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?????

I didn't do Harvert Festival this year because the school takes the contributions, no matter how naff, to the old people's home across the road (minus smiling children). I have it on good authority that most of the food is taken by the staff, as the residents have strict diets and pre-prepared menus. Much of the food is unsuitable sadly as a small bag of pasta twist, a bag of wild rice, a tin of beans and 12 pot noodles won't make a dinner for 50 residents. There are needier children within the school whose families would make better use of the food.

Schools have always collected for charity.They have to decide on a charity. I would be very surprised if any school doesn't. Surely you want to bring up your DC with the belief in the importance of helping others?

Balloon Slayer - either your DC's school has very diligant parents, or (which is suggest is probably more the case) someone has been through and taken all the crap/out of date stuff out before boxing it all up

I worded my post wrong, i don't object to them supporting a charity, i think my views are a bit clouded as my DS's school have a habit of supporting loads, yet moaning they have no money.

I really do have a problem with them saying how much to give though.

alot are missing the point here, I will gladly give alot more than 1.88 to water aid-JUST NOT AT HARVEST FESTIVAL, tis a good old debate though and good to see everyones different take on it!

I think it just a suggestion Tamarto-I am sure no one would object to you giving more and they are not going to make a big thing of you giving less.

FAQ - yeah you're probably right

I was going by the op, which said differently.

how's your knee now??

ooops sorry - must pay more attention to what box I'm typing in - that was meant for a friend on MSN

My school did Red Nose Day, Children in Need, Harvest, sponsored walk and others every year. Most of the things that we did were for overseas charities, harvest was the one thing we did that was local.

From the wateraid website

'We can point to specific examples of our work. The ultimate aim of our work is to reduce poverty and improve the quality of people's lives. The people we work with are the best testimony to this, as Sawadogo Talato, the vice president of the water committee in Yaké village, Burkina Faso, explains:

"A lack of water can lead to conflict among people but since we have had the well we are much happier. The women are able to get on with other activities, many of which bring us money. This means we can look after our children better. All the children go to school now. Before the children often had to get water in the morning which kept them from school.

"When the pond dried up even the little ones walked five kilometres and back again twice a day for water. The children used to suffer. They used to have lots of diarrhoea. But now everything is better and they are much healthier. Everything has changed."'

Diarrhoea kills so many children each year - thak goodness for wateraid!

I thank God my kids have access to water, education and healthcare and am grateful that charities like wateraid are preading this most basic of needs.

YABU
I'm with morningpaper

I said it before - but I'll say it again - I think the work of wateraid is very relevant to Harvest - with no water there is no harvest. A decent water supply not only reduces number of children dying from water related illnesses/diseases each day, but also provides water for crops to be grown, which in turn can then better a communities life.

morningpaper, you are so RIGHT on this.

I have been wondering this week just what the old folk are going to do with one tin of veg soup, one tin of ravioli etc, as children lug them into school.

I think wateraid is great. I can remember my mother being a bit horrified when I pointed out that she was old enough for the village school to turn up and give her a tin of tomatoes!

I HAVE NO PROBLEM GIVING TO WATERAID AT ALL IT A FANTASTIC CHARITY AND ITS AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE CRYSTAL CLEAR, MY ISSUE IS THAT I WANT TO CHOOSE HOW AND WHEN I DONATE....IE NOT AT THE LOSS TO THE LOCAL COMMUNITY AND OUR ELDERLY WHO REGISTER FOR HELP AT HARVEST REALLY APPRECIATED THE FOOD HAMPERS WHICH WERE MADE UP...

These are my principles, if you don't like them I have others

well in that case frangipan - I think you ought to HE your child(ren) - as you're never going to be in "control" of choosing which charities your school chooses to support.

Last Christmas I nearly cried when the letters came home from DS1's school telling us which charity the donations from the Christmas (I think - can't remember now) service would be given to - it was a tiny one that works with Orhpans in Zimbabwe. I have no idea who chose it or why they chose it, but I do remembering being overwhelmed that somehow this tiny charity had been chosen (as I have ties with Zimbabwe - and did actually help at an orphanage out there for a while).

There were many parents who were heard to question who/what/why this charity had been picked - so I duly educated them

When I am an OAP I truely hope that someone give £1.88 to Wateraid than palming off another sodding can of beans /peaches on me.

We had Harvest this morning, The theme was colours of the rainbow. I hugely enjoyed seeing Yr 2 "interpret blue,indigo and violet through the medium of dance!"

Oh and we all taped "a coin" to a tin of something.

Stop shouting and listen, people don't want your cast-off tins of carrots.
Your dcs school sounds very sensible and pragmatic, you don't.

Our school used to do a harvest festival where food was collected and taken to local OAPs by the children but it has become increasingly difficult.

About 4 years ago the headteacher took a group of year 6 to the local OAP housing estate.

No one wanted the food. They were turned away at nearly every door. One old lady shouted at them.
Another couple in their 70s were very dishevelled and told the head (very loudly) 'we were having rumpy pumpy and you disturbed us'
One gentleman wasdelighted, but then tried to give all the children a pound each to say thank you.

Since then we have chosen a different charity each year and raised money as our harvest offering.

MP just because you don't know of schools which do this, doesn't mean they don't.

In my area, my DD's school do this. They go to old people's houses, who have signed up for a visit. They leave forms in the local churches for OP's to fill in, and in the local Age Concern day centre (about 5 mins walk from the school) and if children want to nominate their grannies, the forms are sent home in their bookbags. That's how they get the names, it's not difficult.

I don't understand why you think it's such an atrocity. Nobody ties unsuspecting pensioners to their zimmer frames and force-feeds them spam and tinned peaches. They don't have to open the front door, put the kettle on or even fill in the forms.

It's a different form of charity from sending money to Water Aid. It's not about fund-raising, it's about something far more nebulous and hard to define, something to do with building links with the local community and including the very old in the concerns of the very young, something to do with ensuring that isolated elderly people feel themselves remembered by their communities. The welfare state doesn't do that. See this link for more info. I'm glad this happens in my community, I think it has a valuable and worthwhile place and afaik, it doesn't stop anyone donating to more organised, formal charities. Charity doesn't just take one form, IMO.