£50 a month parental contribution for schooling

[noblegiraffe]

Apparently £50 per month is what some schools are asking parents to contribute to school funds.

How much does your school ask for, and do you actually pay it? Do you know if it goes into general coffers or is it for the PTA to buy ‘extras’?

And does the school ask you to pay for textbooks?

Just being nosy, really. My school doesn’t ask for anything, neither does my DCs’ primary (outside of PTA cake sales etc) so I have no idea how common this is.

Wow- i am imagining what my school, or DD's school could do with a £500 per child per year contribution

Fees around £6k mark on average, plus textbooks as they get older, plus school trips, plus extra for one on one music/tennis type lessons plus constant asking for donations for sporting facilities, school charity work, bursary fund etc etc. Oh and all the damn fund raising events. I wouldn't mind paying but the last thing I want to do on a Friday night is sit around with people I have nothing in common with listening to an orchestra of 12 years old butchering chamber music or heaven forbid jazz.

Clavinova - you are extremely disillusioned if you think there’s a pot of unlimited grants to fix all the big repair problems schools face.

Yes there are some, and yes ongoing repairs have been neglected and lead to bigger problems, but that’s because the money just isn’t there.

It’s not right that people are being asked to pay to meet the shortfall but it’s the sad reality of the underfunding of our education system.

At my DCs Primary the "voluntary contribution" used to be used for "nice to have" things like Tissues in classrooms, PTA tended to go for Projects like new play equipment. Now I expect more is being used to fund day to day expenses.
At Secondary they both help with keeping things on an even keel as budgets are slashed.
Both schools have also done large scale fund raising for large Capital projects like replacing portacabins with permanent classrooms. (At Primary they had to raise10% as it was a faith school.)
But we've never been harassed for contributions, just asked and reminded what they are for.

I have 3 DC, 3 different schools (2 are secondary).

DC1 got 2nd choice school at first, and most of school bumf we were sent was about a ‘voluntary’ contribution of £50 a month, or whatever we felt we could afford. It was the first time I had ever come across this, but have since heard it is depressingly common amongst secondary schools, and increasingly amongst primaries too.

When DC got into his 1st choice, we had a similar letter, and we pay £50 a month because we feel we like the fact he can play rugby, and they have a mini bus and those are things that would get slashed if there was no contribution. It’s quite hard sell, but lots of parents don’t contribute, or contribute sums now and again, and there is no ‘shame’ as there is no ‘school gates’. I think it might feel different at a primary school.

DC2 is in y7, and her school asks for the same donation per month: £50. They also recently asked for contributions to some new bit of kit (whiteboard? Can’t remember.), and people who wanted to donate did, no pressure.

Full disclosure both secondaries are grammar schools, so I thought it was just a grammar school thing. But our local girls’ comprehensive has just started asking for voluntary donations, and I think the boys’ might be considering the same thing.

Dc3 is still at primary. All we have ever been asked for is ‘voluntary’ contributions for School trips. But - outstanding primary in SE London that we are - funding is being slashed. TAs are leaving and not being replaced. TA contracts reduced from 8.30-3.30 to 9-3. The school is a lot more facilitating of PTA events as the money we raise is increasingly important, rather than as just a bit of ‘treat money’ as I think it was perceived before.

And I think the SLT and governors are now contemplating asking parents for voluntary contributions, or/ and reducing school hours (eg close at lunch on Fridays).

It’s heart breaking.

I am nit asked for contributions at my DCs schools.

But my parents were, for my primary.

This sort of contribution has been around for decades - as have the rules making it purely voluntary (goes right back to the 1944 Education Act, I think)

What concerns me about all the schools mentioned here who canniot afford major repairs, is what the hell happened to the enormous well funded programme of the Blair years to repair and when necessary rebuild schools. The vast majority (according to Labour statements) were in good nick in 2010. Or was that just another example of spin, plus of course spending not mapping terribly well to outcome. Because even with leaner times following, good quality building works shouid not be failing en masse this quickly.

That was the Building Schools for the Future program. It was one of the first things the Tories cancelled when they got in. Loads of schools that were on the list for rebuilds never got them. Don’t assume the schools needing major repair works are new, there are still plenty of crappy, leaky schools around.

To all those on on this thread who say they have never been asked for donations, watch out. You will be. The situation will only get worse, especially for the non-grammars. For those of us who were asked for high £100s per year, what will happen next? Requests for £1,000 plus? The differences between independent and state education nicely blurred. We will all be paying something, eventually.

Yikes! I remember back in the day DM used to pay £10 per term per family (also faith school)

Year 7, I've been asked to pay for one geography fieldwork trip and to supply ingredients for my child to do cooking once a fortnight this term. That's it.

I pay £40 pcm (one child, grammar). Think they asked for anything we could afford but suggested 10-50. The figures of what they've lost are shocking and no hope of any further increases since they can't expand.

We are not asked for anything from primary or secondary (grammar) but local comp apparently asks for £150 per child per year. Our primary has started to be more in need of cash but PTA raise a lot. We do have an option on both to do a voluntary contribution but there is no pressure. The secondary have a lot of small charges.

Faith school. When dd joined in 2009 there was a £100 voluntary contribution. The next year this increased to £300 per snnum. I agreed with the old ethos of the school. The new head brought in a two tier behavioural procedure. This meant those from supportive families had much more draconian rules from those from non supportive families who couldn't behave according to basic rules. So our money was being spent to enrich the education of those who didn't comply and were disruptive and diluted our girls' education.

Add in the school fete, the sponsoring of piano keys, the charity donations and it added up to about £1000pa.

Our dd was not getting the education promised at admissions. Those who could moved to the independent sector. Those who were left suffered. DD's 6th form year was the first in the school's history that no girl went to Oxbridge or studied medicine. Girls who should have.

All for politics. The system stank.

DD was by no means the cleverest of her cohort. She is going to Cambridge. The school worked against clever girls without money.

Red rose and Margaret Beaufort. Took 7 years for a politicised board or governors to deal with the issue.

I am a teacher. In the last school I worked in, the teaching staff had to pay a 'voluntary' contribution of £20 per month (T.A.s and office staff paid less).

The money paid for essential stationery, gifts for lollipop people and school volunteers (such as visiting speakers for assemblies), costumes and props for performances and paying a decorator to paint the staff toilets.

I think the schools ask for it because they really need it; If it is a good school and you have the money you should pay it; if you can only contribute certain amount that's fine too. If you are going to be left without food or other basic living expenses then you can't help.

I try to help the school as much as I can because I know the teachers work hard and my children are getting a good education. I know they are not rich or have high living standards.

Clavinova that’s my DD’s school you’re talking about. I am more than happy for my donation to go to ‘nice to haves’, especially given the current government’s idea of a ‘nice to have’ is anything outside of a narrow academic curriculum and the most basic of facilities.

In her previous school, where I was a governor, we worked on the principle that the school’s funding, along with any additional help we could get from the LA, paid for the basics and essential maintenance (including a couple of roof repairs), while PTA money went on ‘nice to haves’.

the teaching staff had to pay a 'voluntary' contribution of £20 per month

What the actual? Because teachers don’t give enough already without having to extract cash from them as well??

Teachers should not be asked to pay for any of that stuff.

In our grammar staff were restricted to how many photocopies they could make. Many spent their own money on copying outside of school. They knew that without textbooks it was impossible for students to be able to revise for tests unless they had photocopied material.

Noblegiraffe - are you looking to leave the profession?

Nope!

Clavinova that’s my DD’s school you’re talking about. I am more than happy for my donation to go to ‘nice to haves’*

Yes, I would be more than happy to pay £50 pm for 'nice to haves' - much cheaper than the private school fees we pay now. What concerns me is whether some desirable state schools are using 'budget cuts' as an excuse to maintain or create a status quo of having better facilities, more enrichment and better paid teachers than the state schools down the road. Are parents willing to pay £50 pm to schools 'requiring improvement' or is that seen as waste of money?

They won’t have better paid teachers because of this kind of fundraising - no state school would pay teachers more this way, it’s unsustainable. Better regarded schools often have better paid teachers overall because their retention is better.

This schoolcuts.org.uk/ shows the school in question as underfunded but not actually affected by cuts.

Better regarded schools often have better paid teachers overall because their retention is better

Certainly the case at DS's super-selective.

Clavinova. I'm wondering if you have ever had any DC at state school? Have you experienced the cuts? You say you would be happy to pay £50 pcm in a state rather than the private school fees you pay at the moment. There is absolutely no way you can make this comparison. My DC have had both state school places and we've paid for independent. Those of us who pay for indie must take responsibility for "opting out". By implying we would all move our DC to state from indie if we only had to pay £50 pcm is patronising. The chronic underfunding of state schools is shocking and very worrying for the future for all children in this country. No matter what rubbish the government come out with and most of it is spin, at the coal face of teaching it is extremely tough for a lot of schools.
SydenhamHiller. Your comment on a school considering closing early is another worrying trend in the fight to save costs. I read recently that many primary schools were considering this/had already decided to finish early on Fridays. One primary was saving £30k pa.

So yet again, our children's education suffers.

I don’t think anyone who pays for private schools can possibly comment as being concerned about parents paying £50 so that their state school can have better facilities than it would otherwise have.