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

The council doesn't fund it, though - so they aren't going to suddenly step in to pay the bills. It's an academy. Pretty much all of the schools in my area were practically forced down the academy route a decade or so ago.

You're right that the school won't close. The most likely scenario is that it would be forced to join an academy chain. We have considered going down this route voluntarily, and we keep this under constant review, but we have concluded that it wouldn't be in the best interests of the school to do this - we already have all of the advantages of being part of a chain through existing partnerships with other schools, including shared procurement, shared resources, mutual support for school improvement etc. And we have been carefully monitoring what has happened at a number of other local schools which have joined multi academy trusts in recent years, either voluntarily or because they have been forced to do so. We are clear that, while there may be benefits for some schools to go down this path, it would be very damaging for us to do so. Ultimately, of course, we may have no choice, but there will be an impact and parents will notice it.

You are correct. PP can’t be spent on a new roof.

It’s the same when a child has an EHCP. The funding is a significant lag to need having been identified and will almost certainly not cover the cost of the TA. Parents are often unaware of this.

I think the point is @TeenToTwenties , other schools will also be running similar interventions, but have to fund it themselves, taking money from another budget.
My DD's primary used to send out reminders to people to check with the LA if they were entitled to PP as many stopped checking with the universal FSM for infants.

But other schools won't be doing special interventions for PP kids if they don't have any. PP funding has to be spent on things 'above the normal offer'.

Some non PP kids can 'piggyback' onto things but PP can't be used on eg an intervention for a group of 5 non PP kids, nor on utility bills.

It's true that pp can't be used to pay the electricity bill etc. It needs to be used to address the specific challenges faced by pp children. But there may be some interventions paid for by pupil premium which also benefit some or all of the other children. As long as the school can genuinely demonstrate that it is addressing specific needs/areas where the pp children need more support, there is nothing to say that other kids can't benefit as well.

I'm in Scotland. Parent Council was quite active, but we were never asked to pay additional contributions direct to the school

I wonder if this is more an English thing?

Our local school has reserves of -55k. Yep minus.

I knew it was bad, but seeing it in black and white is quite shocking.

We had similar in my son's primary school a few years back, it was in a nice middle class area. When some parents questioned why there was no government funding we were told as it's a school in a nice area the parents are deemed to by wealthy enough to contribute so the school got less funding from the government.

@ButamIwhoyouthinkIam your poll makes no sense

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

Whichever statement I agree with you are telling me to hit the "YABU" button despite them being opposite. Anyone who hit YANBU didn't read the post properly but you have no idea which direction they are agreeing in.

I agree with the 2nd statement. State funded schools are criminally underfunded. If the naice schools in leafy posh areas get their funding topped up by voluntary contributions from well-heeled parents and the schools in grotty poor areas don't, inequalities widen, the most vulnerable children suffer and there's less political pressure on the government to resolve the problems. If there's a proportion of parents willing to make voluntary contributions like this then what is needed is a general rise in taxation for everyone with an income level that brings them significantly over the point of "just about making ends meet" so that the funds can be distributed to the schools where the need is greatest rather than the schools that wealthier children attend. If the standard tostate education provided by the government is inadequate either campaign to change government policy or opt out and send your children to private school funding the full cost without taking state funding. A state funded system that ends up with affluent children getting a better set of circumstances than disadvantaged children is abhorrent.

It depends how much they are asking for. I seem to remember my sons school asking for a contribution of £1 per week.

I have no idea to vote using your ‘IABU or YABU’ but it may just still be too early for me!

We get asked for £15 per child in our infants per year. Happy to pay it as the school publishes what they do with it and it all goes to enrichment activities and things over and above essentials. Seems to be the norm round here (SE London)

I went to a Catholic primary school in the 90's in what was a pretty deprived area. We had a 'school fund' of 20p per week. I remember paying it regularly despite not being very well off. I don't think it's as usual as you think.

I know of an educational establishment that did this, at enrolment. It was only £10 but was 30 years ago.
Helped the institutions enormously.

That's outrageous!

The assuming it’s an average sized primary school that’s not that bad. £55k isn’t that much.

@MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack I totally understand joining an academy chain isn’t the best thing for your school from many points of view, but academies are still funded my the LA so the LA aren’t letting it go “bankrupt” (for want of a better word!) busy applying new model to spend.

Pupil Premium is worth billions a year and the more deprived a catchment, the more funding from that source the school gets.

There was an interesting and very informative thread about Pupil Premium on here a few months back. I'll try to find it.

Our sons are in their 30’s now and we were asked for £7 per month each for these reasons over 20 years ago. Nothing new.

I’ll try not to get a rant on this 😂 but as another catholic school goer my parents were paying contributions to both the school and the church, in the context of a massively wealthy Catholic Church. It’s disgraceful and shouldn’t be accepted in the way catholics used to.

We aren't funded by the LA. Our funding comes direct from central government.

Oh, but either way it’s the public purse, for want of a better word.

Well, the church also gave my mum money for school uniform at the end of every summer. I think we also went on a free holiday once to a caravan they owned near the seaside. So it almost equaled itself out.

We use Wish Lists at our (Catholic) High School, for example we were setting up an outdoor learning area, so we did a list of tools and plants .. we got a new library, so did a list of books..we needed new interments for music etc We find it’s the Alumni that often want to contribute. Nobody is forced to give anything.

Unfortuntaely there's only 160 on roll, it's undersubscribed due to the falling birth rate.

This is such a huge conflict of interest surely. When one child’s parents make a sizeable donation the school will be likely to let that child get away with anything. It’s just wrong!! I’m surprised that the local authority allow this. Asking if you can send your own child in with some stationary is a different thing.

Yes, I'm not disputing that the majority of the funds are from the public purse. That doesn't change the fact that the school will be unable to survive in its current form if the funding model doesn't change very soon.