To question the cost of this pasta salad?

[Pastasaladage]

NC

School have emailed today and all the children in DD class will be learning to cook a pasta salad one morning next week.(it is part of their topic)

A lovely person who runs cookery classes is coming in to take the session.

Parents have been asked to pay £13 per child.

AIBU to think this excessive?!

Tell the school to send your daughter home early that day and you will personally teach her how to make a pasta salad. In fact, you could offer to demonstrate this feat to the whole class for £3 a head.

£13! for a pasta salad! Thats insane. Who is the cookery teacher they are hiring? Gordon Ramsey?
I imagine there may well be some absenses that day. I mean for £13 you can teach your kid at home to cook an entire dinner, with dessert, for a family of 4!

If you can pay it - pay it.
If you can't pay it - don't pay it.

Its got to be a typo and they really want £3?!

I wouldn't let my kid participate on principle, if they really want £13. I'd keep themoff and take them to a restaurant to have kids pasta meal deal for half the price AND get ingredients to make pasta salad with them at home ffs.

I'd speak to the school and check. I suspect it's just a typo and it's £3 each.

Ridiculous. Is this private school?

I pay that for a whole term of cooking lessons, I think it's a typo, if not that's ridiculous

It can't possibly be right. It's either for a block of cookery lessons or it's meant to say £3.00. I can't imagine there's a school in the country that would organise something offering such poor value for money.

Does it also say £13 on the Scopay app?

If it's part of the curriculum, it's a voluntary charge. If the parents unite and don't pay, then perhaps the school will rethink. It might be too late for them to cancel this year, but next year the same activity will be with a TA and a parent helper!

I'm guessing the plan is for them to go out to do it in small groups, hence notching up the time they're paying for.

For a state primary school that’s absolutely absurd - I could easily pay it but I wouldn’t out of principle and I’d be writing to politely tell the Headteacher why. I have no problem paying for a trip and I could just about understand asking for a voluntary donation of pound or two for ingredients but to include the cost of expensive cookery tuition is barking mad.

If it’s part of their topic then either the class teacher should teach it (pasta salad is hardly making a soufflé) or they should do a different topic/aspect of the topic.

If, as I suspect, it’s a ruse to get lots of kids to go home and ask to sign up to this cookery club or something then that’s outrageous - my children’s school sometimes has for example a drama company do a workshop and they come home with a flyer to sign up for classes out of school, but at least the in school workshop is completely free!

When I’ve taught cooking before to my class I never ask them to pay. We buy everything and claim it back (although as the school has no money I often just cover it myself.)

Totally bonkers. I'd be asking the school for a breakdown of the costs.

@Pastasaladage is she meant to bring it home to feed a family of 4???

Well… they’ve got to pay for the teachers Christmas do somehow!! I do reckon it’s a typo though

I wondered this and actually it's £1.30??

I'd be contacting the school and querying the obvious pricing error! Madness!

Sounds like part of the National Curriculum to me so unless they are also covering it again at no charge they cant charge for basic NC core curriculum coverage.

School governing bodies and local authorities, cannot charge for:

• education provided during school hours (including the supply of any materials, books, instruments or other equipment);

Look on the website for the remissions and charging policy.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/charging-for-school-activities

National Curriculum
Key stage 1
use the basic principles of a healthy and varied diet to prepare dishes understand where food comes from.
Key stage 2

• understand and apply the principles of a healthy and varied diet
• prepare and cook a variety of predominantly savoury dishes using a range of cooking
• techniques
• understand seasonality, and know where and how a variety of ingredients are grown, reared, caught and processed.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7ca43640f0b6629523adc1/PRIMARY_national_curriculum_-_Design_and_technology.pdf

The skill level required to make a pasta salad is minimal, even for inexperienced kids. That fee is ridiculous and needs to be challenged.

I should say most parents would have the skills to teach that, if the cookery teacher can't.

Is it because they don’t have a food tech room? Maybe they have to do it differently??

im not sure I’d be paying and would say my child can skip this lesson as they will learn how to boil water with me at home…

School recipes should be simple enough to be taught by a wide range of humans.

It says 13.04p on the Scopay' app. No error.

I would be emailing the school and saying NOPE

£13.04? The random 4 makes it look more likely to be a mistake. Have you emailed yet?