How much is your voluntary contribution?

[hibbledibble]

If your child goes to religious/voluntarily aided school how much do you pay a year in voluntary contribution? Do you pay the full amount suggested?

DS2 went to a VA CofE primary school, and we were never asked for contributions. The local non-denominational comprehensive does ask, but it's a nominal amount of a few pounds a year.

We never paid anything - were never asked for anything.

We paid "voluntary" contributions towards other things such as swimming lessons, and educational trips, but assume this is something different.

The "" are because they were more mandatory than voluntary - I was quite agressively chased up any time I forgot to pay.

Yes, should probably clarify that contributions were asked for that sort of thing on an ad hoc basis, and the 'voluntary' aspect of it was on a similar level, ie 'expected'.

Our school offer is for a place with a rather hefty voluntary contribution (an annual amount in the four figures). I'm wondering how this compares to other schools? (And should we definitely pay the full amount? Which we could afford but is a bit of a stretch)

Dd Catholic primary asked for £30 per year per child. This money went towards the building fund for all the catholic schools in the diocese

DS1 school is £100 and DS2 is £75 both catholic schools.

DS1 school is £100 and DS2 is £75 both catholic schools.

nothing

dc x4 have been at the same VA lower school now for the last 13 years (not all at once!) and we've never been asked for a voluntary contribution towards the running of the school. We've paid for trips and school fetes etc, but not cash just for the school.

Old school asked for £50 a year.
Potential school asks for similar

Both are church schools - we are not in the church but have applied as these are our local schools - nearest as the crow flies.. if they were not church schools we would still apply..

Old school - extended the church for 1.5 million
Next school - was given 275K to 'support' a local incinerator

IMO - both schools have 'enough money' and do not need my 'contribution' .. how well that will go down - I don't know?

Nothing at catholic va primary school.

Secondary CofE va school asks for £30 a year. My Dd started part way through the year and I haven't been asked yet for it.

Thousands of pounds a year? Surely that's a private school really then?
If they are govt funded then where does this extra money come from? If they're not govt funded where does the rest of the money come from? I've never heard of this kind of school.

DD at local LEA primary & we are asked for just over £100pa contribution so they can keep the same number of TAs, something like £30pa for classroom resources & then there are ad hoc requests for trips, non uniform days etc.

We pay £105 per month per child. It is a Jewish school and pays for security and Jewish Studies staff and resources.

We pay nothing for a VA CofE school and we have never been asked to other than the usual requests for trips.

£30 per child to cover most school trips. They stress it is 'voluntary' and I know many just don't bother. It used to be £25 so I think they upped it to cover those that don't pay, which I don't agree with. We only paid half this year as we didn't have the funds.

Are you certain you understood that right, hibbledibble? It seems unrealistic.

Our school explicitly informed new parents that most pay £10-£20 per month. Explaining that if everyone did that, the school would have somewhere around £3000/month to do stuff with, and also giving some examples of what sort of stuff they do with that money.
For reference, ours is a sought-after, always oversubscribed OFSTED 'outstanding' school in a leafy suburb, with some seriously wealthy parents.

If they said: "We expect parents to contribute £180, most parents pay monthly." Then I could see how some might understand that they are expected to pay £180 every month, i.e. £2160 per year; when in fact they meant to say that parents contribute £180 per year and split it up into monthly payments (of £15).

In your situation I would definitely check if I'd got the info right!

FWIW we pay £10/month and have in turn reduced our weekly offerings at church, as money is a bit tight.

meita as rediculously high as it sounds, I am sure this is correct, as I have a letter to this affect which clearly states that the voluntary contribution is a yearly amount in the 4 figures. It does say that it is voluntary, and to contact the school if we have difficulty paying to discuss a reduced amount, but I don't think that is the done thing!

That's just ridiculous. So ridiculous, it's worthy of a newspaper article.

Our CE VA school is 45 per child per year. They don't say it's voluntary in the letter and send out reminders in book bags on red paper if you don't pay up.

My DC are at a VA CofE primary school and there is no annual voluntary contribution - we are contacted for contributions to class trips as they occur.

There is an active PTA and it has been suggested that, instead of fundraising events, parents could be asked for an annual contribution, but it hasn't happened yet.

Forgot to say, in addition to the suggested voluntary contribution (£120-£240 per year) we are asked to contribute to school trips etc. but that money obviously always has a very clear purpose.

We too have an active PTA which raises lots of money. And, well, you know: Cake sale. All the mums (occasional dads) of one class spend hours baking and decorating, after having gone out to buy ingredients. Some just go and buy some cakes (e.g. 10 cupcakes at £1/cupcake). Then we all bring our contributions to school, and buy them back (at £0.50/two cupcakes). It would be a lot easier to just give the school a sum of money instead! The only additional benefit is that the kids have fun choosing and eating cakes. And the mums may turn a bit competitive with their contributions, so chances are you can raise more money than by quietly donating money and not talking about it.

OP I agree with rabbitstew.
Also if I were you I would take them up on the offer to discuss. For one, I would want to know what exactly is done with all that money. Just think: A small school with 200 children who each contribute £100/month, that would make £20'000 per month... as pp have said, sometimes these contributions go into a general pot of money at the diocese and may not benefit your school at all. It may not even go to ANY school. And even if it does stay with your school, there are different pots of money within a school too. E.g. at our school, whatever is raised by the PTA is reserved for things that directly benefit the children (e.g. new playground equipment) but the voluntary contributions are used mainly to cover the 10% (I think it is 10%) of infrastructure costs that aren't covered by the LEA. E.g. in order to instal double glazing for £30'000, the school cannot do that unless they can raise £3000 from parents and the LEA agrees to pay the other 27'000. (I am not certain I got this absolutely right but that is my understanding.)
So I would want to know into which pot your contributions go and what they are used for and why they need so much.

£7.50 per child per term (Catholic school).

Trips etc paid in addition to this, that's just the voluntary contribution to the school.

Our VA C of E school asked for £30 per family per year. 4 figures for a state school is ridiculous.

4 figures does sound exceptionally high.

Our primaries don't ask for anything and only 1 of the secondary schools ask - I think it's only £15 a year.

We do pay ad hoc like many others but it comes to less that £30 a year.

VA schools and catholic schools have to find 10% of any capital costs themselves. The other 90% can be bid for through the diocese but the funds are normally low and saved for urgent work. So that 10% has to be found from somewhere. Asking for voluntary contributions is better than endless PTA events. It doesn't sound glamorous fundraising for 10% of a new boiler but that is the reality.