State school charging for basics.

[Purplegarland]

Another email from primary school today saying that they are not unable to subsidise school trips at all and will be fundraising/passing costs onto parents. This means that I am required to give even more money.
This month alone they have asked for almost £100 for various things. Including costs for transport, stationary, being a member of school sport teams (kit, transport, pitch/pool fees, and lunch) some of which happen in school time, and a themed day. Of course, I know that trips are optional but I don't see how I could have my child sitting out of a themed day where visitors come in to give a special talk tied into the curriculum. Add in the various charity days and requests for money for wearing blue or whatever and I am paying an absolute fortune on top of any extra curriculars my DC want to do.
Am I being unreasonable that a state school should not be passing so many costs onto parents? Think £40 for a coach on top of day trip fees.

DTs are in y8. We are asked for a contribution to art supplies / DT and science at the beginning of the year. We are also pressured to set up a direct debit of £15 per month per child to go to the PTA. TBH I prefer that than the endless cake sales etc at primary.

My daughters are dyslexic. one uses pink paper and overlays. We have to provide these, the other one uses a laptop in school. We are lucky that we can provide these, I feel really bad for the kids who won't have these resources, oh and throw in the private testing as well as the school just has no provision to support. They'll just be left to flounder.

The school has 1600 pupils. They have one SENDCO, who works three days a week. Budgets.

The german teacher left, they can't recruit a german teacher so that option is off at GCSE and they have to retimetable everything so the kids who were doing German do either French or Spanish instead.

Schools are a mess.

Meanwhile, out here in the rural home counties our local council has many vacancies. Most pay a pittance for working nights in a care home, but I also just found a vacancy for a 'Director of Corporate Resources and Organisational Change'. The role includes (and I quote) "championing a 'one council' approach" - whatever that means. Sitting on their arse in a comfy chair at home talking to people on Zoom, probably.

The salary for this position is £130-140k.

FFS.

To clarify, it's school team kit not normal PE kit and the children aren't allowed to take their own stationary. Its provided by school but the pens have all gone so those whose pen has run out are using pencil.
Trips, I am happy to pay for a trip but what I am puzzled at is having another email asking for more money to cover the coach a week before.
I pay so much and I am still asked for more. I wish they'd just publish what the shortfall in budget was and we could pay a set amount in instalments throughout the year instead of the drip drip of asking for £20 one week, £7.50 the next and £45 after that.
Not on FSM as £30 over the limit. On a very, very tight budget where only food costs can be cut so I find myself eating a lot of beans on toast or nothing while the DC eat better meals.

My niece is a primary school teacher and she buys her pupils pencils, paper etc out of her own pocket as well as having a drawer full of breakfast bars and cartons of long life orange juice for those who haven't eaten before school. And she is not unusual.

Then she and the others need to stop. This will not change for as long as people sticking plaster the situation. And yes, it means someone will be hungry and there are no pencils. But it’s only when people stop hiding the issue that you’ll get any buy in at all politically to fix it.

Yes, in my day it was either a striped sheet, a tea towel on your head or a halo made from a wire coat hanger and a bit of tinsel! We'd only ever get dressed up for the Nativity, we certainly didn't have World Book Day and I couldn't begin to imagine the amount of mums (and it's always the woman who goes without...) who have missed meals to ensure they have the money to fork out for more bloody costumes.

Schools won’t necessarily know what a shortfall in budget is for extras as they will have no idea, in advance, how many parents will actually pay for something.
An email late in the day re coaches for a trip will probably be because it’s only at that stage that 25 parents have paid and the other 5 won’t pay. So you are subsidising the trip,

Im afraid as a previous school governor this is quite normal.

I agree some what BUT i would rather my kids could experience those things than not being an option at all because of the shit funding our education system has.

I draw a line on holidays though. I dont think schools should do trips abroad as they often ask for ALOT of money for those and if im spending ALOT of money then i want to experience that with my children myself

The only costs that get passed on us are school trips. Even then, in our town, schools get money from charities to cover the costs of free school meal kids and those families that the school has identified as unlikely to manage the costs.

We don't pay for anything else - after school sports clubs, home economics, art - nothing.

Which is as it should be.

Sounds like you’re one of the fortunate ones. Our children’s secondary asks for contributions to art materials, sports and music clubs, language guides and revision materials (produced by the school), online learning platforms etc etc. They also ask for general donations.

We’ve stopped trips as they were too expensive and parents didn’t want to pay for the coaches. Schools have no budgets and presumably this schools still wants (or parents still want) these events to go ahead.

If parents won’t/can’t contribute, those things won’t happen, that’s that. As long as parents don’t complain to schools about it, that’s fine.

Do you mean you earn £30 a month too month to qualify for FSM under UC threshold?

Schools have no money. Things cost money. Do You expect the staff to pay?

You are being unreasonable. Read about the crisis in funding and gain some perspective.

@Combattingthemoaners Does it make you feel good to tell me to gain some perspective when I am barely surviving.

But what about the teacher who hands over the book for scrutiny with no work in it because the child doesn’t have a pen or pencil? Or she’s being observed and the hungry children are falling asleep at their desks because they have no energy? She would be hauled over the coals for it. Teachers spend because they care but also because they’re monitored within an inch of their life and are held more accountable than parents.

So many setting the bar so low.

Instead of bitch slapping the OP you should be raising hell with your MPs. Its not ok.

These costs should not be passed on to families. Education is a right and cost should not be a barrier to any child. And that right extends to music, art, cooking, sports and outdoor education.

Our PTA fundraised and the school now owns a few minibuses.

It does not but there are many arseholes on this thread.

No it really doesn’t and I apologise if I came across that way. The reality in schools is honestly desperate and they cannot continue to subsidise costs. They can’t afford cover staff or to replace teachers anymore. They can’t afford glue sticks or enough exercise books. Many many schools are in a deficit.

We should be aiming all of our anger at this government who have created a crisis in public services coupled with a cost of living crisis.

@Cityandmakeup I expect them to be rational when asking for money. There are many people who couldn't meet a demand for £40 2 days before the end of the month and I find it a little galling when said £40 is for something that could be done cheaper.

Free education, healthcare etc wasn't introduced for wealthy people, they could already pay for it. It was introduced for the poorest in society. Refusing to pay extra, when you could afford to, just means all the children lose out. Yes, you would be subsidising the poorer pupils but that would raise the quality of education overall, which can only ever be a good thing.

our PTA fundraises for a lot of this to keep things affordable. It does mean sports day costs £50 🤔 by the time you buy bbq, strawberries and cream/ cake but the kids are keen. I have 3 dc in primary I could do a lot of enrichment activities for £300.

Our local council has some community minibuses, they will provide free Midas training and then parents can take dc out in them. It saves a fortune in coach transport. Worth looking into / suggesting to ppg.

Schools are stuck in the middle of different government departments.

DfE/Treasury decisions to cut school budgets. 66% of the schools in my LA have a deficit budget.

OFSTED framework which includes the need to provide ‘wider opportunities’ if they are to be judged as good or better.

Schools are cut to the bone. This impacts massively on staff health and well-being and the support/education of your children.

And of course, a poor OFSTED judgement can end a career, drop the number of children attending the school and therefore decrease the budget further.

Please contact your MP to complain.

https://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/contact-an-mp-or-lord/contact-your-mp/

is it designated as “compulsory” ?…you might find it is actually optional contributions, we just didn’t pay when they were asking for stationery items etc …..we are in a very middle class ,Tory voting area where many kids go on to private secondaries and I think they relied on guilt tripping parents ….but personally they just need to upfront about their deficits otherwise there will never be any pressure on the government to fund education adequately.

In most European countries (and MN is so pro Europe) parents pay for stationery etc and school are focussed on classroom learning, not endless trips. It is ridiculous how schools in the UK offer gimmicks and then plead poverty.