Glasgow council nurseries- do you pay a few pounds a week as a supposed donation?

[bobabo]

This is for a funded hours place, so the nursery place should in theory be free.
Official letters from the nursery ask for a £4 donation per week, but the receptionist logs who pays what and it doesn't feel voluntary when reminder letters are issued. The HT says the council require parents to pay for snacks (26p per day) and the rest is a donation for the toy fund. Thoughts?

First time I've posted on the local forum, so hi! Noticed no one had responded to you on this, so I thought I'd say something.

The donation that you're asked to make is for the Toy Fund. This is a fund all nurseries have which is used to buy supplies for the nursery - usually things like Christmas presents, Easter eggs, pays for parties etc. Each nursery sets it's own amount (most I've heard of charge between £2 and £5 per week). It is voluntary, but without parents paying their Toy Fund, the nursery couldn't provide all the extras for the kids throughout the year. The clerical assistant is required to log who pays what because it's in the regulations (we have to know how much money is taken each week, and from whom). I work in two nurseries and they often issue reminder letters because some parents were paying weekly (usually the ones who could least afford it) whilst others just point blank refused to contribute anything. As all the children benefit from the fund, it's not fair on those who do pay not to at least try to get those who don't pay to cough up.

Incidentally, the snack charge is because your nursery has opted to supply the children's snack themselves. If they hadn't, you'd simply get a termly bill for the snack charges from the council directly. Hope this answers your question.