Primary school asking for voluntary donation

[HoppingKangaroo]

My dc just started in reception class. Got a letter about a voluntary donation for reception class fund for £1 a week to be sent in with child weekly or termly. How common is this? Do most parents pay? And will there be more things to pay for on top of this - non uniform days, raffle tickets, trips or school christmas play etc? Just wondering how much everything could cost overall for the year.

Our financial requests come as termly letter. About £25 a term so more than you're being asked. The letter always comes with details of what money is being used for. It's always extracurricular trips, external speakers, experiences, special crafts/science days etc. It is voluntary but with caveat that if not enough people pay the experiences do not happen. I'm more than happy to pay and don't mind if I'm covering for someone who can't pay. Mufty days are £1 a time. And then there are PTA events/fayres where you spend a fortune! At Christmas there are raffle prize, tombola prize requests etc. I love our school and do everything I can to support it. It's a very affluent area so the government funding they get is low.

How much does it cost each year for some of you for everything like trips, visits, fancy dress day, non-uniform day, christmas play etc in addition to voluntary donation?

Common even 20 odd years ago.

My school does it.

It help fund snack which is provided and ingredients for cooking.

Most schools switched from bringing in ingredient to this method many years ago as so many children forgot anyway (or their parents did tbf!).

It's voluntary and necessary because funds are so short.

So either send or if you can't just don't.

We have a mixture (about 70:30 payment) and a few parents will send £20 for a term as financially they can and ours are very good at recognising we are a massive area of socio economic variance.

Same as any of the events which cost £1 for charity. We always word it as non uniform and ask for voluntary donation rather than the old way of £1 to not wear uniform.

The issue is that something can be labelled voluntary but feel anything but. Very obvious if the child needs to take the money or is excluded as with @Beamur . Even awkward if just seeing the teachers and knowing you can’t give something.
In every area there will be families who just at that time are poorer than the average and really can’t afford.
I wonder if baking requests will go down as schools know heating the oven is expensive (and lots won’t have air fryers)

The level of pressure may be down to how individuals (teacher/PTA/HT) come across.

However schools really need the money so can understand asking.

Ours is 30 a year or 5 a half term. If it cannot be managed they/ we ask for donations like a bag of pasta or something.
Also each child is asked for a box of tissues
Nursery and reception use a lot of resources and need all the help they can get

Ours used to be a £1 a week for snacks then it jumped to £2:50.

Stopped paying it and send DS in with his own snacks now.

This.. mind you, I'd pay a lot more than £1 a week if it meant I never had to bake!

Is it a church school OP? We have one near us that does this except they ask for £3 a week and in many cases they get it. It is an affluent area though and there's still baking so not the school for me!

This used to be quite common in primary schools (called school fund) but it's become rarer. Conversely, it's started to become more common in secondary schools: our local one asks parents to set up a direct debit to the school for either a £25, £50 or £100 donation per month. They say it's to balance out their lower than average levels of pupil premium and so there's an expectation that families that don't qualify for pupil premium would have the money to contribute directly.

Personally, I think it's shitty but when the Tory government refuse to properly fund education, what can schools do?

Different funding pots eg PP money.

Some schools have bigger expenses eg old school = higher energy bills and costs of repairs .

The weekly donation happens in my kids school until reception year then voluntary contributions for Christmas parties/trips/special once a term activities going forward. Some people won’t pay and we have certainly offered to pay more for certain activities we don’t want the kids to miss out on if the school can’t afford to cover it. Cancellation of Christmas and summer fairs over covid really dented the coffers so happy to give the equivalent of what I would have spent on them personally.

DS's school in London asked for donations and I'd say that probably 50% of people gave something - we were happy to give quite a lot - it was significantly cheaper than nursery.

I don't think £1/week is excessive, but if you can't pay it no-one will mind.

It depends what it’s for. If it’s for fruit or snack then perfectly normal.

We did this. If feeling flush I would pay for a half term in one go

We only pay for non-uniform days/harvest festival/trips etc rather than regular donations but it's an academy so I don't know if that makes a difference.

We always spend £10 at the summer fair, about £5 at the discos, £3 at bake sales etc so I'm sure I spend more than £1 per week.

Ask what it is ring fenced for

I'm happy to spend that to be fair because DD has fun spending it!

Is it a church school OP? no it's not a church school
our local one asks parents to set up a direct debit to the school for either a £25, £50 or £100 donation per month wow that's alot especially for some families

One of the schools I worked in used to ask for 50p per week from reception parents - there was a money box at the entrance to the classroom for parents to pop the coins in, this wasn’t policed and no one saw who donated or who didn’t so it was truly voluntary. We used this money to buy play dough ingredients, messy play items (e.g. shaving foam) and baking ingredients. My current school don’t do this so I end up buying the above from my own pocket, meaning we do these kinds of activities far less frequently as I can’t always afford it.

Sorry, I'm laughing at the thought a pound a week would cover trips. Coaches cost an absolute fortune. I ran a trip recently and it worked out at £30+ per child before the PTA stepped in to halve the cost, and I still felt bad about charging parents that. £1 will cover all the sensory and craft materials used in Reception. I doubt many teacher spend £30 a week on materials but I know many Reception teachers could easily be spending £5 of their own money weekly to provide pretty much the bare minimum. (I teach Y6 and refuse to buy anything myself - but that's easier with big ones.)

We've been paying £1.50 a week which is fruit money and a bit for other resources so they tell us!

We make a voluntary £250 a year donation

I am in my 70s and at my secondary school - even then - we had to take money in for the School Fund. There was a chart on the wall, showing the progress of each child’s contributions. I remember the Headmaster coming into the classroom one day and, having looked at the chart, started telling us to ‘do better’!!

I remember my parents paying school fund when I was at high school 20+ years ago. I think it was £120 even then.

As far as I know, all schools do this (though maybe not in deprived areas). There are websites you can go in to see in real terms what the budget cuts to schools have been over the last 10 years, its astounding. They literally have no money. I don't think it goes into a specific fund, just general. I pay it because I can and because I know how much they are struggling.

The PTA then do raffles etc but that tends to be for extra things that aren't directly educational eg new play equipment, a garden area, new bike sheds etc