Year 6 Swimming - Do I have to Pay
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Year 6 swimming
Thanks for all the replies. Great reading. I am now waiting for the school to reply. My DD is horrified that I have asked. But with one year to go what is there to lose? I love this forum. We won't be doing the 11 plus but all the fantastic websites and tips given here, really benefit us too.
State schools can't make you pay for anything they can only ask for a voluntary contribution.
I grind my teeth everytime I have to write a check because I feel we are being blackmailed into paying more and more toward this sort of thing. It is wrong and it is getting expensive for parents.
Our school sent out a letter last term asking if people were prepared to pay more for the lessons and have now upped the charge( voluntary contribution ha) to £3.50. Why? because some parents felt that this was cheaper and easier than signing up and getting their children to private lessons.
My older children are competant swimmers because I took them swimming three or four times a week before they started school. Why should I now have to fund other childrens' lessons particularly when I know that going once a week in this way doesn't really achieve the desired result?
I would love to refuse but unlike you I have another two children going through the school. This is why I see it as blackmail, we pay up because we worry how it will affect our reputations and the treatment of our children if we don't.
I shall now step of my soap box.
I grind my teeth everytime I have to write a check because I feel we are being blackmailed into paying more and more toward this sort of thing. It is wrong and it is getting expensive for parents.
Our school sent out a letter last term asking if people were prepared to pay more for the lessons and have now upped the charge( voluntary contribution ha) to £3.50. Why? because some parents felt that this was cheaper and easier than signing up and getting their children to private lessons.
My older children are competant swimmers because I took them swimming three or four times a week before they started school. Why should I now have to fund other childrens' lessons particularly when I know that going once a week in this way doesn't really achieve the desired result?
I would love to refuse but unlike you I have another two children going through the school. This is why I see it as blackmail, we pay up because we worry how it will affect our reputations and the treatment of our children if we don't.
I shall now step of my soap box.
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Another worried Mum
- Posts: 57
- Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 12:12 am
They can't make you pay for this at all and they also can't cancel it if they don't get enough 'voluntary contrbutions' because it is part of the national curriculum - hence they should be paying for it out of their general funding! After all, you don't pay for maths lessons, literacy lessons etc - and they don't get cancelled!!! 
I 'declined' to pay for 2 years when DD was in Y5 and Y6. I gave no reasons to the school for declining to pay and was never asked to.
I was already paying for private swimming lessons in any case - where she was swimming at a much higher level than the national curriculum requires. As a very active member of the PTA, I also invested a huge amount of my time in raising funds for the school too - easily enough to pay for this, if the school had asked!
As others have pointed out, schools are constantly asking for money for everything. Don't feel pressured - and
I 'declined' to pay for 2 years when DD was in Y5 and Y6. I gave no reasons to the school for declining to pay and was never asked to.
I was already paying for private swimming lessons in any case - where she was swimming at a much higher level than the national curriculum requires. As a very active member of the PTA, I also invested a huge amount of my time in raising funds for the school too - easily enough to pay for this, if the school had asked!
As others have pointed out, schools are constantly asking for money for everything. Don't feel pressured - and
I spoke to my PE co-ordinator friend. She agreed that this is a real can of worms as it SHOULD be provided due the NC requirements. Also, many people pay nothing for their children to swim as local pools these days and she sees that it's only a matter of time before parents flatly refuse to pay.
Please remember that schools are not well funded and it is our children who lose out should we decide to withhold our contributions - it shouldn't be a them and us situation - children are at the heart of all of this.
Please remember that schools are not well funded and it is our children who lose out should we decide to withhold our contributions - it shouldn't be a them and us situation - children are at the heart of all of this.
well that's a bit how I feel, Ed's mum, but couldn't work out how to say as nicely. It's our children. I still feel odd about a couple I'm really very fond of who wouldn't read with / do homework with their child, because it was "the school's job" - but your child, I'd mutter.
I suppose the trouble comes when the provision, for which you are forced (whether supposedly voluntary or not, the moral obligation is there) to pay is substandard, or at least well below the child's current ability/needs. But that's another issue.
I suppose the trouble comes when the provision, for which you are forced (whether supposedly voluntary or not, the moral obligation is there) to pay is substandard, or at least well below the child's current ability/needs. But that's another issue.
