School requests circa £450 by way of voluntary contribution !! <shock>

[MrsSpringsteen]

my son returned to school yesterday to be greeted with a letter requesting a fiver for every month he has attended the school!

It is a voluntary aided school but what the????

we wee horrified and i will not be paying it

Do you all think this is reasonable.

I have 5 boys and was hoping to send them all. I had thought state education was free!

Good grief this is an education for me as well! When I saw the thread title I assumed it was for some expensive school trip and I was going to say you should pay if possible because otherwise trips can't run.

But this is unbelievable tbh!

Grammar school sent us a standing order form the first few years but got the message in the end .

Issue never been raised by comp but I do remember when DDs were at local C of E primary being asked to buy "bricks" for a new extension.

I'd far rather pay more tax and see struggling schools get the support they need. Paying the school direct will only benefit schools in prosperous areas.

Even though or DSs are at a fee payng school what does bother me about this 'voluntary' contribution at a VA school is that I wonder whether in fact it is a produt of Govt quietly starving schools of funding in 'well off areas' on the expectation that parents wil be able to chip in but providing extra funding in 'less well off areas'.

A sort of reverse education tax on middle class parents enforced with moral blackmail?

I just cannot imagine this kind of request being received with anything other than a two fingered response though in some less well off parts of a city where I live. Indeed, the request would never be made.

That's probably it ABD; indeed you find inequalities of funding for school across the country depending on where you are. In Cornwall for instance, much less money was received per head for secondary school students than in other places like the North of England where there were labour strongholds; Cornwall having been resolutely Lib Dem for years, If all schools got equal funding, then perhaps state education wouldn't be so patchy.

Exactly ABD.

Same here. Our conservative-voting county gets less money per head than the next door labour-voting city.

I'd not pay it and see if they say anything if they do ask them if its voluntary? I suspect it will be and they have no means of forcing them to pay up. Faith schools are notorious for doing this.

thanks all for making me feel 'right' in my horror at this!

I hope other parents back up my decision and vote with their feet or not as the case may be

Are you and your son happy with the school? Do you both think he is getting a good quality education, and having a good overall school experience? If so, then why not give a little something extra?

Agree the amount they're suggesting is quite alot, but it is 'voluntary' and also a 'suggested' amount. Give what you think is appropriate based on the experience/education he is receiving.

If you and other parents don't give anything, you may have to accept cutbacks. You may not think it 'fair' or 'right' but I imagine we'll see more of this type of thing now that government budgets are being slashed dramatically due to the current economic situation.

Faith schools will ask for large voluntary contributions and have an outrageously expensive kit list to keep the riff raff out. It's selection by the back door - only the well off middle class families will feel comfortable sending their dcs there.

I have had two children at faith schools and have never been asked for voluntary contributions. The uniform cost very little and I usually bought it from M&S or Asda.

You obviously don't live in Harpenden!

We pay £350 a term voluntary contributions per child at a faith school. The government does not pay for religious education and this contribution pays for all the religion staff / books etc. Whilst they cannot enforce the payment a very dim view is taken of those who do not make the contribution although if you speak privately to the school they will come to an agreement with you.

Our school fund is £5 a year. I would happily pay the extra pound that their poor grasp of arithmetic has done them out of - the letter asked for "£5 which is £2 per term". Er, I think you'll find that it is not.

Onemoretime; I am a state trained RE teacher, and taught in the state sector for 4 years and a term as an RE teacher, so unless yours is a very specialist faith school (i.e. wholly Muslim or Jewish intake), then the Government DOES pay for RE, or several of my friends would be out of jobs!

yes that is total bollocks

What?!

And also at the backdating.

Scary Teacher

It is a specialist faith school, so the funding does have to come from the parents which is fine with us, it's what we bought into when we chose the school. I must add that we do get excellent provision for the money so I have no complaints.

My DD attended a faith primary and is now at a faith secondary and I think the same thing applies as described by cat64 - i.e. there is a certain %age of maintenance costs which they have to finance themselves.

We are always asked if we will make a voluntary contribution to the diocese as it is them who meet this cost. However, I think the suggested amount is a minimum of £15. We pay a bit more than that by standing order.