really not sure.......concerning GCSE's and what is expected of parents.................

[Psychomum5]

..........as at my DD1's school, they seem to be asking a lot of us parents by insisting on us paying certain amounts towards things, and stating in the letters that if we do not then our DD's will not be able to do the course.

I do not however know if this is normal practice at all schools????

DD1 has come home with a letter asking for £20 for 'chefs whites' with her name on, for her catereing course she is down for. if she does not have the school chefs whites, with her name on, she may be asked to rechoose her options as it will show that she is not as committed to the course as others!().....now, from my point of view, chefs whites do not actually make a difference surely to how well you do.....what ever happened to just wearing an apron, and also, I cannot hand them down to siblings (if they wanted too, which they may not) as they obviously do not share the same first name, nor can I sell them on, again, because of the name!!!!)

the same is also asked for for them textiles course, to cover materials ect. now, this one is not minded so much as materials (anything from pencils to fabric) is pricy and this saves me hunting all the bits down.

what is really making me cross, and this is on behalf of my friend as DD1 is not doing this course.......geography!!!
DD1's best friend is taking geography. she has come home with a letter stating that she will be needed to take a compulsory school trip in october, costing £500+ altogether (what with the trip money, passport needed and spending money), and if she is not able to take it she will automatically drop a minimum of 2grades in her GCSE or fail!!!.

how is this ok to do???

we were not informed of any of this when we went to the GCSE's meetings, nor was it stated on their options forms. this is the first I have heard of this, and my friend and I are quite shocked, but we have no idea if this is a reasonable request as we do not know anyone else who is tkaing the same courses in other schools.....

so, AIBU to be wanting to spit nails about this, or is this now normal practice for schools to demand money from parents already strapped for cash as it is???

oh, and there was no provisions on the letters for parents on benefits either, which I know many schools do for those whose families need a little extra help! surely very very unfair for those girls sho know their parents cannot pay for it all.

YANBU. The Geography trip demand is surely illegal - I would be on to the LEA and my MP asap. Can't think why they would need named chef's whites.

I have wondered about the geopgraphry trip....I have never heard of this. normal surely to offer a trip to enhance their grades, not to demand and almost blackmail you into it!

and no, no idea how the name on the chefs whites will make my DD work harder or do better

well, I am kind of glad of the textiles one, I don;t have to get the stuff and be told it is wrong my a hormonal 14yo that way.

I will wait and see how many others say about the geography one and tell my friend as she is the one who wants to complain!!

The chefs white thing is just a money spinner. It would be interesting to know how much profit the school is making from this. I wonder what would happen if ALL the parents got together and said they would provide their own whites for thier dcs. Would they cancel the course?

The geography field trip I think is necessary to complete course work but saying those that don't go on it because they are unable to pay is discriminatory and I can't imagine this is legal (unless we are talking about an independent school)

One of the schools near me has alternative local field trips so that students can complete necessary GCSE course work. I would imagine that a school is obliged to provide this as an alternative.

The field trip is unnecessarily expensive. We didn't do residential field trips (Biology) for GCSE, but I did organise them for the A level students. You can do much better stuff out of school TBH. But you can do it on day trips from most places. Fortunately we only ever had one boy whose parents could pay (the cost was £100) and we paid it out of our department budget. We also had one girl who just didn't want to go, and we organised some other activities for her to collect her data for her coursework.

couldn't pay that is...

BTW, Dennys make and supply chefs whites for about a tenner.

You could just sew a normal name tape onto the front of the jacket. That's what I did when the school said ds had to have a white coat for chemistry with his name embroidered on it.

it isn't an independent school, but even if it was, surely it is still unfair!

chefs whites, DD1 is saying that she has to have them otherwise all the other girls will talk about her, and the teacher will fail her......this type of pressure is out of order IMO, and I wish I knew other parents well enough to get them all to make a stand with me.

it is so out of order (IMHO) to hold us parents to ransom like this. we all want our children to do their best and get as high marks as possible. to say that they will be marked down just because of their clothing or holiday knowledge basically says that their inteligence counts for nothing!