Donation to school

[Mumsmet]

Parents are encouraged to give money to school, but how much should one give? I know our taxes are already paying more than what it costs to educate our child and half her class.
Please advise - what would be a sensible annual donation?

Bekabeech, the maximum reduction arising from the new national funding formula in its original format was 3%, the latest and agreed version, no school will be on less funding than in 2017-18. As a secondary school there will have been significant reductions in 6th form funding but no where near the level you are quoting.
Something is not right with the information you are being given.

I just went online to make a donation and they use a site similar to just giving which will take 5% after gift aid. I resent this. So, if I give £10 the school, bumped up to £12.50 with gift aid and then debit card fees take it to £12.30 then the site takes 5% (63p) so school gets £11.67 not £12.50

So this would be approx £9.50 out of £10 every parent gives (not using gift aid.)

Surely the school should offer the option of a direct payment to their bank account?
If I have £100 the company they are using would get £5
£1000 : £50
Crazy

So, if every family (per child at the school) gives £100 a year for example.
That would be £100 x 1000 would be £100,000.00 GREAT
Only the handling company would get £5,000 of that?! Think what the school could do with extra £5,000

I guess it's convenient to them. Lots of charities use services like that. There are costs to banking cheques, administering Gift Aid returns etc, and some charities find it more cost efficient to out-source.

If you were wanting to make a larger donation it's probably worth checking with school whether they'd prefer a cheque if it's a % rather than a £ amount admin cost.

How on earth do you work out that your taxes are paying more than it costs to educate your child and half her class.

school budgets have been cut so much it's unbelievable. Both primary and secondary schools. Don't listen to what the government is saying that the funding is generous and fair. It isn't. Our local primary has asked for donations, and now I think it's only a matter of time before the secondary school does as well.

I give £10 per month, per child in primary and one DS is moving to secondary next year. I expect that I will give the same.

How on earth do you work out that your taxes are paying more than it costs to educate your child and half her class.

I was thinking the same thing - the op must be an extremely high earner.

And as such a higher earner, able to afford to give generously to the school.

To be honest, I'm always surprised how little many well off people want to give to charity. Now I know you can say schools are not charities and should be funded by gov - fair enough.

However, if you are comfortably off, giving £10 a year to charity or even £100 is pretty small. I know everyone must choose for themselves, but we have to be realistic about the cost of things. It's like when Church member s put £1 in the collection, thinking they are being generous, but dont seem to get the huge cost of running church buildings and staff. This isn't all though - there will be lots where people genuinely give 10% of their income to the Church because they are committed to its work.

Now before anyone jumps down my throat, notice I am talking about the well off and also, I am saying everyone must choose for themselves. I simply think that many many people could be more generous...whether that is towards charities or towards schools.

I think part of the problem with people not giving generously is that of course we all think it should be funded by the government. However, sadly the days when you get both the basic education, plus all the books and resources and trips and bits which make it more enriching and fun are gone. We can refuse to give or only give £10 per month, but the reality is that £10 isn't going to buy much at all is it. If we seriously want our kids to get a fuller experience I think we need to give more. And I know people do t like it because they think they will give and others won't, but will benefit. Well this is just an extension of taxes really, because those who can pay more do so. At least when you give to your own child's school you know he money is going to their school not just I to the public coffers for any random spend.

If you genuinely can't afford it, fair enough. However, I think lots of us could simply prioritise this a bit more and be more generous.

Schools are also being inventive to keep wider curriculums going, for example less mainstream languages or courses being opt in and paid for, it seems if the classes are run at lunchtime or after normal hours they are not part of the main curriculum so the school can charge. This however is creating a divide between those who can afford it and those who can’t. It creates an air of demand among those who can afford it, but one to avoid for those who worry about being the family whose child will always miss out.

@Mumski45 @CarrieBlue

So perhaps I exaggerated about paying tax to pay for HALF her class but yeah, we pay a lot of tax. It just baffles me that the budgets have been cut so much that so many schools actually rely on parental help for considerable donations.
It used to be that they required the odd raffle prize

It's not that baffling - it's been a well known policy of this government for the last 9 years. Teaching unions have been warning of cuts for a long time. An increasing school population, decreasing budget, increasing national insurance rates (with no extra funding) - schools don't have sufficient funds to cover the basics. Maybe people will take notice when they are being asked for money directly and vote accordingly. I live in hope.

I see the BBC news this morning was reporting on this subject, wonder if they’ve been reading MN? Can’t find the equivalent story though on their website.

I really don't understand people. Can no-one see that this is the start of people being expected to pay a contribution to schools? This is funding through the back door and it will get worse. On top of that it will increase the already large gap between the schools in the richest areas and the poorest. The schools in the poorest will not be able to ask for funding because people will not be able to afford it. Meanwhile all the middle classes will be throwing money at their childrens schools for the fear that standards will drop.

What's the answer? An honest discussion about education funding, a formal policy on parents perhaps having to start to pay for stationery books etc that is monitored like FSM so those that can pay do? I don't know but I wouldn't be sending any money to my childs school and certainly not through just giving who take their cut.

If they stop using the giving site they have to pay a member of staff to log the donations etc. Might well cost more than that 5%.

@timeismovingon

Although I agree that schools in the poorer areas will struggle to raise money from parents I'm afraid that the idea that these schools are less well funded is just not true. Due to the pupil premium you will find that actually these schools are better funded on a per pupil basis than schools in more affluent areas. e.g. within 3 miles of me there is a school in a good area with per pupil funding of £4,012 and another within the same 3 mile radius but the opposite direction but in a less well off area which is getting £6,035 per pupil. Thats an increase of 50% which makes a massive difference.

BUT the PP is there for a reason to try and equalise outcomes for pupils. A tough job in some areas of high disadvantage. The money is not an extra for sparklies...

With increases to National insurance and pensions and no extra funding, just staying the same means that schools everywhere are underfunded.

I agree @DizzyDandelion. However that is a huge difference in the funding per pupil and usually results in a much higher ratio of teaching staff to pupils in these schools. If every parent in a school with low pp were to give £10 a month contribution from parents amounting to £120 over the year this would not make a huge difference to the overall funding per pupil and the schools with a high level of pp will still have considerably more resources overall.

To put it into context in a primary with a 1 form entry of 30 kids and 210 kids overall the £2000 difference per pupil amounts to and extra £420,000 per year.

My point was that the PP makes a big difference to school funding and we should not assume that schools in poorer areas are any worse off financially than other schools at the moment and will easily compensate for the fact that some parents won't be able to afford to make a donation.