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?!

They can ask for money towards their budgets by explaining their position clearly and asking politely for help. Not trying to guilt trip people into it. And not by suggesting that "their children being able to do nice things" like wear their own Christmas jumper should be linked in any way to the school's budget. It isn't.

I really don’t get why people get worked up
-about this.
if you can’t / won’t do it then just don’t but how on earth do you think schools survive on the funding they get?
The PTA are parents giving up their own time to raise money for the children in the school - for the benefit of all children. Bitchy comments about bringing bottles etc puts people off from doing it and means even less funding in schools, surely that is obvious to anyone with a brain.

I've always felt there should be a busy/working parents ransom fee at the beginning of the school year which you can pay to be left alone for the whole year.

We also have competitive teacher gifting via the money app that the alpha mum sets up. First 5 people donate and it's £100 already and they name themselves so then it's obvious that the expectation is £20 and those who don't name themselves are the ones who have put in less. It infuriates me!
.

Maybe they'd be better off petitioning the Government to fund it properly? Think how many hours must be spent on PTAs around the country. Why don't they all get together and do something productive?

I've always felt there should be a busy/working parents ransom fee at the beginning of the school year which you can pay to be left alone for the whole year.

Exactly what I suggested! Invoice at the start of Sept then leave me alone!!

Yeah it's annoying.

The dress up days are the ones that really grind my gears. "Spend £50 on clothes so your child can go to school." "Now spend another fifteen quid on a fucking costume. And give us a quid in order to be able to wear it." The Brits are a bit mental around telling kids what to wear imo.

Our school have banned this now. They are not allowed to ask for money any more, you can donate online but they can't go round the classes asking for donations.

It definitely stops the kids that can't afford dress down day etc feeling singled out.

Totally agree.

"Think for yourselves, be individuals, develop your own character, don't give in to peer pressure.... now, you must all dress like clones."

Cognitive dissonance much? And worse, they think the children don't notice this.

I dont understand why people are saying its cheeky when the school make it clear when they wont be taking donations as the event is just for fun/awareness. Wouldn't you rather know for sure? I feel like I've missed something

Much better for struggling families and much easier for those who can donate to do it online. Must be so much better!!

@AlarmClockMeetWindow The PP talking about staff supplementing children's education means that teachers (and TAs) spend a lot of their own money on stationery, display materials and little treats for the children. When budgets are tight, they pay for things like cookery ingredients and art resources themselves rather than not be able to offer the children some opportunities. Without fundraising and support, schools really are struggling and it is only going to get worse.

When my DD was in Reception, they were fundraising for Compass Buzz(?) Some charity I presume. All the kids whose parents donated, got a bag of sweets. These were handed out to the children in front of all the kids whose parents didn't/couldn't donate (I had no idea about it otherwise I would have).

I arrived to collect my child and she was sobbing as she wasn't given any sweeties.

Problems are:

Communication from schools is anything but clear a lot of the time.

For those who can't donate that's often very public and they feel nad so it doesn't feel very "optional".

Lots of people don't appreciate being told (effectively) what causes they should donate to.

For those who can and are willing to donate, it is very inconvenient to have constant requests to remember for different days and be expected to have the right change with you, when a single online donation to the school for the year/ term would be much easier for everyone.

But I guess as a PP pointed out the PTA would then have to find something else to do with their time...

So as I said, communicate to the parents what they'd like donated and people will do their best. Instead of inventing pseudo-fundraisers on a weekly basis that we then have to have £3 in change for or whatever, in the false assumption that we don't realise the cumulative cost. It's a waste of everyone's time.

I dont think £14 in 4 months is unreasonable no.

That is appalling. 😡

I've seen it from both sides. My kids are secondary and uni age now thankfully. But I do donate directly to the school development fund every month with a direct debit. It funds extra curricular stuff at schoool. They do also have charity fundraising now and again but it's nothing I can't keep up with, and the kids don't join in with all of it anyway, they just pick and choose.

I much prefer giving directly to the development fund at secondary level. All the stuff you all mention at primary became too much. There was something happening every month and I couldn't keep up and there was a cake sale every week. Just organisational-wise it was difficult to remember it all.

BUT..... I work in a primary school now. There is no money. But the kids need to have a fun time at school at that age. They need playground equipment, and puppet shows, and sports equipment. I think parents think that kind of thing just gets paid for out of the normal school budget. I used to. I was shocked when I realised how skint primary schools are. They barely have the money to provide staff and keep the buildings habitable.

So....if you can afford to, please donate what you can because at the risk of sounding like a supermarket advert, every little helps.

I agree a lot of external charities there. I'm on our PTA and if you are donating to the PTA you are donating to the school - all the money raised goes into school, for equipment, activities etc. schools need the PTA donations more than ever now

I probably wouldn't mind so much if I didn't have to buy particular shoes/jumpers/trousers just so my kids could go to school at all. Really a free education works out pretty expensive once you start putting conditions on it, that cost money.

But I guess as a PP pointed out the PTA would then have to find something else to do with their time...

That's really not a nice thing to say. Our PTA work really hard. Most of them also have jobs. They recognise that we are desperate for money and they want to help.

Yip I’m a teacher and I fully agree! I have to join in with most of these things as well as giving up my own free time to attend all the after school trips, pantomimes, Christmas events, discos etc without so much as a thanks for it! Not to mention the fact I have to supply all resources and any treats or presents for the class myself. I’ve gone part time and by the time I’ve done all that and bought myself an outfit to wear to work I’d actually save money by quitting 😂😭 Schools are underfunded to the most ridiculous level so they just rinse everyone dry instead

But instead they are expending a huge amount of energy on activities that create additional stress and hassle and expense for other parents, so perhaps a rethink on their ubiquitous strategies is in order? As I have said, better for the school to simply be plain with parents about budget shortfall, request what they need from parents and explain how it will be spent (at the moment there is generally little transparency) and then the PTA could spend their time on something useful like petitioning Government to fund schools properly.

Sorry this was to @CurlyhairedAssassin

The school aren’t being CFs. They are just doing what every single school in the UK does. I have no problem with donating a quid every now and then, especially when it’s being raised by friends of the school, ultimately the funds go back in to the school to the benefit of the pupils. I’m just grateful it’s not me on the fund raising committee, they have a tough job. Whilst things like Children In Need is a far bigger machine, it’s a British institution and I remember going in school with a pound coin back in the 80s, so it’s not exactly gone up much.

It's pretty standard. So far that's only about £12 though. It's not a lot when considering how little schools have and how much real cuts they have. Some schools near me have asked parents to contribute £100 a year as they can't afford staff, books etc..