Schools asking for parental contributions

[ButamIwhoyouthinkIam]

I’m sure this one will be divisive and is partly down to personal politics but I’m interested in the consensus.

state funded primary, good catchment, in deficit, like many others.

email last week to suggest a voluntary contribution from parents to cover essential materials, lays out case etc. but already have quite a few requests annually for enrichment and also trips. Has active PTA and most families donate to this through usual calendar of events.

email sets out rising costs of utilities etc and asks parents to plug the gap. I’m not sure this is the right solution for something that is inherently gov funded and it feels like a slippery slope.

IABU: it’s reasonable for schools to ask this and for parents to be happy to pay

YABU: a different option eg lobbying gov or showing the deficit would be more reasonable. Contributing financially allows the funding problem to be hidden

This makes no sense to me. I think that it would be reasonable go share their financial information (budgets v actual) before telling parents they need contributions and give parents the opportunity to lobby the LA.

for example, I was a governor for a school in deficit- they were repaying enormous SEn funding they had historically misappropriated. However, there was enough budget for them to operate.

the teachers always said they had to buy their own laptops etc but there was plenty of budget for capital

so in short (don’t understand the poll options?) I don’t necessarily believe them

I think it’s reasonable. It’s not compulsory and the reality is that to provide the kind of learning experience you no doubt want and hope for, the money doesn’t exist to provide for it.

When DS started secondary school more than 20 years ago there was a very strong head teacher who made an impassioned plea for parents to contribute at the very first welcome meeting. DIrect debit forms were handed out and a suggestion of £30 a month was made. Some parents were horrified and didn’t join but we did because we could. The school has an indoor pool, a great drama studio and a very active sports department. So it was worth it for us.

Education is expensive and the state isn’t paying enough.

If nothing else, they should be going through the pta and it should be a registered charity, so that they can claim gift aid.

We have been threatened with this. I’m not sure how I feel really. I’d be happy to provide stationery etc for my child. I don’t feel hugely comfortable giving money without seeing how school is spending their budget.

and recover the the VAT

What will happen to the schools in disadvantaged areas where getting parents to cover the funding gap isn't possible?

I understand why schools would like it, but it won't resolve systemic issues.

What VAT?

They shouldn't have to ask, but they aren't properly funded. Teachers spend quite a lot on basics for their classes from their own money too. It is wrong that it is needed, but probably fair to pay a share if you want your children to benefit.

They want to money to make purchases- they say materials etc

For me neither option reflects how I feel about it really. Yes, there should be lobbying done, it’s a systemic issue and desperately needs to be fixed
BUT that is not an overnight solution and so while those wheels are in motion I would be happy to pay if it was my children in the school to help their education now. It doesn’t have to be either or.

An increasing number of schools are doing this.

From the schools’, parents and children’s perspectives, this additional contribution can make a huge difference.

However, governments have been starving schools of funds for years, making it almost impossible to balance the budget.

It will massively increase inequality, with schools in wealthy catchment areas being increasingly parentally funded, whereas schools in deprived areas will struggle to provide a basic education.

If they did that I would have thought that they could only fun extra non essential stuff like enrichment activities. Depends on the objects but probably does not fall into a PTA's objects. Schools are often charities themselves eg academy trusts are and many independent schools.

We haven’t seen any financials for the school. It’s not that I don’t believe that the are underfunded, I do, but I’m concerned that this should be a lobby the government issue. Prices are going up for everyone and families are struggling, not just the school.

Would they share their management accounts do you think? I think parents have a right to see what the financial situation is if the are going to be told that there isn’t enough money

And my rough calculation based on a guess at numbers of families and amount suggested is that they are looking for around £10-15k

They may well be willing too if allowed to. Pretty sure no normal state schools out there are running with excess budget though. Most are running on the bare minimum.

You could get some headteachers taking advantage of the situation too. Asking for money where is isn’t needed. On a separate note the teachers presents at our kids school are ridiculous. £200-300 vouchers etc.

I thought this was fairly standard now.
I was first asked by one of my dc's schools in 2008 and regularly since then.

How much were you asked for?

Thats generous, I think around here it's a box of chocs or nothing, which is fine. I always try to get the staff in dd's class a little something. I do feel for teachers and ta's though, nothing they do is ever right or enough, there's no money, Ofsted has just got worse and more ridiculous than ever, behaviour is rubbish and when considering the hours worked they probably get even less than minimum wage.

The school I was governor of the management accounts showed that they were in deficit due to the repayment of misappropriated SEn funding.

imagine if there are schools asking for contributions when something like that had caused the deficit?

in addition, it would be interesting to see what deficit means- the staff are getting paid, the utilities will be paid. They’re not going to go under. The LA are recharging them costs, they’re not processing the gas bill themselves. It’s fairly “notional” (although yes, they may not have as much as they’d like to spend on equipment)

Is there a suggested amount per child /family?

Yes I wouldn’t be very impressed with this. Realistically I would probably pay if asked because I wouldn’t want my stance to negatively affect my DC. But I don’t like that it puts people under pressure.

It used to be standard before Covid.
€5 a month. I wouldn’t mind offering a donation. The school roof is leaking, everyone could throw in a few euros to have it repaired properly instead of patching it up.
There was bake sales before Covid too, I’d imagine they are feeling the pinch.
Most parents would moan if they were asked to contribute.

There is a DfE financial benchmarking tool where you can search for any school’s in year balance and revenue reserve here: https://financial-benchmarking-and-insights-tool.education.gov.uk/