Or is this a cynical moneyspinner?

[madhairday]

DD came home from school all excited with an envelope full of official looking letters from the Young Writers Society, and a certificate saying she had been entered into and won a competition for a 'mini saga' piece of writing.

All good, so far. A lovely certificate saying what she'd achieved. Great for her confidence.

On reading further into the letter we are told we need to write to them to verify her details and give permission for the piece to be included in a compilation book of these mini sagas.

And that we need to pay £15.99 for a copy of the book.

Not sure if our reaction (which we didn't show to dd, it was all well done etc to her) was OTT, we asked dd if she was the only one who won.

Turns out 'nearly everyone in my class' got one.

Slightly cynical? Or an easy way of getting £15.99 out of parents, including some who couldn't afford that?

Now, we will buy the book, because dd is all excited, and because we want to affirm her.

But should we kick up a fuss at the school about this particular strategy?

Ooh not cynical at all. I'd be cross.

I think it is pretty much a scam to make you buy the book, but there isn't much point telling the school off for it. They've agreed to give the letters out, presumably they must get a cut of the money?

This has been going on for years I had a poem about a dead fox printed too.

I mean, I don't think you are being overly cynical, I think you have hit the nail on the head.

Not sure tidey, but as a governor I can soon find out

if it is anything like the one ds got a few years ago it isn't even their own writing - it is a selection of phrases and they choose an answer to go in various places.

Do you get a copy of the piece of writing for approval?

I really can't believe people buy them, but they must or it wouldn't be worth doing.

It's a complete scam, and well known for it -

Guardian article here

Don't give them your money!

Thanks PH. will forward that article to the Head.

Scam-I´m surprised you´re going to buy it tbh.

Was permission/notification given to you about the "competition"?

Can the school do something themselves-laminate & bind for example?

this happened at our school with a book of poems last year

almost all the kids in DDs class got published, but the parents did not know that

the school was careful to say "you are not obliged to buy the book as there will be one in the library where your DC can see their poem in published form"

however, most did choose to buy, but we were not clever enough to get ONE parent to send in a bulk order, would have been about £3 less each that way!!

Not going to buy now tbh after seeing article. Am on the PTA and think it would be a good idea to produce something similar at a far smaller cost which would be good for the school.

diddl - no we had no permission or notification, first I've heard of it today.

Ours have come home with "books" of work from the whole class a couple of times.

Once they all did favourite recipes.

Have also done stories & poems with pictures.

They are just laminated & bound so not quite as good as something actually "in print", but still nice to keep & look through from time to time.

Total scam! I complained to the head. The head then sent a note to all the parents involved to apologise, as the school hadn't realised what the "competition" was. I used the experience to teach the DC about scamming, rather than about Minisagas!!! Needless to say, we won't be forking out for a copy.

Madhairday, glad you've reconsidered about buying the book.

Total scamola.

I got several hard stares when I refused to buy several copies of a poetry book that my DS featured in.

His 'poem' was a template and the staff asked him questions and filled in the blanks. He was one of the lucky winners along with everyone else in his nursery.

Sorry to resurrect this thread but thought it better than to start a new one. This came home in ds's book bag tonight. If the school want to publish something I reckon they should use a colour photocopier and a hole punch and charge £2 rather than scamming £15.99. Have already had one run in with our new head and think I am about to have another!

Yup, give the head a kicking. I had sharp words with DS nursery about this a couple of years ago (DS was too young to be involved, it was 'only' the 3 year olds whose parents/carers filled in the words in the 'prize-winning poems') and will step on it hard if it shows up in his school - basically I'll be telling them to do their own version and I will Lulu it for them.
Its an utter scam and it should, actually, be illegal.

I think I will take it up with the head. I will also be seeing other school parents over this weekend so will sound them out on whether we make a joint approach. Found the 2008 thread that UnquietDad did which makes interesting reading.

Should add that ds is in yr 1 and has SENs so I doubt it was his own work .

We've had this at our school - ds had a lovely poem printed, but we felt that the school was being scammed.

We noticed that there was a discount per book if you ordered a certain number at a time, so asked HT whether the school could do a bulk order for any parents who were interested in getting a copy.

At the same time we also mentioned - in passing - that we felt that this was a bit of a scam. The HT actually agreed and the school have not entered work since.

It is cheaper and relatively easy to publish books that look (and are) professionally made using publish on demand services like Lulu.com.

scam- been many threads on MN about it

What gives the school the right to pass your child's name and address on to this company?

Dreadful that these get through the school safety net. I was also mightily pissed off when yoyo experts came to assembly, did loads of great yoyo tricks then tried to sell our kids yoyos.

Are schools complicit in theses scams or just really stupid?

I work in a school and I know what you're on about. I've done this with my class- I thought it was a nice activity and it would be fun for them to get it published. I did not realise the astronomical prices of the books. I will not be doing it again.

And for what it's worth, the school gets nothing at all. If your child is in my class, I'm sorry.

oldandgrey that is what I thought too. From what I can gather everyone in ds's class received this letter but no one in the other class in the year. I am also surprised that we were given no warning that this had been done. I would have expected a pre-cursor note saying that his work had been submitted. I feel I have no alternative but to write to the head with my list of concerns.