Anyone been asked to help with School funding / costs?

[Ahmawa]

So my DD who attends a brilliant nursery that is part of a School. They sent letters home for a meeting to discuss the current tight funding situation.

I was wondering whether this is isolated or something that is happening all over the country?

Certainly not an isolated incident; many schools have extremely tight budgets or are running on empty.

It's not new - we had requests from school for "voluntary donations" over five years ago. And periodic requests for things like pens, tissues, anti-bac wipes.

I suspect it's worse now that the new funding formulae are hitting some schools very hard, though

We have been asked to donate a sum every month by direct debit. Regular fund raising events run by parent volunteers. Parents also volunteer doing admin tasks and hearing kids read. Not isolated.

Also had a meeting like that. The conclusion the head came to was 'I have no clue what to cut next. pls give generously.' :(

Secondary school here, has an ‘activities’ fund. Helps towards the cost of sports and music events/trips amongst others. I pay £25 per month by direct debit probably plus gift aid.

I don’t have a particular sporty DC and seem to have to pay for music trips/lessons anyway but I do pay.

I maybe wrong but it seems to me that state funded schools are being starved of income but Free Schools are actually well funded. Albeit this is from my limited experience.

yes, we have had a direct debit set up for a while.
Totally normal and IMO a much better alternative to baking sodding cakes at 1am which are sold for less than the cost of the ingredients. Taxes to actually fund public services properly would be even better but... Tories.
What is important though is that whether it's cakes, pennies or a direct debit, families who can't afford it don't feel pressurised.

We pay for school trips, and provide endless food for cake sales. Our school runs on cakes.. And crafts and sponsored runs and anything else we can think of.

What is important though is that whether it's cakes, pennies or a direct debit, families who can't afford it don't feel pressurised

With bells on.

I was talking to someone today who has four children. The £22 I spend on school photos is £88 in their house. Incredible!

Pretty standard these days. There’s not much more that can be cut.

You can put your school or post code in here & check

www.schoolcuts.org.uk

I maybe wrong but it seems to me that state funded schools are being starved of income but Free Schools are actually well funded. Albeit this is from my limited experience.

Free schools have the same funding formula as other academies. Free schools are state funded schools.

They receive some leadership funding to cover the 1st few years when number are low, to enable them to have a non teaching head for example, but do not receive any additional funding.

What is important though is that whether it's cakes, pennies or a direct debit, families who can't afford it don't feel pressurised

Agreed

My bit of rebellion against the "voluntary donation" stuff was to send in the money but without putting DC's names on the envelope so they didn't know who it was from (the school kept a list and ticked off names as they brought in their money....) I wanted the school to have it, but it's absolutely none of their business who has and hasn't donated

It's very common with the current Conservative government who have underfunded all public services for years (except for their own salaries and pensions of course).

Our school now gets more funding per head due to the formula but it is still given political spin of cuts from the chair of governors...
I thought catholic schools have been asking for contributions for years. Tbh I rather donate money than give up my bank holidays and weekends for PTA fundraising..

The Institute of Fiscal Studies issued a report explaining the situation https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/13143 and recent claims by the government about spending on education has been discredited.

@LatteLover12

Brilliant website.

The cuts are at every school. I find that disheartening when in the great scheme of things £3bn to our Government is less than what they spend on the Parliament refurbishment.

I feel we should pay through taxes as a means to fund education rather than rely on individual donations as some people just might not be able to donate.

I think that's one of the problem, not everyone can fund education through taxes in England.

Our nursery asked parents to donate toys and books. Our primary ask us to donate money every year, as well as donate some books, art materials, etc.

I think people who are able to pay should pay. And try to help fund raise as much as possible. After all, it's all for our children.

Only today my son did a sponsored sports event to raise money for resources. It sucks. And what about the kids whose parents just don't have money to give to schools? Bet these cuts aren't affecting the kids of the people who introduced them. Oh no.

Taxes or voluntary contributions? What’s the difference? You still pay a bit more and the voluntary contribution goes directly to the school. Lots of people seem to want others to pay billions of £ in higher taxes but they just want to take. Higher rate tax payers already contribute more than lower rate tax payers in this country so do pay their share. Latest tax stats show this. Just the government ministers paying a bit more isn’t going to help. Also why shouldn’t some people be richer than others and contribute more? It’s vital this happens or it’s more cuts! Economic facts I’m afraid!

BubblesBuddy

Not sure what point you are making. Schools located in wealthier suburbs the parents are more able to help out than say schools in poorer areas but by raising taxes you can target these schools in poorer areas?

I am not arguing that higher tax rate payers should pay more. I am saying its probably fairer if we all paid a bit more in taxes so schools wouldn't have to ask for contributions. We are the sixth richest nation - we can at least fund our education system properly?

If schools are in deprived areas then within the new national funding formula there is a level of funding directed towards schools in such areas along with funding such as pupil premium, so the funding is already to some extent targeted.
The simple issue is that generally there is not enough funding in the education system and more needs to be spread to all schools. However at a more individual level there are far too many schools and governing boards that have not grasped the concept of living within the means of the funding they are allocated.

I would very happily pay more tax to have a better standard of state education across the country. Unfortunately no-one seems to want to let me!! :D I don't much like voluntary contributions because it isn't an efficient or fair way of funding the service. It will not necessarily be the richest who pay the voluntary contributions, but those with the strongest social conscience.

I would agree with you Mijkl, in my school there are those with a social conscious, many of whom we would consider as being not well off, who scrimp and save to give voluntary donations for things like transport to go swimming and there are then those who just ignore the request, who could easily afford the cost.

I was talking to my neighbor about this today. She was having some trouble paying for her child’s school lunch and school trips. While I think that budgeting definitely helps, there is a inherent problem with school funding in general. Off to read the report by the institute of financial studies now.

It's just starting to hit those who had larger funding budgets under the old system. Since at the time I was teaching in one of the lowest funded countries and we had tiny pupil premium we had a double whammy of it originally. Ours barely increased but others lost almost half and thousands per child. The places doing best are the ones who always had a poor funding deal.