Do any HE organisations collect supermarket kids' vouchers?

[AngelDog]

Like Sainsbury's Active Kids ones?

I have loads and I'd rather send them to a HE group than to a school (given a choice) as I expect money is tighter in HE circles.

Some groups like Brownies do, and if you don't want to send them to a mainstream school, how about a special school? I do know one local school used theirs a few years ago to get footballs etc, to send to Uganda.

I don't think HE groups are allowed to. However, I know that a lot of Rainbow/Brownie/Guide units and/or districts do. Same with Scouts. All of the districts local to me do (which is where ours go since I'm an active volunteer).

Ah, those sound like some good ideas - thanks.

I'm not anti-school (though we're hoping to HE DS when he's old enough), but IME so many schools have so much (and waste so much!) money that I'd rather my vouchers were used where they could make a bit more of a difference.

Some schemes allow HE groups to use them. I'm sure our local group got some sports stuff from Sainsbury's a while ago.

The RNIB college sometimes does. I can't check til after half term on Monday though.

AngelDog I have no idea where you get your ideas about schools and money from, but I would again suggest local special schools who certainly aren't rich and may need their money for so many big things, that it can be hard to fund the little ones too. Pre-schools can also use them, and some other charities.

Our home-ed group collects them. You can send them to me if you like!

Bugaloo, please pm me. My mother-in-law gave me 50 Tescos vouchers the other day, and I would be very happy to send them to you.

Thanks very much - now I just need to decide whether to give them to a special school or to Bugaloo. :)

My ideas about school and money are only based on my own experience as a teacher and working for the local authority. Most of the problem (at primary at least) seemed to be due to incompetent management rather than wilful waste. (I don't say that in a pejorative way - primary heads are trained teachers, not business managers so I can see why most aren't that good at financial management).

I knew of a situation where a primary school was letting a private pre-school use a room or two free of charge, because they felt sorry for the poor little struggling pre-school group. When the LA started asking questions and talked to the pre-school, they discovered they had an annual turnover of well over £1 million (considerably more than the host school) and were very happy with their fantastic profit margins due (in part) to not having to pay anything for premises or facilities maintenance.

Thanks greenbananas, I have pm'd you.