£7 Christmas Show

[BadMomHere]

My kids have their xmas show coming up, they already signed up for it months back (no talk of ticket prices) and we just got letters to say the tickets are £7 each!!!! Not just that, but younger children / babies need tickets too....also £7!!! Is this right?! What do you think about paying to see your kids perform?

No it isn't in a theatre, no snacks / drink are not included and there is no offer of financial help for those who can't afford it.... I am so peeved right now! Family of for £28 to get through the door and then the rest.

I was certain the school could not charge parents for this sort of thing and could instead only suggest a donation?

If no one paid it they wouldn't be able to charge it. my guess possibly at some point, its been introduced and parents have paid it, making it acceptable. I sure as shit wouldn't pay it.

Where is it though? In the school hall? Or have they hired a venue?

Have the school provided costumes?

Private or state school?

It is indeed in the school hall, state school and the kids are just in T-shirts & trousers.

In that case - YANBU!

Has anyone asked the school to justify the cost?

The school said it is due to government cuts - I appreciate this is a real issue and donations would benefit all children, however this isn't voluntary - if you don't pay, you don't get in, many kids parents won't be able to afford to attend.

And the biggest gripe being, they had the kids sign up to be in, learn everything and then tell us the price!

I lead the Christmas play at school. We don’t charge as it’s tricky with performance licences etc. We sell raffle tickets at £1 and there’s no obligation to buy them but most families do! That makes us a few quid to cover some of the costs. £7 is ridiculous!

What’s ridiculous is that schools are so strapped for funding that they have to try to raise money in this way. Write to your MP and tell them what austerity means to your child’s education.

Guessing you are in an affluent area so the school thinks that parents are able to pay this amount. I don't think it's ideal, but I guess it's as good a way as any of fundraising if funds are tight.

Our school has an optional donation of £2 per adult to cover costumes. Well in theory it's optional but the bursar stands outside the door saying "£2 please" and taking payment. £7 even for babies is in another league however. I don't think it should be compulsory to pay that amount.

It’s pretty expensive, however, before you get really cross why don’t you email the head teacher with something along the lines of ‘Dear Mr/ Mrs X, we’ve just received the letter regarding pricing for the school Christmas play and for our family £28 to come is way too much. We really don’t want to miss it and I think our child / children would be really upset if we couldn’t come. Is there anything you can do to help us?
Many thanks in advance, X’

At least see if there’s something that can be done. Once you’ve done that and they’ve not helped, you are well within your rights to be cross.

Ours have always been free though they do have collection buckets for a local charity (not the school). Parents provide costumes so I guess the costs are fairly low.

Can't believe how a school can justify £7 for adults and children.

Is this normal school Christmas play? I ask because at our school, kids don't sign up to be in the play, but they are all in it anyway.

Ours collects for charity at the performance. Only 2 tickets per child. DVD of the performance is £2 and photos are 50p. (No filming allowed)

At first I thought it was a trip out, I would never expect to pay to see my children’s play.

Ours has just announced with great fanfare that the year 6 play will be in a real theatre. As parents we were expected to whoop and gasp with delight.
My response was to point out that we'll be lucky if tickets are below £10 a person, plus it'll probably be a pain to get to unless it's the very local one (which will be at least £12 plus parking)
And I shall be astounded if ds auditions as he doesn't in school (only the Christmas show until year 6) despite doing a lot of drama outside school. I asked him once why he didn't. he replied "You know mum, it's like the titanic. Some people had a bad feeling and didn't get on the boat; I just had a bad feeling about the play."
Tbf I usually have a bad feeling about the play too as they're totally rubbish and are written by a parent who has one joke that she uses in every single play. Did you know that back in the nativity time they didn't have cars, or mobile phones, or anything else like that? Well I'd never have guessed, would you? Must be why we get that joke about 20 times in the course of a less than 30 minute play!
In all honesty by the time they get to year 6, I suspect they could get a group of children together to write a better one.
If we have to pay £10 for the year six play I shall have a really really bad feeling about it

Children's performances at our school are free.

There's usually a raffle and/or refreshments on sale to help raise money but that's it.

£7 per ticket sounds very expensive.

As someone who is trying to raise funds for a School right now, things are dire. £7 is on the steep side but they must have arrived at that figure because that is the money they need.

Charging for toddlers and babies???

Maybe you could at a stretch see the logic in 7 quid a family.

Our school families are limited to 2 tickets as we don't have capacity for 4. Toddlers and babies not allowed to evening performances!