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Primary education

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Original poster

School ‘voluntary’ donations

25 replies

Marleyj · 03/11/2020 17:35

Does anyone else have a school that adds ‘voluntary’ donation charges to parent pay? Eg a charity event/non uniform day they add £5 voluntary donation to the account which is then owed and have to pay. Now having a voluntary donation of £5 added for head teachers leaving gift. That will work out as over £1000 gift for the head leaving, funded by parents? Am I being unreasonable? Thanks in advance for any other perspective on this! I should say that can request to have these donation charges removed after added, but have to do this each time, there is no option to opt out.

School ‘voluntary’ donations
OP posts:
IEat · 03/11/2020 20:25

Voluntary payments can be shoved up their arses. No one can force you to contribute. If that were me that account would stay in the negative. I'd only pay for what I had to, school lunches type of thing

kowari · 03/11/2020 20:30

Money that goes towards the school that your child will benefit from in some way, pay if you can. Money for gifts, pay if you would like to contribute. This is what I follow and I would ignore any 'overdue' notices to the contrary.

kowari · 03/11/2020 20:36

Money for charity, pay if this is a charity you want to support and can afford it, otherwise ignore.

Maryann1975 · 03/11/2020 20:39

On our parent pay you have the option to not pay for an item. It does stay there forever as a reminder, but I never check the box for anything I’m not wanting to pay for.

Maryann1975 · 03/11/2020 20:44

And for the record, there is no way I’d be giving £5 for the head teachers leaving gift. I know SLT have it quite bad, but they also get paid far more than I do to do that job, and as you say if everyone gave £5 it would be £1000! That’s madness. Even if only 1 in 4 gave £5 its £250 which is still far too much imo.

Murmurur · 03/11/2020 21:09

No, not for charity or leaving gifts. We might for trips, or the occasional £2 for supplies for cookery or tech.

Do you actually need to ask for them to be removed, or can you just leave them unpaid on your account? Charity is difficult to say no to, but I think the kids learn more from it if they are the ones handing over their donations.

admission · 03/11/2020 21:50

I would ask them to provide you with their charging and remunerations policy, which is a legal requirement for them to have - it should be on their website. See what that says because there are very clear rules about what schools can and cannot ask for.
Both of the above are in the "somewhat dubious" category as to whether they are allowed or not but when they then put on "overdue" then that is definitely not acceptable and it moves from a request for a donation to a bill in my opinion.

Maryann1975 · 03/11/2020 22:01

And for the record, there is no way I’d be giving £5 for the head teachers leaving gift. I know SLT have it quite bad, but they also get paid far more than I do to do that job, and as you say if everyone gave £5 it would be £1000! That’s madness. Even if only 1 in 4 gave £5 its £250 which is still far too much imo.

PresentingPercy · 03/11/2020 23:50

Is this an independent school? If not, delete the items. If it is, it might be expected.

BackforGood · 04/11/2020 00:02

No, it's not 'owed' and you don't 'have to' pay.

I had assumed from the title this was going to be about your dc going on a trip or some sort and was coming to say if you have the money, then of course you should pay, but this is completely different.

  1. The school shouldn't be asking for people to contribute to a staff member's leaving present in the first place
  2. Even if they did say there were a collection which I disagree with then a) contributing at all and b) the amount if you want to contribute should be entirely up to the donor and should also be completely anonymous.
cabbageking · 04/11/2020 01:37

Schools have to word it as voluntary even if they need every parent to pay for a school trip to go ahead.
Asking for a voluntary donation for a staff leaving gift is disgusting.
I would strike it off the paperwork.

Original poster
Marleyj · 04/11/2020 06:57

Ah thank you all! It is a standard council run primary school, not academy or independent. I can ask to have the ‘donations’ removed - by ringing the office each time and asking for each item to be removed which is obviously embarrassing. I have repeatedly said I cannot afford to pay, but the items are still added each time. I have also contacted school to say this is an unfair policy for those on low incomes and for single parents but they refuse to drop the ‘donations’, they say no one else has an issue. I do pay for trips etc, but I wouldn’t be able to afford £5 donation for each dress down day for external charities - it has been £25 for charities in last 5 weeks, plus then the head leaving ‘gift’. I will have a look and see if I can see their charging policy, thanks.

OP posts:
KatherineOfGaunt · 04/11/2020 07:08

This is ridiculous. £5 for a non-uniform day? It's a pound in the schools I've worked in, and even then you get some pupils who don't or can't pay and that's fine.

And don't get me started on the £5 from each child for the head's leaving gift. Definitely check for a policy; most schools I've worked in have started staff cannot accept gifts with more than about £70 or something.

I'd want to contact the LA about them adding "voluntary" charges like this to your account but, even as a teacher, I'm not sure if they could do anything about it, it's such an unusual situation!

Fedup21 · 04/11/2020 07:13

Just ignore it!

PresentingPercy · 04/11/2020 09:35

Can you de register from the payment system or make choices for the payments you want? The system cannot be mandatory.

I’m amazed you have to ring up the office to make changes. That’s appalling. I would de register if it was me. I would also contact the school via the complaints policy. This is simply wrong - the money involved and the nature of the payments requested. They are all totally voluntary and shouldn’t be assumed. I thought this must be an independent school. What do other parents think?

underneaththeash · 04/11/2020 12:44

£5 for non-uniform! Two of my children are at private school and it's max of £2 (which goes to charity).

Honestly - just ignore.

caringcarer · 04/11/2020 13:46

My child's primary school did this but his Secondary adds a few things on eg he is going to make a Xmas cake with marzipan and icing do £10 donation for ingredients. I am happy with this and I dont mind Children in Need or red nose day but would not want to contribute to Headteacher gift as I don't think she does a very good job tbh. I would happily donate to his form tutor though. It is morally wrong to put pressure on parents when some will struggle to feed kids and have lost their jobs. I would make official complaint.

FinallyHere · 04/11/2020 14:11

In the days when DH attended the local grammar school, the pupils were required to bring these 'voluntary donations' in cash and hand them in, in front of everyone else during a registration. His parents refused to contribute and , to be fair, money was exceptionally tight.

He shrugs off his memories of being the only boy in the school to not contribute, I find the very idea heartbreaking.

scissy · 04/11/2020 17:14

£5 for non-uniform day?! Shock
Ours is £1 but this year (presumably due to COVID) they have started adding it via ParentPay. However, it's explicitly listed as voluntary and you don't have to pay it at ours. Plus I imagine it's less embarrassing than kids not having a £1 to physically hand in like their peers as no one in your class will know if you've paid or not.

ChristopherLillicrap · 04/11/2020 17:50

£5 for non-uniform day is a lot! Shock

Our school asks for "a coin" - so anything from 1p to £2.

Parents are never asked to contribute to presents for members of staff.

LadyCatStark · 04/11/2020 17:56

£5?? Non uniform day is a quid here!

PresentingPercy · 04/11/2020 17:56

I was the only girl in the school then! We had the same at our grammar! To be fair, quite a few didn’t cough up it’s just that you felt you were the only one.

StandWithYou · 04/11/2020 19:37

We have a policy for my DCs primary school about gifts, they need to be declared by the teacher. Our school actually discourages giving cash gifts. It is extortionate to request £5 for charity for dress up days and leaving presents. You won’t be the only parent who doesn’t pay for these - I wouldn’t in your position.

Ratbum · 24/11/2020 18:28

Our new primary sent message via Parentpay, describing voluntary charity contribution as "now due" ....then sent a chaser later, describing the vol donation as "overdue". Its entirely consistent with the way the Head communicates with parents. ("We will not be sending Christmas cards this year..." er, I am Mrs Ratbum, not a 4 yr old). We ignore her but I found it offensive, sure.

Justajot · 24/11/2020 18:42

Our school is so much more careful around this sort of thing. We have "My Child At School" to make payments and you have to put things in your basket, they don't just appear. They request a reduced voluntary contribution for children who qualify for pupil premium. Very occasionally they will send out a general message saying that an event may have to be cancelled if more contributions are not paid, but never targeted to individuals.

Non uniform days are £1 collected by the class teacher, but it is just discreetly dropped in a tin, so no one knows who has or hasn't paid.

The school should have a policy around payments on their website - are they actually adhering to their own policy?

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