..to object to paying for essential school trips?

[carolt]

Given all the fuss there was in the press only a few weeks ago concerning paying for school trips - basically, it made it clear that though many schools do it, they're not actually allowed to charge anything for trips related to the National Curriculum (any more than they're allowed to charge for textbooks or other vital equipment), I was shocked to get not 1 but 2 letters home this week from my kids school demanding 'voluntary' contributions of £8.50 for 1 trip (to a free-entry museum!) and £6.50 for the other.

I was really shocked and mentioned this to another mum, who mentioned it to the school office, who told her that as it was 'voluntary', any parent who couldn't afford it could go and chat to the headteacher about it.

But this is not the point at all, surely? Surely the school shouldn't be asking for payment at all, in the first place? Parents shouldn't have to humiliate themselves by pleading penury to the head, when actually the school is in the wrong anyway by asking for money?

See:

www.dcsf.gov.uk/popularquestions/questions.cfm?keywords=&gatewayCategoryID= 8&mainCategoryID=203&expandID=4099&new=0

and

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7867848.stm

So - what do you think?

Am I being unreasonable? Should I complain? Do other people have the same problem?

Honestly, when will schools learn that they are there to provide FREE childcare?

I'm assuming you're being sarky there daisymoo?

ermm pass moondog

they look normal to me

(btw DH lost his appeal - the letter he got stated something along the lines that because he wasn't paying for the licence is wasn't his - eh?!?!? - poor bugger spent most of his appeal meeting trying to explain to the twat bloke how couples who keep seperate accounts during their marriage manage their bills )

What gave you that idea?

Unfortunately as I work in a school myself I cannot take any time off during term time and I wasn't complaining about childcare I was merely pointing out that keeping him home wasn't an option. I also work in the finance dept so do know how much coaches cost. My point was why should I pay £17 with less than 1 week's notice for a trip my son doesn't want to go on?

DMS they are not child care providers they are there to provide an education.

As far as inset days are concerned, they are not 'extra' days, the children will be in school for a set number of days (190 iirc), so if they didn't have the day off, you'd have to find childcare for an extra day in the holidays.

As for the election, if the school is being used as a polling station, the part being used must have a separate entrance & be isolated from the rest of the school, otherwise the school has to close. Our authority has always said this means that the teachers can't be in there doing training either, though I'm not sure that every authority interprets the rules that way.

Oh dear.
Is he out of a job?
You need to get onto management union and/or Citizen's Advice or lawyer.
Don't stand for it. It's outrageous.

I think DMS was being sarcastic.

well he had said he wasn't going to take it to an employment tribunal (btw sorry OP for the thread hi-jack) as they said they'd pay him for February (and indeed the letter they sent saying he'd lost his appeal had that his employment finished on the 27th feb - as opposed to Jan in the original letter). Anyhow, Friday (payday) came and went and they didn't pay him - so I think he may change his mind on that one.

He's currently out of a job - but his JSA application is currently being processed, and the woman that interviewed him pretty much said that (if) when his company sent the letter with reasons for dismissal in it, if it matches with his story (that he didn't have a TV licence in his name, paid out of his account for the address he'd just moved to) then he'd probably avoid the sanction.

So he's job hunting. Think it's hit him quite hard suddenly finding himself on benefits like this though - He's a proud man, and even when we went through the financial shit a few years ago didn't claim, instead he found any other legitimate/legal way of making ends meet.

Too right I was.

I totally agree that children whose parents can't afford to pay for trips shouldn't be disadvantaged. However, I also don't want my children to miss out on trips because some parents are too bloody tight to pay a few quid for a valuable, enriching, educational experience. Seriously people, get your priorities straight.

Well he needs to consider implications of that on his record in future.
I'm really sorry.It's just shit.
All ok with you guys otherwise?

I hate all this 'it's voluntary, only if you don't pay you have to go and grovel to the headteacher' business. Horrible. Dh was off work sick most of last year and I dreaded getting to the point where we'd have to explain that we couldn't afford X, Y or Z.

However, I was entertained by the antics of another parent of a child in ds's class over a trip to the zoo - someone who can definitely afford the trip with no problems at all. First they moaned it was too expensive, then they complained that they already have annual membership to the zoo so shouldn't have to pay for entrance.

School office told them the charge was also for coach and a specific session during the trip. Parents still weren't happy and called the zoo, were told actually if you are members this session only costs 50p...

No idea what the upshot is but hope I don't end up paying for their little darling to go on the ruddy trip!

I know he does - I think it's just totally shook him that he's going to have (at most) £60 a week to live on, no help with his housing and all those debts that are still hanging there from when we were together.

Things are going well with us - he stayed here at the weekend as he's mid moving at the moment and so couldn't have the DS's at his - so I said "stay here - look after the kids and I'll just get on with whatever I want to get on with" ).

We even did the school run (gets back to something related vaguely to the op ) together on Monday which the boys LOVED.

Oh how lovely. i bet they did!
Hang in there. None of it is easy is it (kids, managing money, maintaining relationships) but sossss worth it.

All the school trips I ever went on where shit tbh and I didn't learn a thing...just went on an outing and then half heartedly partook in some task completion until we got to get back on the bus.

I was also coach sick

Don't pay and don't make them go.

Load of balls imho

(sorry to all those who arrange them and work tirelessly to make them great nowadays but just mhe!!)

yea was quite fun actually we parted at the infant school gates and I headed home and I wish I'd asked for a £1 from everyone that said to me "ooo you've lost the tall dark handsome man" as I was on my way back - everyone from parents I know well to the lollipop lady

Ooh err!

If your comments are to me Daisy Moo then I think they are unfair. Do you often pay for things you don't want to do just so others can do them??

Also going to bed now so will check back tomorrow.

yep - walked back thinking "yeah and he's ALL mine"

If I can afford the money I would pay for something so the majority can do it.

precisely twinset - that's why I pay (think there's only been once or twice that I really haven't been able to scrape it together).

I hate the thought of someone missing out on something just because they can't afford it. I wouldn't not invite a friend out for drinks if we were going out in a group just because they were skint. I'd invite them and make sure that they didn't have to buy any rounds (or something like that anyhow )

We just got pestered to pay for the second residential trip in a year for DS1 (Year 6).

The first time they went up the road for two nights to a local LEA centre, didn't actually have that great a time, and apparently didn't learn a lot from what any of us could tell, and we were left over £100 poorer.

The second time they were also going up the road to a venue we visit regularly anyway as a family, to do watered down versions of outdoor activities our kids do all the time at the weekends anyway. This time is is for three nights at a cost of about £160.

I asked DS1, a fairly amenable and mature child, whether he wanted to go, and he said if it was OK he would rather not, because he was bored to tears on the last trip and they apparently spent a lot of it killing time. So we decided to put the money towards a residential language summer camp for him instead (which he did last year and enjoyed a lot).

I wrote a note to the school saying that I thought this was very expensive for a trip up the road and three nights away in a big dorm, so we wouldn't be sending him. I then got a hectoring letter back saying we were depriving DS1 of 'challenges', extolling the virtues of these trips, telling me they were vital for team building and class cohesion (they are all leaving next term!) and that DS1 would have to be put with the year 5s for the duration if he didn't go.

Good, said I, maybe he could take the opportunity to learn his tables and some basic grammar, as these seemed to be two key aspects of his primary education that had been overlooked thus far in favour of a surfeit of personal development and quasi-therapeutic circle time. Also, said I, he basically doesn't want to go, and I don't want to force him. He has done loads of outdoorsy stuff with us anyway, much more challenging than this, for example hiking up some of the higher German Alps, learning to sail in Turkey (a term time trip the school didn't want us to go on) and trying water skiing in Greece.

The school did not like this at all.

I am not surprised they did not like it if you took that tone.

Point taken, but as you know I am on the verge of pulling them out anyway after the swearing thing. So I am quite fed up.