The amount of money requested from school especially in December is insane!

[Notchangingnameagain]

Just that really....

This month, on the online payment app, secondary school have asked for:

£5.00 School Disco - Whole School
£1.00 Team Building - Whole School
£1.00 Non Uniform/Christmas Jumper - Whole School
£120.00 Trip in July - Plus Spending Money
£7.50 Textbook
£6.50 Textbook
£43.00 Trip in January - Plus Spending Money
£163.00 Trip in February - Plus Spending Money
£4.00 Christmas Lunch - Whole School
£10.00 Secret Santa
£45.00 Trip in January - Plus Spening Money

£406.00.

I have two children in the school so it is actually higher than that for me if I said yes to everything.

I know none of the above is compulsory and some things can be paid in instalments, but it is a lot of money and it is a lot to say no too if you can't afford any of it regardless of an instalment plan.

Send them in a jumper but don't bother paying to do so?
There probably will be some kids whose parents cannot afford a new Christmas jumper, and last years is too small, so no doubt some poor children will have no Christmas jumper or donation. :(

I'd do the party, perhaps the fundraiser, and the photos if they were nice - the rest I'd happily ignore!

I did the party. But the rest I ignored. I didn't even buy the school photo- I thought £15 for a single digital download was taking the piss - but it was OK, because the package offered "all 5 digital photos for £40!" Fuck off!!!!

I mean, thank fuck I have one child. I genuinely don't know how parents with two or three (or more) manage it!

The school can't actually charge you money to wear your own clothes on a day they're not enforcing uniform.

The assumption that all the other kids will be in 'Xmas jumpers' specifically (rather than just normal clothes) doesn't reflect my experience. Might be the case in your kid's class, but not universal.

I ignore any requests that aren't textbooks or trips.

Even then I try and find the textbooks somewhere cheaper first, which 99% I can do.

For the previous poster who said they wouldn't want their child sticking out on Christmas jumper day... Send your child to school in a Christmas jumper anyway. The school aren't going to make them change during the day.

I have two children in the school, I did have 3!

£120.00 Trip in July - Plus Spending Money of £10.00 - Camping "Compulsory" Trip

£43.00 Trip in January - Plus Spending Money of £5.00 - Trip for Woodwork Experience at another School - Optional

£163.00 Trip in February - Plus Spending Money of £40.00 - £60.00 Recommended - London Trip to Support GCSE English/History - Optional

£45.00 Trip in January - Plus Spending Money of £10.00 - Theatre Trip to Support GCSE English - Optional

I know it is not compulsory to do a lot of these trips and activities, but I think it would benefit everyone if the trips were planned throughout the year so we were not bombarded in December. It is alot of money to ask for between 1st - 18th December. In my opinion.

I forgot the raffle! £2.00 per ticket.

The Christmas Show at £5.00 per ticket.

And the JustGiving Page x 3.

Donations for the raffle, donations for the jumple sale.

Again, I know it is not compulsory but it is alot to ask for in December.

That's a lot of trips! My DS at high school has one, admittedly it's a residential costing £650 but we can pay on instalments and the December one is due the end of the month so after Christmas ( and more importantly after pay day).

Yep. Between my DC in the last few weeks we’ve had:
Children in Need
Christmas Jumper Day
PTA raffle
school disco
tuck shop
end of term trips
school photos
donations to the hamper
tickets for said hamper
donations for staff doing movember/charity swims etc
trips / kit / secret Santa / raffle tickets with the dc outside-of-school sports teams
work secret Santa
teacher gifts
donation to table top toy sale (and encouragement to come and spend at it)
shoe box appeal
Christmas cake for charity cake off

Now I know some if not all of these things are compulsory but I find declining embarrassing. Saying that, I always make sure to budget for all the inevitable outgoings in December as they will crop up year after year without fail

I assume your DC are primary aged? At secondary school there will be fewer students wearing jumpers than not.

@Notchangingnameagain so basically a lot of these things are optional, which means you can 'opt out' if need be.

And to top it off we were asked to make a £20 monthly donation per child! I lolled.

@Broomknobsandbedsticks it's not embarrassing in the slightest to not give money every time the school asks for it, do the things that are important to you/you can afford and leave the rest. There is no rule that says anyone has to do any of these things! It's up to you how you spend whatever money you have after essential bills. 😃

@Perhapsanorhertimewouldbebetter Yes, as I have said quite a few times. Some is optional. Regardless of it being optional or not, regardless of whether help is availble or not, I think it is a lot of money to be asked for in December.

@Notchangingnameagain just curious, are these trips for older dc at GCSE level?

Dd in year 8 has only ever been offered one trip and it was last year, years 7-9 combined were offered a trip to Thorpe Park at the end of the summer term. It was limited spaces, so for 3 year groups, 8 forms of at least 30 kids in each year, only a handful of places. Names were drawn randomly though no idea how they do that. Some kids got a place but because none of their friends did they changed their minds about going. Being on a trip with your mates is the most fun part on that kind of trip! No other trips offered and we're in a fairly affluent area I'd say, it's like the school can't be bothered.

has more trips as they get to that stage and they're mostly educational related to what they're studying.

^ Have more trips at GCSE stage I mean!

The fee for an optional trip is being asked for, as it's optional you can just choose not to send your child and/or ask if there is any help paying for it.

@tomatoontoast Good point actually for any future textbooks. Its just annoying as you get reminders of things you have not yet paid for on the app and by email. So I could just email the office I suppose and say I have bought it elsewhere so they take it off the account.

There's no way we'd have agreed to all those trips!

How many are going on them? Is it optional in the sense that most kids aren't doing all 4 trips ...?

Ah just seen you've said it's optional.

Well there you have it.

@Ivyy 2 each at the moment. Year 7 camping is their "compulsory" get to know you trip, which has been moved to the end rather than start of Year 7.

@SausageCasseroles Most are doing the trips. One trip not enough uptake at the moment. So either the trip will be opened up to other year groups or price will increase to cover the lower numbers.

@SausageCasseroles Yes, my point is not about it being optional, my point is it is a lot of money to ask for.

That's a lot of trips.

Our school seems to be the opposite. My year 8 has done no trips at all since she started Secondary School.

My year 11 did 1 trip in year 7 (then Covid hit for 2 years) and has just done 2 GCSE linked trips this term.

I don't want to be paying a fortune but 1 or 2 trips a year would be nice. Everything is classroom learning.

So you have 2 options (in future): Save money throughout the year or not let your kids go on all the trips. If my kids went to everything their school offers, I'd be bankrupt. Also raffle tickets, PTA sales - you don't have to give any money to them. Re. school photos - who buys them in this day and age when you can take as many (decent) photos as you want on your phone?

I think yabu
school is expensive, especially at secondary and school trips are a valuable part of education.
however, I thinks schools could do better at offering more cost effective activities.