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.

Well you knew how much it would be when you agreed tk the trip surely?

At secondary we let them do 1 trip a year and they choose. We don't do the ski trip as its expensive. But only a select group do. We do a main trip in the lower years and a topic related one later on.

It seems to be a surprise to you that you need to pay for trips you've agreed to do?!

Why do you have to pay for textbooks? Is this something that has changed since my day? Surely textbooks should be provided?

Textbooks are mostly online now. So from that perspective, they are provided.

If you want your own physical copy, or you want to make notes on your English Lit set books, or have revision guides, then you'll have to buy your own.

@SausageCasseroles What do you mean? Which trip have I agreed too? These are new requests this month? I am only "surprised" school is asking for this much money in December.

@Whiskerson @shepherdsangeldelight The school expect the students to each have their own physical copy of the textbook.

They are also required to have their own physical copy of the literature they are reading.

DS's school have asked for £4 this month - £3 for "cupboard" ingredient for food and nutrition lessons and £1 for a charity non uniform day - both optional.

Your school have certainly asked for a lot especially if you're paying it all twice

at my dc school the text books are provided by the school (library)
but reading books, exercise books has to be purchased.
school trips are published at the start of the school year and payment requests are sent 2 weeks before the planned trip.
we pay about 600 € a year on mandatory extras (not uk). more if dc need a new laptop.

I think that's bloody awful that schools aren't providing hard copies yet expect pupils to have them! Of course they need to make notes in literature texts - how unfair on less well-off pupils. Anyway, sorry to derail.

Presumably they don't have to go on every residential trip, may not even want to.

What on earth is 'team building'? I'd have thought, if anything, that was something done in school and not costly.

Everything else seems quite normal and I don't suppose you have to pay all in one go.

@listsandbudgets I hadn't even included the cooking costs...... Wow! Luckily I have had most things in the cupboard. Thank you dried yeast dated 2000! Some of these receipes require parents to spend ££££ if they don't happen to have the ingrediants already or have to buy a whole pack of something for a small amount. Extortion.

That's a lot of trips. Neither of my DCs ever went on an optional fun holiday trip- abroad or skiing or theme park. They went on curriculum related outings -theatre/ museum/ spiritual away day (!) etc ... I don't recall ever paying more than £20 a trip in primary or secondary- except once, in Yr6. There was a 3 night residential which 99% of children went on and they were all strongly encouraged to go as a team building and personal development type trip. And we paid in instalments over the preceding months.

@Notchangingnameagain I think that's what DS's school have been trying to avoid. We give them £3 a term and they cover all the oil, vinegar, herbs and spices, milk, flour, baking powder etc. etc.

We have to send the substansial stuff in still but not having to race about hunting for a teaspoon of ground coriander is a God send!

I suppose you’d rather your kids didn’t do cooking or woodwork or go on any trips that cost extra. My yr11 GD hasn’t been on a single school trip in secondary, the one she was offered was a history trip and it was oversubscribed so she didn’t get to go on it. One of the reasons schools are constantly badgering parents for money is that they are underfunded by our government.

I'm so surprised by this. The authority I work in are having a huge drive on 'poverty proofing'. Basically an auditor was sent to every school to ensure they aren't accidentally placing any further financial burden on parents. Even things like sending one of those bears home for the weekend was included because that puts pressure on parents to do something that weekend and print out pictures - both of which cost money.

I'd assumed given the current economic climate, that everywhere was the same but I'm really disappointed to hear that's not the case at all.

I was quite disheartened at my kids' school Xmas fayre.

The prices were awful. There was a professional baker selling cupcakes £3+ each and expensive food and coffee vans rather than cheap multipack cupcakes or homemade ones and instant coffee or split multipacks of cans/water. To buy an ornament the teacher thinks my child made (they didn't want to ruin them with names, as though anyone but relatives would buy them) was £3.50. No bric a brac, but stalls selling brand new books and toys at full price. It's a lot when you have 3 kids all wanting things, and few cheap options. I won't be going again.

This was in an area with a lot of people on low income and lots of kids on FSM.

DS3 still fits in last year's, DS2 has inherited DS1's one from last year. I asked DS1 if he wanted a new one, and he said no as you only wear it for a bit and they've been learning about fast fashion and what it does to the environment at school.

DS1 just went to school in his own clothes and a Santa hat instead.

They don't seem to used text books - many subjects tend towards department booklets which in some subjects they are actively discourage from making additional notes in.

My teens have ended up heavily using revision guides and course books from amazon -come revision time as their own notes are pretty poor. School has upped it game last few years with some on-line sites but it's still worked out as a small fortune for the books.

We've passed some book on -subjects youngest isn't doing - but year after DD2 they're redoing all the syllabuses and even subjects in Wales so bulk of them bar English Literature set texts one will be pretty useless for anyone else.

My youngest is also Y10 - has has plenty of hand me down uniform and her own new stuff was hoping it would see her out to end of school - they're now talking about changing the uniform and consulting on it - in an area with very low incomes.

Schools. Damned if they do; damned if they don't!

Text books should not be charged for.

I would thank the school for offering lots of great opportunities but also feed back that their timing is absolutely awful! There is usually an events calendar and they should space out cost as much as possible.

That’s a lot of expensive trips! Everything’s else seems reasonable though.

The emails all said sorry for the short turnaround but we need X deposit by X December. With about 3-5 days notice.

That they’re saying this shows they know they’ve fucked up. It’s a pity parents can’t band together to say “no actually you’ve fucked up, you’ll have to wait”, but this needs everyone to act together, which won't happen as understandably no one wants their child to miss out.

School admin nonsense was as bad as this when my kids started school 20 years ago-there’s no excuse!

How lucky you are that the school spends a lot of time and effort organising things for the kids.