How much does a 'voluntary aided' education cost ?

[shivanjali]

I have only just found out that 'voluntary aided' schools are partly funded by parents. How does this work ? What if you cannot afford to contribute and conversely do donations 'buy' you privileges ? Thanks.

I wish I had found these forums ages ago !

Of course, no school would ever admit the latter but just wanted parents' perspectives. Thanks.

They are voluntary, so need not cost you anything.

Donations may be solicited from families at the school in addition to those from parishioners.

There will also be endless fundraisers and sponsored events (hard to avoid participation totally) but no expectation of large individual contributions.

The VA school I worked at asked for a £10 contribution per child (with a cap of £30 per family) each year which went into the Building Fund. I never heard of any families making large contributions or the like (and was also on the GB)

Thanks, but the local voluntary aided schools are not faith schools so is it different in these types of VA schools ?

No, they'd still be part LA funded and part funded through the organisation owning the school (whether that be a religious organisation or a charity)

The Churches or Trustees own the buildings for both VA and VC schools. Faith schools are not necessarily VA (can be foundation schools).

Community, foundation and VC schools have 100% capital costs covered by the LA.

VA schools have 90% capital costs covered. Funds have to be found to cover this gap. The Church and the school commune are the places from which the funds are typically raised.

Ime they usually ask for a voluntary donation if £5-10 per month per family

I am a Governor of a Church voluntary aided school and we ask for no financial contribution from parents (voluntary or otherwise) and I am not sure that requests for cash would be within the admissions code. The school has a PTA that raises funds for school and decides how these are allocated - either for in class additional resources, subsidised clubs, transport for trips or single big projects like a pond or playground equipment or to meet the 10% school must contribute to capital spend projects.

No contributions asked from at our Catholic primary either.

Kendrick School in Reading has something called a 'School Fund' as well as Parents' Association. The suggested donation to the Fund is £200. Of course, this is insignificant compared to private fees but I didn't know schools could do this.

They can ask, but they cannot demand. It is totally voluntary. I'm not sure to whom you should complain if you believe undue pressure is being put on parents to cough up (try LEA?)

Neither VA school I have direct experience of asked for donations at all (hence my jaded comments about unceasing other fund raising!) though I know some do.

If the school is a maintained school, then it is funded by the LA funding regime and it does not matter whether the school is community, catholic, CofE, jewish, hindu, sikh or muslem, they are all funded in exactly the same way for the general running costs of the school.
There is a difference when it comes to building improvements or other items that are covered by capital funding, then all faith schools have to contribute 10% of the cost.
All schools can ask for voluntary donations for trips or school fund or anything else they wish to call it, but the emphasis has to be on the word voluntary, there can be no compulsion though I know that schools come very very close to making it appear compulsory. Any suggestion that it is compulsory or that you need to pay something before a child is admitted is absolutely against the admission code.

no VA schools dont ask for contributions..

they ask for " volunatary contributions" contiuing to say "if this isnt given then we may not be able to do xx or yy or zz"

In my opinion there is a huge expectation to contribute and as one of the posters said it is hard to avoid all together. This year alone we have paid out close to £500 towards school stuff (and that is not even counting stuff like fairy cake sales)

I will say that doesnt change if it is VA or not having experienced both types of schools. but I think it is a joke to say we have free education

What is it you are contributing too/for?

It depends on the school.

VA schools have to find their 10%, but not all of them ask for contributions (see posts above) so that cannot be the whole story, though it will be e case for some.

Not all faith schools are VA, BTW

Community schools (including VC) do not have to find the 10%, so may be fundraising for anything for the good of the school, as indeed might VA schools whose 10% is covered from elsewhere.

Lonnie: if the school is saying that to pressure parents into contributing, then it is doing wrong and you should complain.

Interesting.

One of my DDs goes to a C of E VA school (the other has moved on) - they do a lot of bake sales, fundraising and so on, but I have never been asked for money outright except when there are school trips to be had and IMO that is fine - I should be contributing towards the cost.
The fundraisers are generally a lot of fun, people bring in homemade cakes and raffle prizes, I don't feel exploited at all.

My dc have been at a VA lower school for 8 years now (between 3 of them) and there has never been a request for contributions towards running the school.

We've paid for school trips, transport to swimming lessons, sponsored events for charities, non-uniform days, donations of stuff and cake for fetes and bazaars etc. But we have been asked for all of the above for the not VA middle school.

MY DC go to VA schools and I work in one. There is a Governor's fund to which we are invited to make contributions by DD each month - but the amount suggested at my DC's schools is relatively small at a tenner per family per month (and I feel absolves me of any fairy cake baking or school fete worse than death attending). The school I work in suggests a contribution of £20.00 per month per family but there is no obligation to pay up. Neither school requires anybody to pay, it's a relatively affluent area and tbh most families I know, especially at secondary level, are able to pay this and happy to do so - especially if gets them out of relentless silly fundraising and provides the school with a steady and reliable stream of income. On the other hand I have no idea who actually does pay the suggested amount and nobody appears to be treated differently because they may or may not be donating significant sums of cash to the schools.

Surely all state schools - VA, VC, Community, whatever - rely on parents fundraising and paying for trips. Maybe some suggest parents contribute a set sum if they can, but I've not come across this and they certainly couldn't throw dcs out for not complying!

Nearly £400 per child per term and you can pay by standing order, cheque or credit card, no stone is left unturned when it comes to getting their money and it's far from voluntary. Parents who are unable to pay have to discuss it with the relevant governor and exceptions are made but they make it extremely clear, even prior to allocation of places, that it's very much the exception to not pay the VC's.

Applecake - are you talking about a Jewish school which sometimes request such a sizeable payment for security costs? What you are suggesting is not typical.

Thanks all. At my DCs' schools, we generally only have to pay for school trips but this is always voluntary and I think this is absolutely fine. However, it is not a VA school but several of the secondary schools in the area are so just wanted to know what the norm was when we get to that stage.

Applecakes, £400 per term seems very steep, especially as it is not even voluntary, how does this equate to the schooling ? Do they have fantastic facilities and good teaching ?

Thinking about it, even £20 per month in a school of 180 children per year equates to almost £300k a year ! Assuming everyone can afford to pay this.

Where are all the Parents Association reps who might know something about this ???

I always attended VA schools and at the start of the year a letter would go out asking parents for a voluntary contribution of £10 for the "Buildings Fund". There was no more fund raising than other schools and apart from a reminder in form about bringing the envelopes in no one was chased for payment and it didn't make a difference if you had paid or not.

I'd like to know exactly how some VA schools seem to be demanding £20 per month or £400 per term, this seems very untypical for a VA school. Is there anything special about the school?

Jewish schools always ask for a significant voluntary contribution to cover the cost of Jewish studies staff and for security which are not covered by the government.