Is it just me!?!?!

[DT2]

<rant>

Our kids brought home flyers yesterday - stationary sale at school.... pencils, erasers $.50 - $1 each.

Which wouldn't be as infuriating except at the beginning of the school year I spend $300 on buying the provisions list for my kids for the year ahead. And now they're selling it back to me!?

Not only that, but the middle of the three started taking her own pencils in, and when I asked why she said that the teacher has no more to hand out......

1. Stop selling the damn things back to me
2. Don't expect my child to use her own art supplies for school when point 1 is in effect!

They just don't get it! I bought 24 pencils per child in September, the supplies were handed in to the teachers, and each child received 2 pencils in return...... so where the #### have the other 66 pencils gone? oh that's right you sold them.... Where's my cut, because technically I own that ####!


And I have to do it all again in September - well, my 3 will not be handing in good stuff to get crap back!! I've heard of fund raising, but taking the urine out of parents.....

</rant>

[OB1]

Sounds fishier than a fishy thing in a bucket of fish...

[LosOjos]

That sounds incredibly dodgy!

Seeing as you asked if it's just you, my little one's school take the P somewhat too, though not to that degree, they just have some sort of fundraising event every damn week which means us constantly handing over cash. It's always something like fancy dress or baking cakes too so not only do we have to pay the school, we have to buy a bloody costume for the little one to wear or spend the weekend baking cakes. They say it's optional but of course it isn't because the moment you introduce some element like fancy dress, you automatically make any child who's parents don't pay a target for playground bullying!

[ICTDirect_Dave]

Sounds fishier than a fishy thing in a bucket of fish...

@OB1 You web filtering Jedi say the wisest things...

As for the 'Great Pencil Debacle' (which is how it should now be known) you simply supply your children with pencils yourself and cut out the middleman next year? To make up for the loss this year you could always get your kids to raid the stationary cupboard and set up an ebay store? (ICT Direct does not condone thievery or child slavery...)

Either way I'd suggest a strongly worded letter...

[jinnantonnixx]

It's not a school for financiers, is it? This sort of magic is performed by the banking fraternity.

[AMLightfoot]

It seems crazy to me that you should buy a set of supplies presumably 'designated' for your children only for them to be given to others? Surely if you buy 24 pencils for your child, the teacher should hold them in reserve for that child?

Sounds to me as though you should tell the school to get knotted and send your child to school with a pencilcase of supplies the way we do in the UK.

[Dos_Box]

LOL. I have some sympathy here. My kids school have cake and chocolate sales. Unfortunately we have to provide the chocolate and cakes they sell back to us. So we'd spend say £5 on muffins and then have the kids buy them back for half the price.
It all goes to the school though. And I get to have muffins later

[Andrew_C]

Don't get SWMBO started on "Cake Sales". She bakes nice cakes, the kids buy back cr@p that was bought for thrupence from the COOP. Full of YUK.

I'd rather give them £20 at the beginning of the year as long as they promise to leave us alone!

[jmak]

At my kids' school, my favourite is the secret Santa, where you donate a gift, then they pay a pound to go into a room and choose from the tut that other parents have got rid of to give you as a Christmas present. I bribed my kids this year and told them to get me something decent from Poundland instead.

[jmak]

I'd rather give them £20 at the beginning of the year as long as they promise to leave us alone!

Hear, hear

[witch]

I'd rather give them £20 at the beginning of the year as long as they promise to leave us alone!

That is exactly what the local high school where my children went does. They don't do cake sales or anything like that. You are asked for a donation for the Parent/Teacher /Charity or whatever at the beginning of the year and they only expect one per family. Then you are not bothered during the year except once when they do a 15 or 21 mile walk for charity in year 10.
Various groups do some fund-raising, such as the Rugby teams for their tour, but that up to the individuals and if your child will benefit you don't mind so much

[AMLightfoot]

When I was at school there was a 'Parents and Friends' society that basically sold raffle tickets for rubbish prizes and teas and coffees at school concerts and performances. My dad thought this was rubbish so he volunteered to be chairperson and put a rocket up their rears - while my dad was chairman they generated more revenue from fun events like a race night and from investing properly in decent raffle prizes than they ever did before. When my sister and I left the school I think he had to step down and when we went back from an alumni thing they were back to the rubbish way they used to be. My dad was quite disappointed tbh. He'd worked really hard to improve their practises.

Cake sales are a bane! You spend time baking cakes that someone decrees as being unsuitable because they are home-baked and hygiene standards cannot be assessed and blah blah blah. Thats why most people send store-bought stuff. I think if my kids were sent home with a cake sale flyer that requested mandatory donations, the school would receive a strongly worded phone call and a letter to their teacher specifically stating that my child will not be participating. To then prevent the sproglets moaning about how unfair it is, I would bake epic cakes and send them to school with sufficient cakes that they would not feel that they needed to buy some from the greed sale, sorry, cake sale.

[hardtailstar]

Sell the pencils back to school, claim you have more than enough.

[X-13]

I would bake epic cakes and send them to school with sufficient cakes that they would not feel that they needed to buy some from the greed sale, sorry, cake sale.

You missed something. You send them in with enough for them and a good number of extras. Sell the extra epic cakes to other students and make a nice profit. If the school try anything cite anti-competitive practices and threaten to sue.

[witch]

When we have cake sales at my schools, we only sell the cupcakes for 30p each so I don't think it is such a burden to give a child 60p to buy a couple. If you make a basic set of cupcakes and let your child ice them artistically, it won't cost much more than that. In fact, I used to buy the plain cupcakes they sell in Tescos and the like, and then just let the kids loose on them.
I know that it is an issue if schools ask too many times so don't all jump on me.