fix and buy various items that have utterly astounded me as I thought they were basics.
Some schools don’t even have a budget for paper and rely on donations from parents which are often impoverished themselves.

As part of a PTA it’s incredibly awful having to beg people for this money but we do so to try and get those 6-8 hours, 5 days a week, the best they can be for the kids. I don’t want to stand there and listen to someone openly complaining about how shitty we are for requesting a donation. It’s horrible and those that do openly complain often are the ones, like I said that can afford it.
They think the school should provide it all yet when they can’t they continue to complain about it not being available. It’s madness.

@Frogsareflyinginfromthewest

Are you in a town beginning with K, op?! Sounds exactly like DD school.... so many £1 here and there, and shes only in Rsception!

I have a feeling I may be from the same town! Also same school year and they seem to be milking all these £1 days what feels to be every other week!

@StucklnAMuumuuCantGetOutOflt
Was that comment for me?
I’d love you to be on our PTA.

[quote Fangsalot89]@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

It isn’t transferring it to the poorest. It’s transferring it to everyone across the board including staff and those that comprise the PTA which are parents too.
School budgets are garbage. State schools can’t even afford to repair computers that are a must as part of the curriculum. If they don’t have them and don’t complete that tick box during ofsted, they become inadequate and no one wants to attend. This then means intake is low which means budgets per student are lessend and the cycle continues.

Our PTA has been asked to fix and buy various items that have utterly astounded me as I thought they were basics.
Some schools don’t even have a budget for paper and rely on donations from parents which are often impoverished themselves.

As part of a PTA it’s incredibly awful having to beg people for this money but we do so to try and get those 6-8 hours, 5 days a week, the best they can be for the kids. I don’t want to stand there and listen to someone openly complaining about how shitty we are for requesting a donation. It’s horrible and those that do openly complain often are the ones, like I said that can afford it.
They think the school should provide it all yet when they can’t they continue to complain about it not being available. It’s madness.[/quote]
This. Many times over.

The equipment that the PTA has provided at our school over the past 4 years as enabled the curriculum to be properly taught. The school is so underfunded. The teachers and staff do an amazing job in making learning fun. We have funded some really fun science based activities as well as the usual non uniform days.

Every child has the opportunity to join in the fun regardless of whether they have donated. We know that some families don't have a spare £1 but there are others who donate that many times over because they can and this is invaluable,

The kids have a blast. The school gets what it needs to make the kids learning experience and overall school experience the best it can be.

It's the hardest thing being an active PTA member especially as it's a very small group. It's hard pitching it so that those who can, donate as much as they can, and those who can't aren't made to feel bad but, at the centre of it all are the kids. ALL KIDS regardless of their family's financial circumstances.

@LadyGAgain 🙏🏻

I can almost guarantee that they do spend a good portion of their time when conducting these various events that the impact it has on every family is talked about endlessly.
However, most Children's education is free so some financial request is not unreasonable when the government refuses to adequately pay for even the basics.
Explain how endless 'wear X' days for assorted charities throughout a term increases funds for the school.

The way you're acting is like all these days are well considered, properly planned, have taken into account everything that's going on in schools, have considered the impact on families within the school community, and all funds go to the PTA who are single-handedly saving the school.

If you read the posts from dozens of posters that's quite clearly not what people are experiencing, but you're turning this into a 'why it's so hard being on the PTA and everyone moans when we're making school nice' argument.

What nobody on here (or offline for that matter) has ever successfully explained to me is why it's a great idea to regularly have parents using time and money to source assorted items for regular fundraising days, then to pay to use the items on the chosen day.
e.g. £3 parking, plus petrol costs, plus time to go to town and find a shop with the correct item, plus £5 for a tshirt or item in a particular colour, multiplied by number of children, then £1 per child to wear the item of clothing that they didn't actually need, for 6 hours = minimum of £15 spent for 2 children, only £2 to the fundraiser, and parents left with items they don't need.

So don’t pay it. You don’t have to.

@LolaSmiles
Yes that’s exactly what I’m saying.
Bow to the impressive might of the PTA who “single-handedly save your child’s school and education.” I’d love to have a badge with “we are the saviours, quit your moaning plebs” on it. It would be a real conversation starter.
😀

Let’s take out fundraising events for charities for a moment (which is not indicative of every event) but how does one allow little Timmy to carry out all his educational tasks with no items or money?

This was the case when I was at school in the 90s tbf so it’s nothing new. They do happen quite often and it’s worst when it’s close to Christmas like children in need and the shoebox appeal. My DC’s school also has a Christmas fair which of course isn’t mandatory but it starts during the school day so unsure what happens to the kids without either money or a parent there but I’m sure they feel left out. My DD once made a tree decoration at school and I had to pay for it at the Christmas fair… They also used to charge for the nativity tickets and because I had DC in separate key stages I had to pay for 2 separate tickets.

This was happening back in the 2000s when my ds1 was at primary. I was sick of it. I used to keep him off sometimes if I couldn't afford to pay for something.

Ds2 went to a Catholic primary and they hardly ever asked for money.

Don't pay it.

Tell the school to stop buying Stonewall inclusion crap etc.. & spend the money on the actual children instead.

Any school that can spend money on that rubbish has no need for donations from parents.

@Snugglepumpkin
Must admit I’ve never heard someone use the term “stonewall inclusion crap” so openly 🤣

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

This is so shocking to me. The schools accounts must look odd. Someone just needs to take it to the bank. It's not hard. It doesn't have to be in their job description.

So who goes? Or do you think someone should do it in their own time?

Well, it seems very silly to go to the effort of raising/asking for the money in the first place if you have no intention of paying it in to the charity. In fact, not so much silly as fraud/theft.

If you don't have time or the desire to do all of the necessary basic parts of an event, most people with reasonable intelligence would realise that you don't do the event at all; or if it's just handling the money that you can't be bothered to do, don't charge a fee (or ask people to donate somewhere themselves). It's very simple indeed.

I don't disagree. The way is works is a teacher with responsibility for a specific area will "arrange" the day to help with their own profile and then expect all the admin of it to happen by magic.

Teachers aren't going to go to the bank and £300/£500 in coin is heavy. It's not one person popping in one their way home.

I never have any pound coins!! Never any cash at all. It's non uniform day tomorrow and I don't have any pound coins for them, no cash to even 'break up' in a shop, will have to make time to withdraw a tenner and pop into tesco.. When I have zero time to do so.

YANBU, I used to work in a SEN school and it was the endless fairs during the school day that really got to me. Because of course it was always the same kids who didn’t have anyone there with them and didn’t have any money to buy cakes or whatever and didn’t always understand why they couldn’t get stuff like their classmates. We used to keep a spare change kitty and one of us (we had 5 TAs and a class teacher in our class) would take a pound out of it and take one of them round and buy them a biscuit or something so they weren’t left out.

Staff were supposed to pay a pound each for non uniform days as well. I’m not dressing up as an elf for my bloody enjoyment, why am I paying for the privilege?

@riotlady Is it not to raise money for the school?