To get sick to death of more and more money being asked for from my sons school!!

[coolma]

It seems that nearly every day, we are getting a letter about some trip or group coming in, which will cost anywhere between 2 and 10 pounds each time!! It's getting ridiculous. it's always classed as a 'voluntary contribution' but then there's a little bit of blackmail at the bottom '..if enough money is not received we will have to cancel this opportunity for the children..' We are not desperately skint but we're certainly not that well off and I do resent all these extras - This week alone we forked out £20 - am I being unreasonable?!

YANBU - if you can't afford it, don't pay it.

If it then gets cancelled that just means that there are lots of parents in the same situation and the school are being thoughtless.

Legally they cannot make you pay - but they do put lots of emotional blackmail there - the kids will be using as part of their studies etc etc Sometimes though you wonder whether they really consider value for money from a parents perspective - especially if you have a few at school.

We had a similar issue with ds2's high school - at the end of his first year they packed a load of trips in at the end of the summer term - during the wind-down to holiday period, instead of spreading them out through the year. This meant we ended up shelling out nearly £70 over about 2 weeks (if memory serves).

I can understand why the school wanted to use the end of term for these trips, but they could have planned things a bit better so that we could have paid a bit each week towards the trips via ParentPay, instead of being hit with it all at once.

I'm 'twixt and between on this one - my dds go to a small rural school and we have a Parent Council who work hard to fund-raise for trips etc in order that parents don't have to pay on the day - however, at last nights meeting, the main topic was the lack of support for these events - we had to cancel a ceilidh we spent a long time planning because half the parents simply didn't buy, or try to sell, tickets.

We're now on the verge of charging per trip instead, and personally I emotional blackmail will have to feature high in order to motivate some parents who for whatever reason don't give any feedback, and seem at best disinterested.

Does your school fund-raise in addition to charging for trips?

Tbh I think that this particular time of year is the worst. Not that it helps right now, but there may be light at the end of the tunnel.

I feel like sending a letter saying:
'dear school, as part of g's project on the 'credit crunch' we are keeping him at home to sit in the cold and learn how to make a fire instead of paying for his state education - this will cost you £20 a day. This is a voluntary contribution but if you don't pay it, I will withold my taxes'

If it was a small struggling school, I wouldn't be so hacked off, but it's a biggish city school, with lots of trendy middle class parents - so we do feel it would be noticed if we didn't pay