Is this a normal amount of requests from the school - its non stop!

[SchoolRequests]

Dc started reception just over 5 weeks ago and already had

• An ongoing weekly donation request
• Request to buy waterproofs (with 5 days notice of when needed)
• Non uniform day plus donation
• Harvest festival donation
• School photos
• Request to go through books with no words on a night and write in communication dairy on a daily / weekly basic
• Harvest bag to fill with leaves and pinecones
• Panto trip in december to pay for

I'm dreading opening his school bag to find more letters requesting things. It is just constant requests for time and money. Is this a normal amount? Do schools think parents have lots of free time and money to get stuff with little notice constantly and don't have work or other children to look after?

What is it like at your kids school?

I buy a Christmas jumper that'll fit them 2 years running. Doesn't matter if a little baggy.

I'm sorry but it sounds like you have a real lack of understanding around this. You can't judge how institutions survive unless you know how they function.

Heads misspending? Maybe in the odd example audits could find Heads misspent. But most schools are financially accountable to Governors and Local Authorities (or Trust finance departments). Heads aren't typically shuffling money isn't their offshore accounts. Buying Pret for lunch for everyone. Or buying all staff new cars as a bonus. They're cutting staff, cutting quality of materials, deciding between fixing the windows or CCTV. It's literally a case of survival (at least for the smaller schools).

So I think perhaps you should find out a bit more about how schools are actually run before commenting to people who do know.

Also, it is possible to donate to food banks AND pay £10 to the school fund. Granted some can't afford that, but many can despite rising costs.

@EmmaDilemma5 I'm sorry that you really do disagree. But I do find it wasteful that our local primary has recently had

1. new playground despite the original being fine (paid for by Academy)
2. new tarmac staff car park (paid for by Academy)
3. new toilets that replaced ones that were 5 years old (paid for by academy)
4. A recruitment drive for a small school of 100ish kids. So now we have extra office staff, a pastoral lead and a pastoral assistant (that's their full time job, they aren't teachers too)

I know all of this because the Academy boasted about it all on social media.

Anyway, from what you know vs what I know = a regional difference in spending!

There's no harm in admitting that 😊 but thank you for your insight, it was a very interesting read and I just wish that the funding was more evenly spread x

Personally I think it's a great sign of a safe and supportive school to be investing in pastoral staff, it's the opposite of a waste of money.

It shows that they recognise risks and vulnerabilities in pupils and want to help. We have noticed a huge increase in mental health difficulties in young children. Anxiety is a big one. There are also increasing levels of Safeguarding alerts relating to family life, especially domestic abuse incidences. Having a good pastoral offer can mean the world of difference for a child, that spans their whole life. Providing them with therapeutic services or referrals to teams that can help can literally save their life, and if not to that extreme, at least work to improve it for the whole family.

So for me, if a school invests in pastoral support, it's a school I'd feel very positive about.

Yep! 👍🏻 Welcome to the world of school
aged kids, sadly. The request will never cease. My personal favourite has been wear something yellow day, for mental health…my son literally owns nothing yellow 😂😂

Strap in.

It's just getting started it, it will only get worse and you will need to dedicate your life to trying to stay on top of these requests.

Best one we've had, night before 3 days into the new term, can children bring a bike and helmet to school for cycling proficiency in the morning. No warning whatsoever. Most of the kids didn't even have a bike and parents had no time to borrow or buy. Ridiculous

Our school didn't even tell parents it was photo day. Some of the kids looked like they'd been through a hedge by the time the photos were taken, no planning at all by the school. There were a lot of angry parents as reception weren't done first so you can imagine the state of some of them. All fine for a great day at school but not so good for Granny's mantlepiece or a frame on the wall.

YABU not to support your child reading and homework. This is part of their education. If the class teacher were to listen to the class of 30 read for 5-10 mins a day every day they would do nothing else.
Teachers are working parents too often getting home at 6pm and then support with homework etc.
If you choose not then don’t be surprised if your kid falls behind. Yes there are exceptions to this rule but the lack of parental support is one of the reasons kids are failing school. As well as the ridiculous curriculum which is too hard.

all the money stuff is voluntary. If the school doesn’t have the money then the activity won’t happen. It may get paid for out of existing budgets but if nobody paid anything for trips you could employ more staff using that money.
with trips if you can only afford 1/3 of it then pay that amount. It’s all voluntary. Money for dress up days goes to the various charities but is voluntary.

Pretty much standard stuff, reading is expected on a nightly basis we did this anyway from when they were tiny.
Weekly donation is a bit OTT possibly due to budget restraints but surely only if you’ve got spare funds that must be optional!

Absolutely this. Our school has a lot of MC families and the expectation is that:

a) parents either don’t work full time or work from home
b) you are a nuclear family
c) you have loads of disposable income

We are constantly asked for time and money and requests are often last minute. My dc are on FSM and I haven’t seen one tiny bit of help with trips etc. I have no idea where the pupil premium is going but it’s not coming my way!

Don’t get me started on Christmas jumpers!

I agree, it’s all a bit much of for us at the moment. I’m all for supporting my child’s education but I think this obsession with getting parents involved with school is going overboard and seems like very much an OFSTED box ticking exercise. Harvest festival donation is standard this time of year. Reading is a given. But they’ve also already had a mufti day, school photos, parents evening, invites to join a morning of phonics and afternoon Art another one for Science, a general ‘visit the classroom’ morning, a headteacher meeting… it is all a bit daft in my opinion. Obviously you can choose not to do these things, but it still feels a bit like constant pestering for your time.

Yes. Parent pay tells me I’m £349 into this school term !
they take packed lunches.
plus cooking ingredients every week for GCSE food.

Yeah, it's normal and it doesn't get any better. Except for the weekly contributions which I've never heard of. It's never ending non uniform days, charity days, bring in donations, dress up etc.

My son's school keep asking for white tshirts for them to draw on! I have to keep buying new PE t-shirts. It's a waste of money and also a strange thing for a school that seems to be proud of how green they are because obviously the kids are not going to wear a t-shirt that they've drawn intestines on with felt tips so they just get thrown away!

I’m an eighties child and I honestly don’t think either of my parents stepped foot in my primary school, ever.

I turned out ok.

Not the weekly donation, but everything else is expected.

In primary, my evening routine always had an hour dedicated to school. If it wasn’t needed, it was a rare bonus. Sometimes more was needed and then something else had to give.

there will never be enough notice for things that need to be sent in. I have no idea why they can’t provide more.

When my ds was in primary they would have one termly homework project were they'd have to make a huge 3d model of something. My ds hates crafts or anything vaguely creative. So it was basically homework for me. I used to sigh when they request came through! I spent long nights making a ww2 bomb shelter where Playmobil figures took cover from the Luftwaffe. I also made a huge model of ancient Egypt. I was quite proud and got a star for it! To be fair to my ds,when they had to write a piece in class detailing how they made it, he literally wrote "my mum did it".

Sounds about average minus the weekly Donation . How much do they want @SchoolRequests

An ongoing weekly donation request no

Request to buy waterproofs (with 5 days notice of when needed) yes in uniform notes

Non uniform day plus donation yes usually once a term

Harvest festival donation yes but only this term not other 5

School photos always first term at school

Request to go through books with no words on a night and write in communication
dairy on a daily / weekly basic normal and good to read daily with child

Harvest bag to fill with leaves and pinecones no but easy enough to do

Panto trip in december to pay for usually a school trip. Ours was other week to local big park £16

Yes. This is your life now until they go to high school, then the real fun starts 😂

Luckily for us our child had no interest in a lot of the activities at school that cost money. It was a very fair school in that activities reflected that families had v different incomes. Head actively rejected expensive PTA proposals. Didn't realise the value of that it the time, but it created a positive and supportive school community.

Wow. Imagine how much parents would piss and moan if their children’s schools:

• didn’t inform them of what was happening
• didn’t do any enrichment outside the classroom
• allowed their students to go out in the rain with no waterproof
• did nothing for charity
• didn’t support reading
• didn't have things like up to date IT equipment (unclear about what the donation in the OP was for, but the only thing we’ve ever crowd funded for is computers which was massively successful)

Most schools are run as part of MATs which means it’s often something they have no control over at individual school level.

As a PP said, these things are often a box ticking exercise and parents really fucking moan when their kids’ schools fail their ofsted too so we’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t. Parental engagement is a big stick that schools are regularly flogged with.

All that said, one news letter a week with all the stuff on is best, plus an online platform like Dojo for reminders (lots of us need them).

Wrt a reading journal: from ks2 onwards the child writes a comment; you lean over and do a squiggle. Job done.

*Wow. Imagine how much parents would piss and moan if their children’s schools:

• didn’t inform them of what was happening (that’s one of the things we are whinging about - we’re not given enough notice)
• didn’t do any enrichment outside the classroom (it’s not hard to keep trips cheap and accessible to all incomes and they don’t have to have more than one a term. Isn’t 6 hours a day enough to ‘enrich’?)
• allowed their students to go out in the rain with no waterproof (PP funding should be used for this for low income families - it’s not in my school)
• did nothing for charity (not their job - no one would whinge about this! If families want to give to charity they can)
• didn’t support reading (I agree with this)
• didn't have things like up to date IT equipment (unclear about what the donation in the OP was for, but the only thing we’ve ever crowd funded for is computers which was massively successful)* (as long as it’s voluntary)

Sorry, that was in answer to @BillyWilliamTheThird but quoting didn’t work.

Tadpoll accept the point about notice, and the OP does make this point too, but mine was a general point. Lots of schools - certainly the ones I know- publish a yearly calendar on the website. Several of the OP’s events sound like they come from a monthly or half termly calendar.

Accessible trips are tricky sometimes. If you live in a rural area then coaches are extortionate for example. All the coach companies around here (Cornwall) have just out their prices up. And no, by definition 6 hours a day is not enrichment time. For example, I am taking a group of PP students to Cambridge uni next term. That’s enrichment. We are inviting a theatre group to perform for all of y10 and y11 (the texts they’re studying for GCSE). Cost is £1500. We ask for a voluntary donation. Quality enrichment costs money and when the school fund it fully or partly then we take a hit elsewhere. There is (rightly) a massive push on increasing cultural capital in schools and if you’re miles from theatres, universities and museums then it costs.

Lots of schools (every one that I know) has a uniform fund for PP students. Sorry that yours doesn’t. It really should.

Community engagement which includes charity stuff is 100% part of a school’s job. I completely disagree with you on this one. Obviously it should be voluntary and communication needs to make it clear.

The reading thing is very normal. If there are no words, you talk about what’s happening in the pictures.