to not send Ds's to harvest festival this morning??????????

[frangipan]

Its a matter of principal I suppose.
last year and this year each child has to find 1 of each coin of the realm (£1.88) and tape it to a sheet to take into harvest for wateraid in underdeveloped countries.
We always used to send in food for the local community which was great, we all had a choice to send what we could spare, whether that was a tin of beans or a bag full, it was all put together and taken into church.
Now I feel we are being forced to give money to cause I know nothing about...and if I don't send DS's in with it they will be ostricised(sp) from the service and I don't feel happy about that, so I'm keeping them off until 11.30 AIBU...probrably
so what do you think?????

WTF? So you think that if the school arranges something for charity then it's only OK if the children have democratically voted for it?

You lot are BONKERS.

I don't know of ANY local charities who want canned goods. The blimmin women's aid refuge no longer accepts toys, clothing or food for people because it is over-run with stuff already. The homeless organisation is heavily funded by the local churches and only has a handful of clients anyway.

This isn't Victorian Britain! We have an EXCELLENT state welfare system in this country which means that places like hostels are generally well funded - certainly to the extent of buying food. These sorts of collections ARE OF NO USE.

I've never worked anywhere that children go round to elderly people's houses.

How on earth would such a thing be arranged? I VERY much doubt that those local needy people are desperate for a twice-yearly visit from school children with their cans of Spam. And how on earth would you arrange such a thing? How would you locate the "desperate" old people? Is there a register? How would you arrange school children to visit them? This sounds like something that would require a full-time member of staff to coordinate.

Water Aid is an EXCELLENT charity. I can't believe you think it ISN'T ENOUGH. It's so utterly depressing.

Did you actually read all of my post MorningPaper? Its not a question of it being only OK if the children have voted for it, nor is it about collecting farkin cans - it's about getting the children to feel more proactive/connected/involved/knowledgeable about various causes, local AND international!

Our children are going to end up running our countries one day so let's get some interest and enthusiasm going and one of the best ways is to ensure they are involved at grass roots level, (to use an awful business phrase).

Wateraid are important. They save lives.

Our school uses harvest funds to sponsor a child in Africa. Fab!

MLL that's actually OK in theory but assumes so much about predictability of the future- doesn't take much to see your finances go tits up- a death, illness, disability- there are few so rich they are immune.

Our village is quite well off; if the kids started knocking down door with packages of tinned pears sell by date 2003 (I've sorted these things, that's what you get!) the old people would probably call the police.

Out other school has a parade with fresh fryuit and veg which is distributed- I love to send the kids with the biggest prickliest pineapple possible

Er, MorningPaper, Wateraid is ONE of MANY MAGNIFICENT EXCELLENT charities. It is not the only charity that a contribution can be made to. Nor does anyone begrudge it being made (certainly not myself) but the added value in charitable giving is in the children feeling personally motivated by it.

It always feel SLIGHTLY wrong when we have pineapples in church at Harvest...

Ours got a talk about WaterAid at school

If you have to give a certain amount and there are consequences if you don't then it's not a donation at all - it's a tax.

Also if the point of the school doing it is to teach them about charity and community you do need them doing something more personal than collecting cash. It doesn't matter how inefficient it might be since it would be the educational value that mattered.

If it's not being done for the educational value then it shouldn't be going on at the schoo.

It does MP (which is why I like it- after all it's fairtrade!).... mind its not Church, we have an altar at school

MP put it very well I think

wateraid has a whole section on their website dedicated for schools including resources for using to teach the children about the charity that they're helping.

And actually collecting coins like that can be educational - I don't know what your children learn in maths at school - but mine have certainly learnt about money and practice adding it up.........

If I had more than one child at the achool and was skint, I'd give them half the money each. Problem solved.

I don't see how anyone who can turn on a tap and have the luxury of clean water can possibly object to helping other people have clean water! It seems a very selfish attitude and not one to teach your children!

I don't object to that, i object to the fact that the school think they have a right to say who i give money to and not just that but how much i give too.

so Tamarto - when they have Jeans for Genes day (as our local schools had recently) or other non-uniform days - do you refuse to send you children with their £1 donation on the basis that you didn't have a chance to decide whether you wanted to donate to that particular charity or not??

Not that my childrens school do harvest. They prefer to do the sponsor thing where those who collect loads of money get a prize. Which isn't far different to this imo.

It's not compulsory to pay at my childrens school, and they aren't treated differently if the parents don't pay so it's not the same.

I refuse to put money towards those sponsor things that are half for charity half for the school, and give the children prizes for collecting x amount of money.

And how is what different to a can drive?

MP, different areas have different needs, you cannot make sweeping generalisations such as "These sorts of collections ARE OF NO USE" just because you don't see any need in your particular area.

We live in a well-off area. Our church harvest festival goods DO go to a nearby homeless hostel who DO want them and say that the donations tide them over till Christmas without having to buy anything.

Our school DOES take boxes to the local sheltered housing scheme and the children DO go to deliver them, chaperoned of course. DD was one of them and was chuffed to bits to get the chance.

Whilst waiting to collect the DCs from their after-school activity today and mindful of this thread, I had a nosey at the boxes still waiting to go out. They were all full of stuff I would have been quite happy to receive - baked beans, apples, onions, pasta sauce, soup. I didn't see any Spam.

Our church also donated the harvest festival loose collection to a church harvest appeal - a charity fund doing practical work abroad. (Out of interest I have worked out that the amount given - which I happen to know - is almost the same amount as would have been raised if all the children in the infant school had given £1.88)

I would be happy to donate to Wateraid if that was suggested one harvest festival. Suggested - not compulsory. If it was compulsory I too would get arsey about it.

I would also be concerned about the organisations which, in our area at least, do depend on harvest gifts.