To think school are cheeky fuckers?

[sandpDy]

DS started school in September. Reception.

September - McMillan coffee morning. Donate £2 and wear something green

October - wear blue and donated £1 to sands, a still birth and neonatal death charity Halloween party - bring in cakes, a bottle of soft drink and something else of your choosing. Halloween coming up - £1 and you can wear your costume to school

November - children in need day. Wear something yellow and donated £2. Childrens fun day, bring in £5 to join in activities

December - Non uniform £1 donation. 15th December Christmas jumper day. Bring in £2.

In addition to this, they've asked for donations in his class for jumpers and socks, and spare clothes for spares. Also asking for a 'small contribution'
so they can buy some for the class

AIBU to think this is pretty wild?!

This first term is always the worst for requests, spring term is better then it get worse again in summer term with school trips and the summer fair.
Its pretty standard I’m afraid!

We’ve had a school trip, cake sale, Class photos, book sale, Halloween event, Halloween disco, Children in Need, school trip for other child, Christmas cards, Christmas disco, Christmas Santa visit, Christmas panto, Christmas jumper, Christmas Fair😱😄 and we’ve paid for everything but it’s a lot!

Standard I think. On top of that I pay £12 a term for each child for snack time and cooking lessons so they can buy the ingredients

I’ve spent £35 so far on bloody requests from DDs school, she’s reception too. Thank god my others are at a different school (she has a SEND place at a different school) and their school is far more sensible!

And I’ve declined some things so it could have been more!

The donations are totally voluntary at my kids school, thank goodness.

@sandpDy give them £1.50
and don’t buy a mug lol

Annoying but was completely standard throughout my DD's whole time at primary school

We had a non uniform day for a charity I didn't want to support. £1 donation asked for. I sent my dd with 20p. No one said anything. For all they knew, I maybe couldn't afford it. I'm sure if you don't send in the money or send less, the school won't embarrass your DC or mention it.

I think it’s a lot. I’m grateful my kids school recognises how poor most of the families in the area are and doesn’t do all this bring a £1 crap.

I doubt the school is running at a profit, so not cheeky. Trying to raise funds would be my guess ?

Wasn’t it the same when you were at school? Was for me. I have reception and hear 3 and as well as all the usual contributions (along the lines of what you listed), they’ve also both had free stuff - a free trip and a visiting show. There are funds for those who can’t contribute to trips, swimming lessons etc too so no one will miss out, the contributions aren’t generally mandatory. Eg if you don’t pay (/bring in a bloody jolly jar!) for own-clothes day, no one will notice.

Bloody jolly jars. Fill with sweets/party favours, they get sold for £1 at the fair to raise money for the school. Way less hassle for the parents and same amount of money for the school if everyone just brings in £1 for the own-clothes day??

And why why why are we in this situation. Schools scrabbling around for funds. Parents who don't have a spare couple of pounds. It's a scandal

I mind the donation less than the stipulations about what they wear. We had superhero dress up day this week. There was a promise to send home masks to decorate instead of costumes but that didn't happen. I had to buy a superhero T-shirt as I can't stand to see my kid sad that he hasn't had the right thing to wear.

See also spotty stuff for children in need, roald Dahl costumes, book day costumes, red / white or football shirts, Christmas jumpers.... if they don't have the right thing kids really feel it. Not great for their mental health.

I can't say whether or not the school are CFs but can someone in the know tell me if these sort of requests (because in my time I've seen many a request from schools like this), is it more about finding 'ingenious' ways of raising funds for actual necessities rather than the school on a jolly thinking parents have a money tree in their back gardens? Because this does sound excessive but perhaps for good reason?

I'm pretty annoyed they do this at nu3. So in addition to spending over £1000 a month on fees we have to contribute to endless events and buy clothes in the correct colour. Not just for my son but for myself as staff are expected to join in.
I'm not doing it this month though. They want us to dress as elves next week. Not happening unless you buy me and my child the outfit.
YANBU but it's always been this way. I was so glad when my eldest two left primary school as secondary school don't seem to do this but now have to go through it again.
I understand more at school as I assume the money goes towards things for the children but it does seem to be constant.

Ours is worse I think, probably outing but never mind. Lovely school, DC very happy there and doing well but it feels so out of touch with how much people are struggling financially at the moment.
In the last month alone:

£1 for Halloween dress up day,

£1 and dress down for odd socks anti bullying day,

Donate a tombola prize (we just did a small box of chocolates as we had no idea what to donate? Felt a bit pressured to donate a good prize like wine/alcohol like the other parents did but just couldn't afford that) and wear mufti,

£5 to attend school disco,

Xmas fate £0.50p entry per adult and then money for games, raffle etc (optional of course so we didn't buy anything extra)
optional £5 to meet father Christmas at the Xmas fate(we didn't stretch to that)

A pack of raffle tickets sent home with child (£1 per ticket and send back what you don't want to purchase)

£18 for a Xmas school trip

£2 to buy Xmas decoration that DC made

And then we have £1 for Xmas jumper dress down day coming up

Again all fun lovely things for DC I'm sure but it is just so much pressure to cough up the funds constantly, luckily only have one DC in the school but next year will have two!

Very standard. I would personally just prefer to make an annual or termly donation to the school rather than having to faff around with £1 coins, buying raffle tickets I don't want etc

Just had to pay £245 for dd to go away for 2 new nights with school!!

Donations are voluntary here with a donate what you can although no pressure if you are unable to message. They seem to be doing as much as they can to reduce costs to parents, for example PTA normally pay for pantomime tickets for all and parents pay towards bus transport there and back where as this year to save transport costs the PTA paid for a pantomime company to put on the show in the school hall.

So £12 in 4 months?

I’ve spent £12 on just Christmas activities…. Panto, disco, party….

All these people saying “I would rather just make a donation direct to the school” do you actually do so?

Just wait until they are teens and want tech and certain clothes!

So far I've been asked to pay £36 to cover baking supplies for the year (this was not marked as optional), and £20 to cover Christmas activities (optional only if experiencing financial hardship - otherwise we are expected to pay). This is a state school, albeit in an affluent area. We can afford it, but it still made me raise an eyebrow.