Primary School Christmas Craft Extortion

[covertcuddler]

Is it just my children's school, or are other primaries extorting parents by asking them to 'buy' their children's creations?

I can't help but think there are families out there who really can't afford £5 for a tile (yes, a tile!) with their child's face glued on it, plus the jumper day donation & snacks, plus the Christmas fair (and our school doesn't have the 30p cupcakes...oh no, it's £1 a cookie for example) and Christmas...

Is it just my child's school that is completely inconsiderate towards those who are struggling to get by? I mean, I am lucky enough to spend £5 on my child's creations, but I can't help but feel for those who can't :-(

This primary school enterprise is serious business! The kids come home pressurised in to selling to their parents and ours got upset even at the thought of us paying THEM to make the decorations at home instead... doesn't seem right

YANBU

Schools shouldn't be charging for curriculum activities that take part during the school day. I teach - sometimes I pay out for stuff for my class. My choice. Would never ever charge parents. We may ask for loo rolls and donated popcorn for the Christmas online panto (that I got for free from a competition).

I agree it seems unfair to lower income families but the funding issues a lot of schools are facing is pretty awful. My niece is a primary school teacher in a moderately deprived area, though by no means the worst in the country. I know she buys a substantial amount of things for her classroom out of her own pocket, including art materials and breakfast bars etc for children who come to school hungry. From what she says, she isn't unusual.
Neither teachers nor parents should be having to subsidise school materials, but I'm not convinced that most of the blame lies with the management of individual schools.

YANBU. Ours asked for a suggested £5-£10 donation towards raffle prizes, then asked us to buy the raffle tickets as well! Each child came home with £60 worth of tickets!!!

Can I suggest that you ask the school for their charging and remissions policy. Have a look at that and then go back and ask the school , in writing to the headteacher, as to why they are not following their own policy if it is appropriate.
Any money raised by the PTA should only be being to purchase things that the PTA decide, usually with the school, are going to be of benefit to the school. If the school is just swallowing the raised cash and doing what they want with it then it is for the PTA to say no. If a school is using the funds raised for staff then that is wrong and the school need to be looking as to how to reduce staff costs. Schools are not well funded but then neither should they be using PTA funding for staffing.

@Lancrelady80 85% of school budgets goes on staffing. School budgets may be inflated 1-1.5% for pay support but school funding is based on MPS6 FTEs. They don’t get any uplift for UPS teachers or Leadership staff. Therefore, any increases to UPS or L scale are not supported. This September the unions secured automatic annual increase for L scale staff. Each increase is £1000s including oncosts.
PTAs and Schools will continue to raise pennies through any means they can to fund the gap for basic capitation & resources.

School fundraising is categorically not used for staffing!!!! All staffing is paid directly by the local authority from schools budgets. Seriously the idea that schools are pocketing the £280 raised on Christmas jumper day to pass on to staff is laughable.
Sadly, schools are massively underfunded to the point that many can't afford pritt sticks, colouring pencils, paint and the likes. This is typically where that money goes. All money raised is directly for much needed resources for pupils.

This can be a particularly difficult expectation for families struggling but in every school I have worked in the school usually covers cost for those families in need, from trips to clubs and even book fair purchases.

Weirdly, more deprived families are actually far more generous than middle class ones! In fact if a lot of the more financially stable and even well off families actually paid the suggested annual donation to schools, there wouldn't need to be as much fund raising. A lot don't and they are the ones far more likely to moan about fundraising efforts then complain about lack of new reading books or varying art activities. Schools simply cannot do anything right by some it seems.

Great to read so many are appalled by the necessity of fundraising so take this anger to your MP and tell them how bad it's got and make sure school funding is a priority in your next vote!

£ raised through PTA, crafts etc goes towards the children not into the separate staffing budget. For instance, we're taking all the school to the panto tomorrow. Coach, tickets, ice cream at interval, even fish and chip lunch for them all. Parents aren't being asked for a single penny, unlike the other school in the Federation which my children go to. Still heavily subsidised though, through these kinds of things.

The money raised through craft activities etc is nowhere near enough to fund staffing. You could argue, I suppose, that it's all a bit of a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul as there is less £ for resources due to staffing costs. But staffing has to be budgeted for anyway. And if schools didn't fundraise in these ways, there still wouldn't be cash for the staffing, nor would there be extra for resources. I would still be buying breakfast bars and glue sticks for my class, but we wouldn't have the nice extras like these.

Powerful unions 😂

However, I do agree as a parent that some schools seem to do a LOT of activities requiring money, and it can be overwhelming. A balance needs to be struck.

Also, as a pp said, you shouldn't have to be buying things made as part of the curriculum. Providing/purchasing ingredients or resources perhaps, but not buying the end product.

YANBU! At our primary school we would also be asked to pay for a craft day, where they drafted in an outside company to make said craft items with the children, and then we would be charged to buy them at the Christmas fair! Along with all the other donations requested I would spend a fortune on the school at Christmas. So glad mine are both in secondary school now!

School budget, school funds and PTA are completely separate accounts. Salaries are paid from the delegated budget via LAs.

PTA do not pay staffing 😂

£5 here to buy my child’s artwork, which was a piece of black card with paint on it in a poundland frame.
Ugh.
The ones that didn’t get brought went in the bin and the frames saved for ‘next time’ nooooooo!

Don’t even get me started on the mugs, keyrings and Christmas cards rip off. Enough already.

Obviously some of these are optional but in the past couple of weeks we have had
Sell an internal organ - Photos
Christmas cards designed by the children in class time
Christmas fair raffle
Buy your child's tutor house for £1 at school fair (having donated everything to make them with first)
Christmas jumper day (with save the children optional donation)
Class party - wear party clothes & take party food in

It's all fun & I can afford but can imagine it makes some parents feel guilt/worry about it all. Unnecessary stress....

Schools are not allowed to insist that parents pay for their child to take part in non-uniform days- whatever form that takes. They are not allowed to discriminate against children whose parents can not afford it or choose not to afford it.
If the 'tile' or 'artisanal bread' ;) was made as part if a lesson in art or technology they can not insist parents then pay so the child can take that item home- again it is discriminatory to do so. They can ask but can not insist.

Ours uses chameleon. They kids design a card. We always get the cards as they send them to their classmates. We get a fridge magnet for grandpa and nanny and grandad

Unfortunately, the schools need to do this to fund classroom basics, like glue sticks and pencils. It IS unreasonable but you aren’t punishing ‘the school’ if you stop, you are punishing your own children. Up to the last year, teachers have paid for a lot of stuff out of their own pocket but a rise in the cost of living and a loss of goodwill means that isn’t happening to the same scale. Perhaps you could put funds towards a stationery budget or arts and crafts budget directly (if you want them to take place)?

Last year, my classroom budget was £100 and £40-something I had to spend on three dc's payments for an adventure day we booked as our residential was cancelled. The three parents 'didn't see why they should have to pay' and 'knew that their child would get to go anyway' etc.

By the end of the year when we were learning about plants we had not a penny left for seeds, pots etc.

And our Father's Day cards were technically Fathers Day papers as we had no card or money for card.

So far this month I have given school:
£5 for snow globe
£1.50 for hot chocolate
£5 for the elf shop
£5 for raffle
£5 for Christmas children’s fair
£1 Christmas jumper day

I’m dreading next year when I have two children at this school!

I have run my school PTA for Christ about 9 years, this is definitely the last. We have changed format entirely due to COVID so no Xmas Fayre. Last two years, we have had a festive fun day in school. It's £8 and that includes reindeers on site, Santa, Xmas Dec, hot choc and campfire, storyteller, reindeer food or bird seed decoration. Last year we covered the field with inflatables. This year there was a snow globe inflatable for lower school and a snowboard simulator for older ones. Xmas Jumper day on too for charity and we charge a small fee for the Christmas concert link and also give to charity. We live in a fairly affluent area but I don't think that's bad and it's all voluntary. Many parents give more. I'd say go and talk to your PTA but bear in mind it's a thankless task and they'd love some help so rather than moaning maybe offer some ideas!

My oldest school waved the jumper fee this year 'because it's been a hard year'.

I use to dread the primary newsletter though as they constantly expected 'donations' for everything and anything.

I use to ignore a lot of the random donation things like they sent boxes home and told us to collect 20ps then return it to school for 'easter' (I buy everything on the card I never have change so no 20p to put in the box) or they ask us to bake cupcakes (I don't have the time, energy or skill to be baking unless everyone wants food poisoning).

This somehow linked to them 'reporting' us to a charity for 'financially struggling' people (the school should not be discussing their misguided beliefs on our finances with anyone).

We are not struggling and I was fucking furious, there's no reason I should be paying £20 so the teacher can have a 2 week holiday to India (one of the actual fundraisers the school did, apparently teacher would collect info and knick-knacks then teach the kids about India when they got back)... like actually fuck off.

We can afford day-to-day life perfectly fine and my kids want for nothing but until I can afford a nice long-haul holiday for my family I'm not fucking gifting someone else one and it's sheer cheek for them to even ask.

It's a matter of principle though, I won't be shaken down for money. A few quid for a school fair, trip or red nose day fine (they tried to charge £300 for the last school trip before covid though - sheer piss-take) but I'm not paying the 20 'random' suggestions in every newsletter.

I frankly don't want my kid's crafts in the first place (dust collectors that take up space in my house and with multiple kids it becomes an ungodly amount) it's irritating when they send them home for free so I certainly wouldn't pay £5 to buy them - the school can hang them on their own walls.