Dinner Money Silliness

[jennifleurs]

DS just recently changed to school dinners and I was unsure of the correct etiquette with money etc. It costs £9.75 per week.

Sent him with a £10 note 2 consecutive weeks expecting change, none came home. 3rd week sent £10 and noted on envelope please can you give DS the change. School office phoned me to say that no, they cannot send DS or any child home with change as "it would be too much work".

I thought this rather snappy remark was interesting, and pondered how my boss would react if I started telling customers at work that I couldn't be bothered giving them correct change because there are so many of them each day it's simply too much work.

This week I have counted out £9.75 in correct change, in 10s, 5s, 2s and 1s.

I shall brace myself for a phone call!

Jennifleus, do you really think the school office are lazy? Is that because they didn't give you 25p back? After all the people who have posted here, can you not see the logistical issues of them giving change to everyone.

Just because a previous poster referred to lazy parents,modes not mean you need to retaliate with lazy office. Most people have said you don't need the rit change. You can send £10 as you have been and be in credit by 25p the following week. Why is there still a problem?

I'm sorry, but you sound like the kind of person who wants to pick a fight and feels like everyone is out to get you. They really are not. Do you want to argue with the school? Do you want to argue with people on here? Why ask for different opinions, if you aren't prepared to hear them. Maybe disagree, but I don't understand why you take offence so easily.

I'm not taking offence to all the replies at all - just that one. I think the office staff are pedantic which is why I did the same.

Pedantry and poor communication are two things I hate. With you on that one!! I got rather cross the other week when our school newsletter "reminded" us of a policy - actually after 4 1/2 years at the school it was the very first time I'd heard of it. I haven't but really should let them know that if a policy is new we need to be told about it not pretend it's always been there, and if it hasn't been communicated for several years it essentially hasn't existed.

Exactly the sort of snotty 'we're far too busy to deal with you silly parents' attitude the school has. If you work in a school, dealing with "lazy parents" (ie LP trying to juggle child and working who forgot to have exact change ready) is your job.

No, my job is to teach students and provide appropriate liaison between school and home regarding their education. There is nothing in either my job description, or the job descriptions of our office staff to run around after parents who are obsessing about a few pennies which will be credited to their next account anyway. It shows you have very little understanding of what actually goes on in a school, and why office staff really can't be bothered chasing around a few pennies in change for someone.

yy Pythonesque - our HT had to do a u-turn in similar circumstances recently.

I would assume it is common sense to give a week notice. The food will be ordered based on the number of children and the set meals for the week. Should all the school decide to have lunches that week there will not be enough to go around.