To think that all children in year R should be able to go to their school disco?

[cocovira]

My 4 year old daughter has just started in year R. Today I got an email from the PTA with information about the school disco, which is in October. Each year group is at a different time so year R’s disco will be from the end of the school day until 4pm. I know from a mum friend that pupil premium children have been able to book their tickets for free all week whereas for everyone else they go on sale at the weekend. This wouldn’t be a problem, but there is a limited number of tickets with a waiting list for those who don’t manage to get a ticket. On the website there is even a live countdown to when booking opens. I don’t think the limited number of tickets is down to the ratio of adult helpers to children as I haven’t received anything about asking for volunteers - I’d happily volunteer if it meant more children could go!

AIBU to think that all children should be welcome to their school disco?

It might be to do with fire exits unfortunately.

They shouldn't do it unless they can accommodate the whole group.

Yes it's only fair. All children should have a chance. Pupil premium should not come into it.

Do 4 year olds want to go to a disco?

Depends if it's organised during school hours I suppose

Possibly not per se, but they'd certainly want to go to something their classmates are going to and will be talking about.

A "disco" at age 4 means some games and dancing to fun songs with actions.
It's probably an hour with a break in the middle for a drink.

Whether this is unreasonable or not depends a bit on the number of children in the year and the number of tickets available. It might well be that the chance of not getting a ticket is basically nil, and it's a ploy to get people to buy them early so they know numbers.

Absolutely. Thus is just awful. And they are young for a school disco. Surely soft play or just party games would be better.

Yes totally wrong. If not a big enough space etc then they should have per class or 2 etc

tbh it’s a pta money maker so surely more kids who go the more money the school makes

Our school do a disco split up into various year groups every term and the kids just pay a £1 on the door. There’s a tuck shop to raise money. It’s really mean to not include everyone.

They absolutely shouldn’t do it unless all the kids who want to can go.

I agree yr R is too young for a disco, but if they’re running an after school party, they should all be able to go.

@MyFavouriteGamethat sounds so much better, we have to pay £5 for 40 mins!

My daughter would absolutely love to go to a disco, she is almost 5 and loves dancing. There is a Halloween theme and a prize for best costume, and it starts straight after school so all of the children who are going will be getting changed into their outfits while others get picked up by their parents.

Obviously as a new parent to the school, I don’t know if these things get sold out or how popular they are, but I think to have a countdown til the booking opens and to limit the number of tickets is making it feel exclusive when surely school should be about inclusivity?! I feel under pressure 😂

DD1s primary does the same. A Yr R disco, then Y1-3 with 100 tickets available for 150 kids and then same again for Y4-6. Luckily, it clashes with DD1's rainbow meetings, so for now she isn't bothered, but i agree that it's not nice that not everyone can go and the purchasing of advance tickets is just another admin task for parents.

In a school building that houses 7 year groups on a daily basis?

Plus surely they have year assembly’s in the hall so if all kids can go to that , there’s room ?

At our school, Year R have their disco late during the school day, Years 1 & 2 have theirs just after school and so on until about 7:30pm. The PTA ask for a voluntary contribution, so no one has to pay to attend, and the majority pay online rather than at the door, so no one knows who hasn't paid. I think this is the best way.

That's awful. Why do Pupil Premium get first dibs? Year R kids won't understand why they can't go. Sounds a dreadful idea.

This! I'm getting old, I've never heard of a school disco for 4 year olds. Mine wouldn't have even known what a disco was at that age. Do parents attend too?

We have 3 one hour discos back to back to cover the whole school. We have to limit tickets due to fire regs and families coming along with siblings and such. We’ve sold out once so we shifted the year split this year as more younger kids than older seem to come. We put aside 10 or so tickets for each event for the head teacher to give to the families who need a hand.

Honestly if it’s bothering you just join the PTA and offer to help. They'll need all the help they can get and at ours this means we have always been able to just put tickets aside for our own kids as we are busy helping. Great way to get involved and then you can work out what the barrier is to including the full class.

Sounds ridiculous. It’ll be held in a room they must fit the whole school in so bollocks to capacity issues. If they can’t all go it shouldn’t happen.

Can you ask parents you know who have older kids there what’s happened in the past? Why is PP funding optional out of hours activities?

What are siblings doing there? Surely you prioritise the actual pupils of the school over their family members?

Why are whole families coming with siblings?!

Oh yes, the PTA will be out on the razz with all of the school disco money . The money made all goes back into the school to buy things for the pupils.

We require a carer to stay with the nursery and p1/2 children so that halves the number of tickets. Then we need to assume there will be a few siblings tagging along for various reasons - single parents or complicated home situations or whatever. We don’t have parents stay for the older kids so those ones aren’t an issue.

Wtf is pupil premium??!