Voluntary contribution of £120 for school

[Voiceofreason92]

My son’s school have always asked for a voluntary contribution of £35 per year per child. This year they have decided to up it to £60 per child. I have two children. In the past it’s never been clear what that £35 is going on so have always reluctantly contributed. This year they have asked for money for revamping the year 1 toilets, building a ‘summer house’ style cabin as an intervention room and to support their staffing structure.

since September, it’s been in the newsletter every week saying they still don’t have 100% of families contributing and they would really like it. (Only 50% have) This week a letter came home in my kid’s book bag from the head teacher saying that they noticed I havent paid my £120 contribution and they really think it’s time I contributed for my boys.
AIBU unreasonable for not contributing out of principle that I feel hounded and it’s meant to be voluntary.
(this is a state primary school not a private one)

Who should it be placed on then?

Families - so that’s groups of people taking from public services need to pay their way or have fewer children. Expecting the state to wipe your arse at every twist and turn is how the country got into such a mess in the first place. Personal accountability is what is needed. If you can’t chuck in £120 per year towards your kids education, maybe consider if you can afford children in the first instance.

I think you’ll find low and mid earners in the UK pay vastly less tax than in European countries. That is why our services are so fucked. Because too few pay tax, especially families in particular who take more from services than your average single person. The actual answer is to tax low and mid earners harder, to get them to pay their and their families fair share.

it was pretty galling when those in the £2m+ houses paid nothing and a cleaner living in a council flat gave £10 a month

Perhaps, if they're bringing on the sort of salaries a £2 million house would suggest, they already feel they're doing their bit?

The temptation to keep going for the golden goose is
all very well, but as has been said we tax lower earners much less than some nations and maybe that needs looking at

Everyone wants Scandinavian-style services, but no one wants to hear how that is achieved, it doesn’t suit their agenda. State schools have been underfunded by successive UK governments, ultimately the solution will be taxing low and mid earners harder or introducing access fees, to ensure those who use them are paying their way - directly to source. I fully approve, I would like to see state schools better funded by those who wish to access them.

Greedy corporations that avoid paying tax....and CEOs that get paid millions despite failing to deliver satisfactory public services.

Ok fair enough. I‘m with you on that one :)

One thing I learnt recently was that schools receive more funding per child on free school meals, so state schools in affluent areas are often in fairly dire financial conditions and rely massively on the PTA or this kind of thing.

Hear, hear. Religion has a stranglehold on so many schools ... it is fundamentally wrong.

Yup. Instead of whining about the 10% they (the religious institute) are meant to cover, perhaps consider being grateful for the 90% of public funds that they get in order to further their religious objectives. Actually even this figure overplays the financial contribution of religious bodies; the 10% is capital costs only and it is reported that, in England, in reality these are often not picked up by the school. The number of voluntary aided schools is declining anyway with the move to academisation, yet the religious strangle hold is still maintained with prejudicial entrance criteria and the tired old ‘well you KNEW it was a faith school when you applied’ (go pay for transport, or drive your child to the next nearest non-faith school with a place, despite the fact your nearest school used to be exactly that). It is outrageous we have this state endorsed religious discrimination in practice at the tax payers expense. Even more outrageous that the faith supporters think they are doing the rest of us some sort of favour. It’s not 1850 anymore.

Of course it has to be the fault of those who have the least, I should have realised sooner.

I also thought that. I think @Humdingerydoo said that only some of the parents contribution goes to security but I wonder how many schools are having to look for top up funding when the government has increased the CST funding.

One reason for this is because the schools have to cover the gap between what the government provides to pay for free school meals and what the catering companies actually charge. Also the schools often provide snack boxes in the classroom (our does) for children who are not provided a snack by their carers. Am not sure this is a huge windfall for schools with a significant proportion of children living in poverty.

Absolutely spot on, and it's especially good that you mentioned the 10% not even being collected in too many cases

I've every respect for individual faith, just so long as it's funded by adherents and.not by the state, and that goes for its dissemination in schools too

Tbh by the time I’ve paid out for stuff for fairs

Xmas
sweets jam jars
bottle tombula
chocolate tombula
lucky dip pressie
coloured stuff for raffle

summer
sweet jam jars
bottle tombula
sweets tombula not chocolate
lucky dip pressie

im prob not far off £50

so yes be easier to have 2 payments. Xmas and summer £25 each 😂

the hassle I have trying to get parents to ‘man’ the stall for the class’s area ……

Sort of. 90% funding from the same forces as all schools. The church or religious body make up the last 10%.

Many years ago (1970s / 1980s) the church et al paid 50%.

The school near us has a private bus service and adults still broke in and screamed at the children. Red paint thrown on the building, regular bomb threats.

@Jesuismartin Voluntary Aided are meant to pay 10% of capital costs; so they get the same per pupil funding. This article explains how the number of faith schools even paying the 10% has fallen over time due to the rise of fully funded faith academies and the introduction of new funding schemes https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/faith-schools-funding-money-religion-voluntary-aided-accord-coalition-a9192296.html?testgroup=lighteradlayout

?

My parents had to pay £10 per month to my secondary school that I attended in the 90s/00s. (I say had, because it was a similar situation to what you describe.) I was outraged then. I get them asking for it now, however I think it's awful they are pressurising you so much. It's a lot of money.

All the schools I know of still need a top up. The funding from CST doesn't cover it all. We also have parent volunteers every day.

I don't think the government have increased the funding that significantly? I remember the headlines being something like "£70 million extra to protect Jewish communities" which obviously sounds like more than enough, but then when looked into it was basically the same level of funding as before as it was to be spread over a few years. It just meant that the funding was secured for another few years.

Our synagogue security is ourselves as volunteers but after Bondi there was actually a conversation with police Scotland about if we should hire paid security for community events. We would pay for it ourselves of course. I had to register my daughter’s bat mitzvah with the police and have some of my friends standing outside to check people before entering (not entirely sure what they would have done if there was a problem to be honest).

Oh wow, I didn’t know that. I saw headlines that said things like ‘increased to the highest level ever’ and assumed that was to cover all schools. But I’ve looked into it since this thread and can see it’s calculated to cover around 200 schools (I have no idea how many need it).

@BendingSpoons £10 a month a lot of money? Give me a break. It's the cost of 2 1/2 takeaway coffees per month.