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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Teachers - do you have your own classroom allowance?

25 replies

ButWhyIsTheGinGone · 19/09/2011 21:14

Apologies for putting this here if it's not appropriate! I just wanted to ask for teachers' opinions and get a quickish response. Non-teachers I would also hugely value your ideas!

I was wondering if any teachers on here got an annual allowance to spend on classroom resources? A school near me gives £500/per class, annually! I'm just wondering because we're currently studying The Romans, and I've seen so many lovely books on EBay. Due to dire finances at the minute I cannot shell out, but I really think the kids would benefit from these, and other books relating to upcoming topics.

Obviously in the last couple of years, finances have changed dramatically. I am a Governor at our school and also on the Finance committee, so I know first hand what horrible cuts have been made. I have no intention of asking our Head for a £500 budget for all 8 classes, but rather am wondering if it's ok to raise money somehow in order to buy class resources. Does anyone have any ideas? Money raised at whole school events such as summer/easter/xmas fairs goes towards whole school issues.... what can my class and I do to raise ourselves a few hundred quid for some lovely books and software? Or is a small budget per class not too unreasonable to raise at the next governors meeting? Thanks all!

OP posts:

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amistillsexy · 19/09/2011 21:20

I once had a sponsored silence with my Y3 class. Raised quite a bit and we had a very peaceful day!

mrz · 19/09/2011 21:22

Yes ...it's called my salary

Hassled · 19/09/2011 21:23

PTA? Ours gave £100 per class last year for the teachers to spend as they deemed fit on resources, etc. Bit of a faff getting receipts out of them, but it was well-received. Talk to the PTA Chair re what funds they have, what plans they have etc.

Hassled · 19/09/2011 21:27

And there will already be a budget allocation for resources like this - ask the Head what she/he has in mind and how much spare there is. If you're on the Finance committee you should have a copy - and last BCR will show you spend vs allocation so you can get a sense of what scope there is.

PatriciaHolm · 19/09/2011 21:48

I would suggest PTA too - we give each class £50 a year to spend as they like.

Feenie · 19/09/2011 21:50

£500 per class? I only get £750 for books for our entire school!

AbigailS · 19/09/2011 21:53

Blimey! Boy an I jealous as we battle to make the felt pens and pritt sticks last a full year.

Themumsnot · 19/09/2011 21:54

At our school the budget is allocated per curriculum area, so the the subject co-ordinators put in bids for the resources they want - classroom teachers would have to make the request to the subject co-ordinators for each area. Over and above that, as other posters have said, our PTA make grants to individual teacher who want something in particular.

PatriciaHolm · 19/09/2011 22:05

AbigailS - our school asks for a box of tissues and a pritt from each child each term for this reason!

sugarandspiceandallthingsnice · 20/09/2011 00:04

Had £100 budget in my last school, that was on top of basic stationery (for the latter there was a list, you decided if you needed each item). Loved my budget, meant I could buy things for class and not out of my own money/go without. I bought in role play stuff as had year 2 and there was nothing.

Original poster

ButWhyIsTheGinGone · 20/09/2011 07:04

Thanks for your suggestions. Unfortunately the head of our PTA is a bit of a dragon. She basically TELLS the rest of the PTA and the Head where the money's going. (Things that will directly benefit her darling boy). I've even seen the Head dither a bit nervously before going cap in hand to her! Anyway, that's not the point. I have already got some money from the Head to benefit school's PE, which I'm really pleased about, so I think if I need any more it may have to be through fundraising. Sponsored silence sound great! :-D

OP posts:

DownbytheRiverside · 20/09/2011 07:12

'Yes ...it's called my salary'

Ditto. As a result of another thread, (parents wondering how much extra they spend a year because the school keeps asking for money), I'm now keeping a running total of everything I'm buying as class resources, with no chance of a refund. I expect it to be several hundred by the summer.

Runoutofideas · 20/09/2011 07:47

Ask the parents to club together and get Amazon vouchers for Christmas instead of hundreds of bottles of wine and boxes of chocolates?

40notTrendy · 20/09/2011 07:55

What's your school priority? If it's healthy living for example you could do a sponsored walk. A sponsored read may be appropriate in this case. A bring and buy sale might do well at this time of year, parents send in all their crap unwanted items, then sell, might get u a bit.

Waswondering · 20/09/2011 07:59

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

IndigoBell · 20/09/2011 08:09

What about asking the kids to bring in amy unwanted books?

IndigoBell · 20/09/2011 09:32

Actually I have a really great fund raising idea.

Get each kid to write a short story. Publish a book of them using lulu.

That should cost about £3 per book. Then you could sell them to the parents for £5 per book :)

pinkgirlythoughts · 20/09/2011 09:46

On the subject of Pritt Sticks, last year I was given six for my class of thirty, intended to last the whole year. I went out and bought some more myself, needless to say.

nickschick · 20/09/2011 09:56

I once was sent by the head teacher to buy up all the pritt sticks from tesco that had been reduced to 60p for 3 .

actually i just thought of something ,,,,when i was at school we used to get a piece of A4 paper with all little squares on and a list of things to find - a grain of rice,a drawing pin,elastic band,first class stamp,leaf,used matchstick etc etc and we were sponsored to find it.

A cake sale might bring in some money.

A careful word with one of the mums might give a hint that youd prefer a collection for books instead of chocs for xmas.

crazygracieuk · 20/09/2011 10:21

Does your school collect Nestles Books for Schools tokens? If not then I'd ask the school to start collecting them.

Our school had a weekly cake sale in the summer term with each year taking it in turns and the money was spent by the teachers on what that year needed. It was a 2 form entry school in quite a disadvantaged area but managed to raise £100 for each year group.

Our school also had close links with the local charity shops who would call the school if they received things that the school could use. Mums at the school who worked at charity shops often alerted the school to donations that could be used as resources too.

I used to donate books and toys that my children outgrew so that the school could use them.

Does your school do the normal fundraisers like tea towels, Christmas cards etc? Can the PTA help?

Theas18 · 20/09/2011 12:26

As a teachers daughter and now a teachers wife I've spent my whole life subsidising schools and I resent it! My toys went to mums school (I was very lucking she brought my rocking horse home when she retired but didn't see the rest again!). DH taught at a school in a poor area- the really bad sort of "poor" area in that it wasn't and "action zone" for anything having "nice" housing at one end of the patch but still... So all the kids old comics and toys went into the wet play box, or there wouldn't be any etc etc .He bought things like sellotape dispensers for the classroom out of his own pocket (not essentials but make actually using the tape possible for small kids!). We even sent in out grown PE kit for the "forgot it" box and old shirts for painting overalls!!

Maybe that's why I'm a bit grumpy about continual PTA fund-raisers etc. THe book of kids stories sounds good but is a mine field for the "my kids better than yours" parents LOL

THe drawings on a tea towel /calender /mug go down well but do have an outlay.

Schools tokens- yep great- I'm happy to collect IF I normally shop there or buy the product. I do not want my kids telling me that they had an assembly about shopping at tesburys or sainsco or to buy Nestle because the school will get lots of nice things!! (just wait till the Nestle boycott team get onto that bandwaggon.... me it's just too spendy!).

One thing that worked really well at the kids primary was the Xmas fair book sale of second hand books. The school kept any they felt were useful to them, sold the rest and bought new books with that profit.

Theas18 · 20/09/2011 12:28

Cake sales .......yup that'll go down well with "healthy schools" and "lunchbox police"...

Great idea and raises loads of ££ but there will be threads mark my words.... "healthy fruit flapjack taken out of lunch box but he was allowed to pay £1 for a measly rice crispy cake at break" etc

crazygracieuk · 20/09/2011 12:41

I know the cake sales contradict the healthy eating thing but I've always wondered why it's ok for school dinners to contain a stodgy dessert like cake with custard?

nickschick · 20/09/2011 18:43

What about my 'treasure hunt' idea???

BatmanLovesRobin · 21/09/2011 16:45

Copper trail's a good one - even the poorest families can send their child in with a few pennies, and it can add up to quite a lot.

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