h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Of course, you could simply say in these difficult times you can;t afford to 'give money away' due to personal financial issues however you are happy that you indeed give money to the school: through your taxes.

Twiggy has a very good point - ask for a breakdown of the accounts for last 3 years - one would assume it will have the parents contributions listed separately.

Ask how much the shortfall between what they need and what htey have.

I don't think they could refuse on the grounds of confidentiality ould they?

I'm amazed this actually goes on...so much for the government investing in the countries future.

"I don't think they could refuse on the grounds of confidentiality ould they?"

No, they couldn't. Financial information must be made available under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/sector_guides/education.aspx

3dots, Twigs

I think a breakdown in accounts is a bit much and you are not entering into this relationship with your child's school on the same sort of 'consumer groundrules' as those buying a computer for instance.

So I'm not quite sure how a threat to treat a request for a contribution to an activity camp on the grounds of being 'junk mail' is in anyway constructive at this point

Peanut

A computer if it goes wrong you can get a new one or a refund...not so on money given to a school or your child's education.

They are treating the school as 'a business' you have every right to know what is happening with the money you are giving...if it is for field trips then I can see that would not be too bad...for 'basics' the yes...I'd also want to know what other stuff the school is spending money on and whether any of it doesn't contribute to the childrens education.

£250 isn't a small amount of money...it's the price of some white goods that one would take time in deciding whether it's worth buying or not.

It depends what you mean by normal. There was a recent government report into admissions and unfair practices that found a number of schools asking parents to agree to making contributions towards school funds before being offered a place.

Schools do rely on parent donations for extras and I agree that the way this is done is a bit heavy handed. However on the plus side they are communicating with you which bodes well for the future, the small classes sound good and is something you are lucky to have in a state primary and you don't have to pay. I think it sounds annoying but not worth reading too much into.

Personally I'd rather school just asked me for money rather than the school fete fundraiser. Last year I worked out that the school fete raised £30 per child on average and that by the time I'd bought things to donate, then paid for them at the school fete I'd spent £50 on a load of tat I didn't want! And given up an afternoon.

I'm sorry but still , I don't understand what you hope your approach is going to achieve.

'I would like to know', 'I have certain questions about', 'please could you explain' and 'could we discuss', is how I would be couching these questions for now. Not 'I have every right', 'I will be shredding' and 'actually I think it's an outrage that I am being asked to contribue to teachers wages', (even though I think the latter is outrageous)

I wouldn't assume that they are treating the school as a business, maybe a not for profit company wih stated aims and ambitions, that has to be sustainable to meet certain benchmarks of quality.

Comparing the ins and outs of the decision making process of spending £250 on white goods and your childs education, mmm, doesn't compute, I can't see how its comparable, that's me, speaking as a parent who thinks quite a lot about offsprings education and one who thinks through how best to buy white goods

Peanut

a) the school has classes of staff-student of less than 30. [e.g. lets say class sizes are 25).

b) the government funding they receive assumes class sizes of 30.
Hence they will be underfunded. [In the example they will be underfunded by about (30/25 - 1)*100 = 20 percent]

c) plus they have been asked to make savings of £35k

Hold on, if they are being funded for MORE students than they have, won't they be getting more per head than if they had over 30 per class?

... or they could be funded by total students each going into a class
containing 30 students - which is what I was assuming. Smaller class
sizes would then require more resources per student.

e.g. 30 students split into class sizes of 15 would require about twice the resources than if they were taught in one class of 30.

I can do my own math

It was an example and I wasn't addressing my comment at you. However
your hostility I find intriguing.

What hostility I was merely reading your comment and am happy to say I can do my own math However, your defensiveness and assumption I find intriguing. Do continue, I shall continue to or is that too aggressive for you as well

I'm assuming that they have to have less than the given number per class because of age/ability differences rather than wanting two classes when one would do and enable them to raise funds for other things... A big assumption of course.

It was a bit out of the blue Norti... Who were you defending?

Just had a really crappy day, and rolling around. Dah knows how it is

Ah, right so because the school chooses to run classes outside of the assumed norm parents have to stump up the cash...now if it's proved that kids in a class of 25 will do significantly better than kids in a class of 30 then possibly the payment is OK.

But if they are being asked to save £35k the first thing one should do is maximise class sizes to that which is being funded for.

Also, if they are being asked to save £35k are the contributions merely making up this short-fall?

Okay - crappy day that explains it. Hope things start getting better.

It genuinely wasn't meant to be hostile had enough of that today, just playing catch up with the threads that interest me Do continue,and for the

I was merely making use of the limited information provided by
Kelli. I will have to defer to Kelli and the school if one needs
further info.