Have the school done the right thing even though it punishes the wrong set of people ?

[Mumof3bringwine]

DC is in year 6 and as I am sure everyone with a child in the same year is aware the leavers celebrations are in full swing.
The leavers hoodies were organised by the class parent rep.
The hoodies were handed out a while ago and the children have been proudly wearing them 2 days a week in school and were due to wear them for their residential.
unfortunately the Rep has purposely left 1 child without a hoody and also did not include their name on everyone else’s hoody.
I am not sure why it has only been bought to the attention of the school now, but they sent an email basically saying due to one child’s name not being on the hoody they are now banned from being worn on the school premises. Some very angry parents who think the school are punishing the children for something not in their control.
I am not sure what else the school could of done ? I believe they made the right decision but I seem to be the minority!

I do think they’ve done the right thing. The class rep must feel foolish as hell!

Oh that’s so bad she left them off. She should have at least communicated that to the school so they could advise.

I think I would have to look at what can be done to rectify it as I totally understand the schools position. But equally it’a a part of school life that kids look forward to. And also all the parents have paid for a hoody their kids can’t wear.
I would contact the print company to see if they can add a name on. Even if it means everyone paying a few pounds more. At the end of the day it’s about keeping the drama from the kids. Hope you get it sorted.

Agree, thats disgusting that the parent did that. Agree noinr ahohld be allowed to wear the hoodies. To allow them is basically like the whole of the school year bullying one child. Imagine if they committed suicide over this, extreme, but not outside the realms of possibility.

You don't need to justify yourself. If the rep had made a mistake (like forgetting vat for adult hoodies) that would have been forgiveable. To eliminate a child's name on the class hoodie because you got a beef with his mum is imo unforgiveable. It's just cruel.

The reps an idiot. What she should have done is leave the child's name on there as a class member (correct) but just refund and not order the hoody for the parent unwilling to pay (although if you order an adults size you should probably pay adult prices). Then give the adult refusing to pay the name and design and let them order theirs separately

If they wanted to make a point.

However, having organised several collections in the last however many years, I know some parents will put in £25 and some will put in none. We always sign the card from everyone but if the argument played out over £2.57 then just, realistically, no one has ever put in equal for everything.

What a mess though. School did the right thing.

It's probably unreasonable to complain about inefficiency in a volunteer, but you can complain about a deliberately malicious act directed at a child due to the behaviour of the mother (who just questioned being asked for more money that she didn't actually owe because she ordered a child's hoodie which doesn't attract VAT).

The mum who complained to the class rep ordered a child size hoody for her son so she had actually paid for her child's hoody in full. It was the class rep's unilateral decision that the VAT costs should be split between all the parents, not just the parents who ordered the adult size.

I still think those ordering adult hoodies should have stepped in at the time and said that it was their responsibility to pay the extra vat, not shared by everyone.

Surely there’s a local print company that will take all the hoodies and add one name underneath, then do another extra hoodie? If you explain the situation they may not charge too much for it? Worth exploring.

I doubt the hoodie supplier gave her any authority to act on their behalf, so legally she is a reseller. As she was not registered for VAT, she was not doing anything wrong legally by spreading the VAT across all the hoodies, although I personally think she should have charged it only to those parents ordering adult sizes. However, if the parents who received hoodies chose to take her to court, they clearly have a case to get their money back as the hoodies supplied are not what they ordered.

I never said the rep was right

I said that other parents, who chose not to be involved and chose not to do anything, as ALSO to blame. Leaving only one person in charge because you can't be bothered to help, or you think it's beneath you, means you are at fault too.

Having a team, even a small one, instead of one individual - who can make mistakes, who might be stupidly inefficient, who might be ignorant, who might be spiteful, who might have very strange ideas of what is right, is a recipe for disaster.

See the issue here is lots of people do offer to help just no one else wanted to be rep - but in the mosy part there will always be people to help is she wanted them to.
for example a parent offered to the printing of the jumpers were supplied as it’s what she does- it was not taken up.

Queen Bee didn’t want help so she could say she did it all alone.

Was the older thread about the VAT issue yours as well, OP?

Something I'm not sure you've been asked OP...Were the rest of you aware that the rep was going to leave this child off? When the VAT was queried did she say that this would be the consequence of removing the order? If so you all got what you deserve tbh and you need to use this as a teaching opportunity to your kids that if you're callous about other people's feelings there are consequences. If you didn't know then you really should be pressurising the rep to rectify this. Being willing to take the lead doesn't mean you get to wield your power against a child.

We were aware of the VAT issue, we were that she had questioned it and aware that said parent of adult hoodies had offered to pay the full amount and aware that rep was not happy.
That exact point the child being removed was not aired but it did go around shortly after that in private messaging rep had removed said child. School were emailed when hoodies arrived with name not on it by other parent etc

on the actual WhatsApp no one said much but I’m guessing that is a combination of the mums that are reps friends and therefor also have issues with said mum and then the usual parents being worried scared to say anything in front of rep because of previous instances of playground fights.

Sorry then you play stupid games you win stupid prizes. Hopefully these parent's kids can learn that faster than their parents have.

No school could knowingly allow these to be worn in school with one child deliberately excluded.

What an awful parent.

Sounds like a whole group of grown women bullying a child because they don’t like their mum them! Absolutely awful.

It’s hard to explain the dynamic but the rep mum is not a pleasant person in general which causes fear amongst other parents.
more a really sad situation all around.

Its a shame no one went to the school earlier in the process. But you can't wind back time.

Of course you can.

Ours do pay slightly more for the larger, adult sizes, but we don't pay VAT on any ordered for children, although this year we did have to pay VAT on those ordered for staff.

But she wasn’t refusing to pay, she had paid for what she ordered and was now being asked to contribute to others.

This is exactly the sort of thing that doing it in school eliminates. We know what the children are known as, but we also check what name everyone wants to have inside the numbers, so Samuel known as Sam, will be asked which name he wants on there, for example.

I worked with a child a couple of years ago who had this done to him and he was heartbroken over it. His mum had a big disagreement with the woman ordering the hoodies, which spilled over into some of the children having minor fall out the woman left his name off on purpose. I really felt awful for the little boy who was left out.

So I think the school is being totally reasonable.

It seems to be trickling over to effecting leavers prom now as well.
Just seen on one of the other parents SM that there is another student bailing from the prom to go out with the other child instead.
it is a real shame that the children are being so affected.