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?????

LOL at rumpypumpypensioner.

Hence the reason for OP's having to request a visit from my DD's school. They don't just descend on old people minding their own business, they are actively invited.

tbh I think descending on unsuspecting pensioners with hampers is a bit patronising and no wonder they got short shrift. You have to be invited if you are going to do that. There are plenty of pensioners who would be absolutely delighted by that kind of contact with children, why visit the ones who don't welcome it?

This has made me realise how well-organised my DD's school is about htis kind of thing. I'd always taken it for granted before.

the invites thing does depend on where you are- all the oap's here are bussed to the city, but we can''t exactly drag the kids there can we? hadly their community and we can't off er hampers 'but only to hose who live in X village anot the other needy people using this facility'

One thing that has struck me about this...(and i've sat here reading and thinking). I have no problem donating to charity (the little I can afford) and quite often do.

It's so easy to send off your two quid or whatever but..

I have lived in this house for eight years and only once in those eight years have I ever seen the elderly man who lives across the road, four doors down. I saw him this year and asked my neighbour who he was.

How sad, that anything could happen to him and noone would even notice. How sad that we're all too busy to even take a minute to check the people in our own community are ok, but we are happy to send money off wherever because its a great cause (and im not disputing that btw). My friend's next door neighbour was dead for two weeks before anyone realised something was wrong. What are we actually doing for the people around us?

Well i fairness we're not all to busy, I would check on both my older single neigbours if I didnt see them or their bins

but i do know what you ean- still life s increasingly not home basd and that jut the way it is, I have it easy

The children had been invited by the warden of the complex.

I guess she hadn't asked the intended recipients, but the school weren't to know that

oh bad show by the warden

blardy hell this is what pisses me off about how OP's are treated. Why should she think it's appropriate to invite people on their behalf without consulting them? She should know better than that.

FAQ still seems to be missing the point

I think a lot of people are missing the point.

The op is not being unreasonable, good on you for not following the herd and sticking to your principles. The easy option is to donate the required amount and say nothing, even though you believe things could/should be done differently. Having the courage to speak out in a school setting can take courage - in my experience, our school claim an open door policy but in practice hate criticism or comment on how to do things differently.

Wateraid is a worthwhile cause, but donations should be just that - donations. To state a required amount and exclude children who cannot/choose not to donate is unfair.

only read the first few posts cos this is quite long now but it is probably because it all goes out of date before it gets used. i wouldn't mind donating money for harvest festival if it was for a local cause and you could decide how much you wanted to donate. you know what i would love to see. each school having its own allotment where all the children help grow their own produce, then they could sell it after the harvest festival and donate the money to a local cause.

Just a thought but I once heard that schools cannot demand money and have to reffer to mostly everthing as 'donation' I remember receiving letters for school outings/holidays etc... asking for x amount of money as 'voluntary donation'.