'parental contribution'

[Anon7722930]

So I've just received the welcome pack for my child for the primary school she's starting in September (reception) and there is a 'parental contribution' of nearly £2,000 a year per child! I've never even heard of this for a supposed free state school!
Is this a normal thing? We live in the north west

A lot of schools ask for parent contributions but you are not obligated. My son’s secondary school ask and I pay £10 a month, I also contribute to everything i can such as school trips, raffles etc. i do what i can as they are giving him an excellent education but i wouldnt be able to give £2k - thats a lot of money to ask for

Astonishing. Some families would not have a hope in hell of finding a spare 2k and many more will find it very tight.

Our eldest's secondary school asked for a voluntary parental contribution of 20 a month to be set up by DD, which we did, but parents who didn't were not harangued because it was, well, voluntary.

Youngest's primary school started having lots of donations days i.e non uniform etc. Initially it was "please donate what you can afford" hoping that some parents would be generous and some were. Unfortunately it largely backfired with a lot of people donating nothing! So it went back to charging £1 an event on parent pay.

We had it at secondary school. It was optional, but strongly requested. I did set a DD up for an amount I felt comfortable with. I figured that my DC would be the ones who benefited and I knew the school was desperately underfunded.

WTF I would just ignore it to be honest.
It's either a typo mistake or a piss take.

Still no reason why that’s not a typo. But a quick email to the school office will answer the question.

That is a lot of money to ask for. Most of our local schools do ask for parent contributions nowadays as budgets are so tight but I've not heard of more than £20.

School budgets are really tight and with pay rises having to be partially paid out of existing school funds it's really getting where schools are having to make serious cuts.

Our school has really started to up the amount of fundraising in the past few years. I am an active PTA member and I know some of the money the PTA raised is now been used to replace maths resources/ music resources/ art supplies. That previously would have come out of the school budget. Trips are been fundraised for and if there isn't enough money then they are not happening. The parent contribution per trip is £10 but that doesn't even cover the bus nowadays. As PTA we are now doing ice lolly Fridays after school, treat Wednesdays after school, discos, fun days, school fair. There are also lots of sponsored events happening at our school.

Most primaries near us ask for a £1 donation a week and leave a pot outside. You put in when you can or remember, some all the time.

Send them a reply stating that you pay tax and that's your parental contribution!

My daughters went to a Voluntary Aided Jewish school. The parental contributions were to pay for the Jewish Studies curriculum, informal an ctivi such as festival celebrations and Shabbatons, and the extra security required. The local authority paid the same per pupil as any other school.
That said, some parents paid the full contribution per child (about £150 a month) some paid nothing, and some paid something in between.

I think it’s a typo and meant £20

I think they must have added an extra 0, it’s certainly not unusual to have extra contributions for school meals, trips. Etc, but not to that extent.

Another one saying that’s a typo surely

Ive been a governor at multiple schools during my career and I’ve never come across a parental contribution even close to that amount!!

£50 a year is common round here but tbh I object even to that. I hate that the government are allowed to get away with chronic underfing because the goodwill of parents and staff prop up the entire sector.

Thats insane- if you invested that for your child every year they would have a chunk for house/ uni.

How irresponsible to ask parents for that!

I’d be submitting a complaint before my child had even started hahahah

I would ring the school office and ask if it is a typo.
If it is not then it is outrageous, ignore it.

I think there is a school in Glasgow that operates like this. It’s a state school but run independently and not by the council. As far as I’m aware anyway. Interestingly it’s the best performing state school in Scotland!

Keep the letter, make a copy,send it to your local councillor, Mp, and also the board of governors.
that is shocking.

We get asked for £35 a term at DS primary school. We pay it and I think most parents do. It’s for the buildings upkeep as it’s a faith school

My husband and I often say this too! Especially World Book Day. You could charge me a premium to buy my way out of World Book Day

I know this is an extreme example, but this is an indication of how UK state schools do not have the budgets to pay for everything anymore.
I used to be shocked at seeing parents in the US having to send their kids in with a huge haul of stationary and paper, but I fear this is the way forward for the UK unless funding increases.

I have a child at a specialism school (academy, not private but select criteria to get in) and they only ask for a voluntary donation of £5 a month so that amount is crazy!

That seems completely preposterous. I have never heard of anything like that and I’d be very concerned about my child attending- it’s a terrible impression to make on every level.

We make voluntary contributions to trips. That’s it. It’s been about £5 this year.

My son is at a state Christian school and I pay £30 for the year

Sounds to me like they are expecting a higher intake of children who would have gone to private school, or may have transferred into other years from private school, so are trying it on. Even if a couple of families fall for it, with 20% extra from the taxman, it is worth a go!

Our primary never stops asking for money.

They charge for curriculum based trips (not allowed to do so - they can request the money and cancel a trip if they can't afford it but they can't exclude a child if they don't pay), transport to these trips (this is definitely not allowed). Any visiting companies to the school - even if they are charities providing their services for free - will have a request for payment.

I've been a bit annoyed and on a couple of occasions (knowing they are getting services for free) and have not paid, just to see what would happen. Nothing happened!

That said we donate generously through-out the year and give quite a large sum to the governors fund by direct debit so they do very well out of us. We definitely give in excess of 2k over the year with one thing and another (faith school so we do donate to Marys Meals, sponsor a child and other non-school, school fundraising efforts).

But there is no such thing as a 'parental contribution' only a voluntary donation!

That's actually a very good point! With interest they would have a house deposit before leaving primary school!