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)

Bloody hell, it’s a terrible terrible time when schools are fund raising for security staff

I think the things that the school are trying to raise money for sound very reasonable and will benefit everyone’s children. Almost all schools are struggling with their finances now as a result of government cuts, and don’t have the money for things like intervention rooms and toilet refurbishment. Most of the schools I work with have been asking for voluntary contributions for many years, and when the response is poor, some of them do chase up people who haven’t contributed. Without parents’ donations, most schools can’t provide the little extras any more, and increasingly also can’t provide some essentials. We used to pay £30 a year to my daughter’s school nearly 30 years ago, and when she started secondary school, we were asked to contribute £200 every year, which we were happy to do to support two excellent schools.

To be honest the world would be better if faith was kept out of all schools and kids just learnt together. I fundamentally disagree with state funded religious schools of any type.
It’d save the £1600 too.

Cheeky fuckers. I’d send them a letter explaining what your understanding of ‘voluntary’ means, remind them you pay your taxes so expect a state-funded education for your child and note that you will sending a copy of all correspondence to OFSTED as you are now feeling hounded.

Ours is similar but it’s to cover all the school trips.

Everything else is through the PTA. Various events

But at secondary the PTA closed so now they ask for money at the start of the year.

So your principle for not paying is because you feel hounded. They’ve been asking since September and it’s February. I imagine that if you’d advised previously that you didn’t want to pay they wouldn’t have kept asking.
You paid before despite not knowing what you were paying for, they’ve told you what they will use the money for so why have you been stalling? If you don’t want to pay, tell the school but be honest it’s because you don’t want to. Ultimately it’s about £1.50 for every week per child, not a huge amount really, maybe ask if you can pay termly.

But the funding for schools comes from the government and has nothing to do with council tax. If some schools aren’t able to get some additional income from parental contributions, they really won’t be able to continue to provide the basics because the government has cut back in the money they provide for education to such an extent.

Send an email to head saying that in this high cost of living time with the endless costs of raising children your finances are not able to make donations of this size and your sure he understands that large donations from each child in the family are not always possible. Suggest that he widen his fundraising efforts to include the staff and management of the school as they were all given a raise after the strikes the year before last and the rest of us are still waiting.
It’s not appropriate for them to be demanding this of every family if you could manage this and wanted too donate it you would have done when letter was first received but a voluntary contribution is optional( if you would like to ) and you don’t
I have 2 in school with endless things requiring payment and I would definitely not pay that our school is in an affluent area too (we drive to it) and it seems we’re minority without the Chelsea tractor 😜

I'm a retired secondary school teacher and I think it's ridiculous that schools demand money from parents.

This is wild. I run an early years setting and we are constantly being told how and what we can charge, for something that isn't included in people's taxes. There is absolute uproar that we charge for lunches and trips; but schools are asking for contributions for nothing specific?! Wow.

Is it a Catholic school? My parents made small donations to my Catholic schools back in the 90s, I thought it was normal

We have been. asked for donations this year (£60) and do. I also pay double for trips etc when I can because I know that others don’t pay at all.
The reality is many primary schools simply cannot afford to operate and this impacts educational opportunities for all. Increase in SEN, increasing costs, un costed pay rises - it all needs to be covered.
State funded education really is in a bleak place and so I think those that can help, should.

We have plenty of kids at the school of different faiths. Being a faith school means that the majority of the kids get time off for their religious holidays, not just the Christian ones.

The thing that would actually save the £1600 would be if more people would raise their kids not to become antisemitic fuckwits 🙂

Good for you, stick to your guns. The hounding would make me even less inclined to contribute.

I agree with the idea of replying with a definition of the word "voluntary".

The cheeky fuckers.

I'm trying not to out myself here.

I worked in a non-denominational Scottish secondary in an area with Muliple Indicators of Deprivation. My final heidie was an eejit who kept haranguing pupils to participate in charity events and to ask for money/groceries/whatever from their relatives and neighbours.

Supposedly, he was a God fearing man extolling the virtues of charity. In actual fact, he just wanted yet another photo opportunity in the local paper.

At one point, he lectured the kids at assembly because there hadn't been enough canned goods contributed to an old folks' hamper drive. He wouldn't listen to staff.

To make matters worse, he intended to gift the items to the private care home close to the school. In the end, our then Head Girl pointed out that he would just be saving money for the wealthy owners of the care home.

That's appalling! Sending you a personal letter is really not right and I think you should complain to the council or whoever is responsible for state schools in your area. Any contributions to fund raising should be entirely up to the individual (we've all paid towards state education) and confidential, and to be coerced in this way is disgraceful. I wouldn't contribute now on principle.

If you want to contribute and can, that's fine. But to be singled out and made to feel guilty for not doing so is disgraceful.

If you genuinely can’t afford then fine, don’t. But if you can and are just choosing not to on principle then yes YABU. Schools are chronically underfunded and you should care enough about your children’s education for it to be at the top of your discretionary spending.

I regularly contributed to my kids Primary School. They used to ask for a voluntary donation(£5) towards a maths program. One year they said they couldn’t get it as there hadn’t been enough donations. I asked the headteacher how much they were short. I think it would have cost £70 for a licence for my son and £120 for the rest for the whole school so I paid for the rest of the school as it wasn’t much more and was going to benefit everyone.

After I had a falling out with the PTA, one year I had a whip-round at Christmas and raised £2000. The headteacher actually cried. I made a Christmas donation, smaller after that. I even considered doing it again this year even though my kids had left. They are a small primary and so suffer a lot from that financially.

Budgets are incredibly tight at Primary schools. PTAs find it increasingly hard to raise money if indeed the school has one. If you can afford £120 then I’d donate it. If you can’t donate what you can afford. I know the way the school have gone about getting the money is cheeky but they will be desperate.

i just have one child and it struck me
as odd that at primary we were constantly being asked for money as hoc. At secondary we have never been asked for a penny. And the whole school had an end of year treat too…

i wonder if this is primarily a faith school ‘thing’? The humanist society wrote a report about this: https://humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/Schools-requesting-financial-contributions-report-FINAL.pdf

lots of statements from schools are included however this stood out as particularly shocking; *Our Lady of Muswell Primary Roman Catholic School
http://www.ourladymuswell.haringey.sch.uk/parents/forms
From the Governors Fund form on the website:
“Donations from parents
When you accept a place at OLM, you make a commitment to support the school in the education of your
child. Donating to the fund is a practical demonstration of that commitment. A request for parental
contribution to a fund of this type is the norm for VA schools.
How much should I give?
The governors request that parents with one child in the school will contribute £60 each year i.e. £20 a
term/£1.15 a week. Where parents have two or more children in the school the expectation is that they
will contribute not less than £100 each year. Parents are encouraged to give more if they can, and some
do this. The governors are grateful to all parents for their support. If any parents feel that they cannot
contribute £60, please leave a note marked “For Governors’ at the school office stating what contribution
they feel able to make. For ways to pay, please turn over.” *

so yes, @SeaDragon17 you may be on to something.

So Our Lady of Muswell is only for children whose parents have spare cash? Not very Christian of them.

Why would you tell the teacher?

You should pay if you can. It's a negligible sum for a term.

OFSTED (it stands for Office for Standards in Education) are a regulatory body for the statutory framework. The governors of the school would be a more appropriate route for complaints.

It might not be negligible for some families, particularly if they're being expected to pay it all at once. £120 is a fair chunk of money.