Teachers buying own resources

[MrsHathaway]

Sorry for the thread title.

I'm sure that around this time last year there was a loooooooooong thread in Primary Education asking teachers what resources they buy for their classes out of their own money (i.e. when the budget runs out or they can't face justifying the cost), off the back of which some parents bought resources and sent them in to school for the new academic year.

Only I can't for the life of me find it. I've used every search term I can think of in Advanced Search and nothing. Can anyone else remember?

For what it's worth, this is the list I exported of all the materials teachers said they had bought for their classes. They also mentioned that by about June they're running out of photocopier paper, handwriting pens and pencils.

antibacterial gel and wipes
board rubbers
books
blu-tack
card blanks
coloured paper
colouring pens
costume material
cotton wool
counters
cushions and blankets, old curtains
dice
drawing pins
glue sticks
hair bobbles and clips
laminating pouches
marking stamps
mounting paper
paper clips
pencil crayons
san pro
sellotape
spare PE kit / uniform
stickers
sticky labels
tissue paper
tissues
underwear
washing lines and pegs

I work in a primary school in lreland. School supplies all that

My friend in Ireland pays 150 euros per child for school supplies as a parental contribution. She also has to think twice before taking her dc to see their GP - he charges 30 euros for each visit (50 euros for her) - I think she said that a visit to A&E costs 100 euros.

I am fascinated by the lists and why the school have not budgeted for a reasonable amount of these, especially different coloured pens for marking purposes - that is just beyond belief that the school expects certain standards from the teaching staff in terms of the marking scheme but cannot or will not supply the pens.
What intrigues me also is when posters say that everything runs out in june / july. Accept that is the end of an academic year but for maintained schools it is not the end of the financial year, that is the end of March. So if it is a new financial year are the school trying to save all the available funds for the new academic year?

No, the budget only stretches for one term! There is a large order placed in April once the new budget comes in, but then that's it. Nothing more until the next April. If we are VERY lucky, the business manager will allow a second order for Xmas! By then, teachers are adept at horse trading. "I'll swap you 6 glue sticks for some red and green card"

I am fascinated by the lists and why the school have not budgeted for a reasonable amount of these

I really don't mean to appear rude but oh wow this made me crease with laughter, if only we had thought to budget better. Unfortunately it seems the cuts to school budgets have gone over some peoples heads. The truth is no matter how well you budget if there is not enough in the budget, then there is not enough. You cannot magic up more money if it is not there. In my last job the entire Foundation Stage budget for the year was £150. That's for 90+ children to cover all consumables (glue, glitter, card, play dough, paper, pencils etc) and any trips. We tried to stay local and get people in to visit but our children had difficult home lives and small worlds outside of school so we liked to try to give them new experiences. It's no wonder we spent all year buying our own consumables as the £150 didn't even cover the cost of coach hire for the trip.

I was alerted to the problem around this time last year when my then-8yo started planning fundraising to buy handwriting pens for his class because they had run out. Ultimately it was much cheaper and quicker to buy a 40-pack of handwriting pens on Amazon and send them in, than to bake cakes/ buy sweets from the wholesalers and help with an event. I should think it's very difficult to predict exactly what stationery an organisation of several hundred people will use over an entire year, which is why companies buy it bit by bit and keep buying it when they run out, perhaps grudgingly eating into profits but recognising that people need materials to do their jobs.

Replacing pens is a teachers lot.

Why buy hair bobbles though?

Because children come in with their long hair hanging loose and it needs to be tied back to prevent nits . Or because someone's bobble broke. Or as I experienced earlier this year, a Child cried because it was school photo day and her long hair was loose and unbrushed and scruffy . I was able to get her looking smart by tying it back and putting a ribbon in her hair and get her smiling again.

Slightly different but I have to spend hundreds on books for me (I teach history and needed books on a totally new topic with spec changes) cost me £350 in one year - School will never reimburse me but I really needed them to teach a new a level.

Hair bobbles and clips and spare pants. Because when they're needed they're needed.

Actually I imagine it's less hassle for a teacher to tie up long hair quickly at the beginning of PE than have a 7yo doing gymnastics with her hair everywhere because the family doesn't really know which day PE is.

I've just bought a set of plastic drawers to store our spare clothes (in nursery), which are non-existent at this time of year as children have needed them throughout the year and parents haven't returned them. The girls are used to wearing boys pants now as we seemed to have more of those!

At secondary level teachers have to buy spare pens etc themselves because there is no budget to claim it from - theoretically kids have their own, except so many don't.

As a secondary English teacher I bought DVDs of Shakespeare plays, did my own printing and photocopying at home, bought and sourced book box books, bought and printed extra resources, bought 4 large standing fans for my 3rd floor room (at a cost of over £100, thank you to my year 9 bottom set for carrying them - they'll all be in their late 20s now) with windows painted shut the summer 3 teen girls collapsed in my room due to the heat, and I was told that there was no money for fans (and I myself was 6 months pregnant)... As well as stocking up on 100 cheap biros and a handful of rulers and pencils and a few sets of felt tips and coulouring pencils at the start of each term.

My glue stick fact is that last financial year we got through 5 glue sticks per child. which doesn't sound many really when you think how much they stick in every day (learning objectives) but obviously if you multiply 5 by however many children there are in the school by either 36p if you buy a cheap brand or 89p if you buy an expensive one it comes to a lot.

Headsdownthumbsupeveryone, You have no idea who I am or what I do and I am absolutely serious when I say yes the school as a whole needs to budget better. That is not the teachers directly but the SLT and the Governing Board because they are the ones who set the budget. Times are tough in schools finance but actually cutting the costs of the essentials to run the school classes is just evading the real issue, which is that in most schools staffing costs are 80%+ of what funding is coming into the school. The real questions that need to be answered are whether we are over-paying some members of staff and whether actually the school could be operated in another way with less staff. The five schools I am involved with are all financially sound and every classroom has all the equipment and resources they need to run well, so to me extra funding, whilst always willing accepted, simply allows poor financial control to continue in many schools. Having checked the amount for my 420 pupil primary school, in one of the worst funded LAs in England, each of the 14 classes received more than 10 times the figure you got for all the foundation stage. I think it is time your SLT and Governing Board were answering some difficult questions.

admission are you in favour of managing out experienced teachers to save money by staffing with nqts? Perhaps it would be more efficient to make teaching a brief interlude, like a year out voluntary service option for new graduates? Just replace the cheapest teachers every year, never pay anyone over 22k. Pad with experienced TAs on 14k...

The real questions that need to be answered are whether we are over-paying some members of staff and whether actually the school could be operated in another way with less staff.

The only way that can be achieved is by employing a never ending stream of NQTs. If you want quality teachers with experience the bottom line is you need to pay for them. If you really think staff are over paid or staff could be cut that's your prerogative but the truth is if this happens it's the children's learning that suffers. Frankly you will struggle to find a teacher who would sacrifice experience and staffing for all the glue sticks and spare pants in the world. Teachers provide the extras so that we don't have to cut staffing costs. Although in honesty most schools don't even have staff to cut, a lot of schools around here are already working on skeletal staffing.

Do you not think that other schools have considered how to reduce their budgets? We have lost a teacher, an HLTA and two TAs this year, (even OFSTED said I was overworked because of staffing cuts!) we can't physically lose any more without impinging even further onto our provision. So now it's glue sticks and pencils!

But you did that because you wanted to, crunch

Of course she/he did! Because we want the best for our pupils, whether that is academically , socially or emotionally. So if a couple of hair bobbles will help, then we buy them!

wouldn't you want to do that too?
Teachers and teaching assistants don't just impart knowledge you know. We care for the children in our care! Do you think it would have kind or caring to let that child cry and be miserable?

Stil! your choice.

Sorry, but if you want to be kind and caring that’s lovely. But I support charities of my own choice.

My colleagues in the science, art, and P.E. departments all buy hair bobbles for students to use in practical lessons, and tear out their own hair, as the school refuses to add to the uniform policy that hair must be tied back.

somesetmeadow-do you have any children?

somersetmeadow - and you, right there, show why teachers spend so much extra time caring for the pastoral needs of their students. Because we care, when the parents are busy not giving a shit.

There you go then. Lovely attitude you have towards the families.

On another Ireland related note, here the teachers are paid directly by the State, rather than the individual school. Much more sensible way to do it imo, as then you don't run into the problem of experienced staff being managed out to save a few quid. And I have no problem with parents being expected to pay for the GP.

The only way to change the teacher buying resources problem imo, is for teachers to refuse to do it. But it won't happen as teachers don't want to see their pupils suffer, which of course is lovely - but it perpetuates the problem. The powers that be are aware of that and take full advantage.