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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

Never mind uniform, £120 Y7 invoice before we even start!

58 replies

oneoffdeepcleanout · 05/08/2018 10:38

£50 to hire a locker for 5 years, £10 photocopying card, £40 for a team building excursion in the first week, etc, etc, bill comes to £120 in total. Plus a begging letter for regular contributions to school funds because they have a big deficit.

Not sure what to make of it all really. We'll pay up, but with a heavy heart. So sad that state schools have been reduced to this.

OP posts:

Clairetree1 · 05/08/2018 10:41

well, photocopying, fair enough - but you shouldn't have a compulsary charge for trip during school hours, that should be voluntary.

Lockers are a new one, unless it is a deposit? Deposits are normal. Will you get it back?

GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat · 05/08/2018 10:42

Ours ask for a standing order each month...

RedSkyLastNight · 05/08/2018 12:46

The locker fee seems excessive and hard to justify (ours is a £10 deposit which you get back if you don't lose your key).
Photocopying is normal.
£40 for a trip also seems normal (presumably the trip was optional?)

Walkingdeadfangirl · 05/08/2018 13:04

Our school has just outsourced their locker provision to a private company. To book one its £22 a year. £50 for five years sounds like a bargain. And of course you dont really need a locker so its an optional extra.

Walkingdeadfangirl · 05/08/2018 13:07

Oh and photocopying? My DC has just finished 5 years of secondary and never needed to use a photocopier once. I cant imagine schools providing photocopiers for pupils to use for whatever they want.

MigGril · 05/08/2018 13:14

I think we have been very luckly so far in paying so little towards our children's education. The state of the current budget sistuation means though that more schools will be asking for help. Maybe the children will look after equipment better if provide for by their parents. I'm slightly fedup of picking up pens, glue and scissor off the class room floors.

IWannaSeeHowItEnds · 05/08/2018 13:19

I think you should email the school and point out that this is a bit excessive, given that he hasn't even started there yet.
My dc's school always put hwk online so we printed it off at home, so I'd not be inclined to pay for a photocopying card. £50 for a locker is a piss taking amount too. And kids don't need £40 team building exercises in week one. They will make friends regardless - if the school wants to indulge thrmselves with that crap, thry should pay for it. Week one is for sorting out timetables and finding your way around the canteen.
Schools can be a bit free with parents' money, sometimes.

AlexanderHamilton · 05/08/2018 13:51

Lockers at ds’s school are £10 per year. I paid it & he never used it as they are inconveniently located so I’m not paying this year.

He does pay £10 for a bike locker though.

Will he be using the school photocopier? I have free copying at home & work. Printer credits can be bought & topped up as & when but school printers are rarely used.

We do pay £10 per year D & T contribution.

Userplusnumbers · 05/08/2018 13:53

I think we have been very luckly so far in paying so little towards our children's education

Yes, all that pesky tax we pay doesn't contribute at all...

dalmatianmad · 05/08/2018 13:58

I've just paid £425, a school trip on their second week and the first instalment towards his travel (school bus)

AChickenCalledKorma · 05/08/2018 15:13

We've never been asked for money for photocopying. But I also don't think there is any expectation that students will do any! Paying some sort of fee/deposit for lockers seems normal.

We did pay for a team-building day at the beginning of year 7 and it is something that both my daughters still remember as an important rite of passage at their secondary school. They had a ball and it was a good way for students and staff to get to know each other away from school. £40 sounds reasonable, but I agree that it should be a voluntary contribution, not a compulsory fee.

AveEldon · 05/08/2018 22:00

We have been asked for school fund donations already and informed of an upcoming residential trip
They have made it clear that if you are pupil premium school will pay but also to get in touch if you have trouble paying and that installment payments are an option

MigGril · 07/08/2018 19:21

Yes, all that pesky tax we pay doesn't contribute at all...

If you really think we pay enough tax to cover all school costs your not living in realty. Schools are badly underfunded, struggling to cover basic costs like photocopying and books is normal. (Has been for years) But it does seem to be getting worse when we have to be careful about ordering glue and other needed supplies from our science budget, which hasn't gone up in years.

Toomanycats99 · 07/08/2018 19:25

I have had to pay £35 for a team building trip and £10 for locker.

TeenTimesTwo · 07/08/2018 19:28

The team buildings can be really beneficial, they help the tutor group get to know each other, but also help the staff understand the pupils better so they can better support them.
If people take the view that it is a voluntary contribution and don't pay, they will stop doing them. Budgets are very tight.

The locker you may or may not need. At DDs school PE kit can be kept in a cupboard in the tutor room. Ours is £5 per year. DD was a laptop user so she had had one, and we will continue this year as it helps her be organised, but it isn't a necessity.

We haven't had a photocopying charge.

ourkidmolly · 07/08/2018 19:30

Yep. £143 via parent pay for dictionary, apron etc etc Along with a 'voluntary' minimum contribution of £65 monthly!

Cyclingpast · 07/08/2018 19:35

They have outsourced their lockers?

Knittedfairies · 07/08/2018 19:39

Perhaps the photocopying charge is to cover worksheets that will be copied for them?

TeenTimesTwo · 07/08/2018 20:06

Along with a 'voluntary' minimum contribution of £65 monthly!

In a previous discussion on these boards I think the final sort of consensus was that schools should cut their cloth according to their budgets rather than requesting such donations.

£65 per pupil per month is a hell of a lot of extra funding.

greencatbluecat · 07/08/2018 20:43

Wow! I have two much older DCs at secondary school. I have never been asked to pay for photocopying. The locker fee seems extortionate too - I may have paid £5 or £10.

Speaking as a school governor, I can tell you that schools are in DIRE financial circumstances. So it could be that your school is desperately trying to claw back some cash with these charges.

lapenguin · 07/08/2018 20:58

We managed just fine without 'team building' days...
A minimum monthly voluntary contribution...
And wtf £50 for lockers?! We paid £10 deposit every year and if we handed back the key at the end we got it back.

TeenTimesTwo · 07/08/2018 21:25

We managed just fine without 'team building' days...

Well yes, but we also 'coped' with bullying, struggled through undiagnosed SEN etc.

I'm going by the feedback from DDs tutor and year head and the 'transition teacher' who all really value them.

Walkingdeadfangirl · 07/08/2018 22:35

If children have to pay for lockers then maybe they will look after them better. Instead of vandalising most of them every year. Maybe the team building trips will enable them to learn more.

EvilTwins · 07/08/2018 22:38

Schools can be a bit free with parents' money, sometimes.

Are you kidding? Have you seen the state of education budgets? It's the government being "free" with money. Schools are literally clawing back wherever they can.

Perhaps, in the past, a team-building trip would have been free. A locker would have been part of the package, and photocopying/printing would have been sucked up by the school budget but schools are losing literally hundreds of thousands of pounds in real terms, and many have little choice.

Nerdybeethoven · 07/08/2018 22:45

We're asked for min £50 per year voluntary contribution. Plus a tenner here for food tech, tenner there for D & T, another tenner for the art sketchbook. Must have the recommended dictionaries and calculator amounting to another 30 quid or so. Plus at least one educational trip per half term which is never less than 20 quid. Plus residential trips that are very heavily sold to us, ranging from 400 upwards. At least 3 or 4 of those a year to choose from. And that's before you consider the music and sports trips and tours. This is a state grammar and a lovely school. I know money is a worry to them but next month I'm going to have 2 kids there and it's really going to squeeze us.

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