With schools facing financial shortfalls, many heads have recently felt the need to ask parents and carers to contribute towards the cost of basic resources: textbooks, stationery and even toilet paper (bit.ly/ParentsTP).
It is a sensitive subject. A lot of parents quite rightly feel that a state education should provide the resources to deliver the national curriculum without the need for begging bowls. So when, if ever, is it OK to ask for parental contributions?
The answer lies within each school’s charging and remissions policy - a statutory policy that outlines any occasion for which a governing body has agreed that its school(s) can make a charge to parents. These charges are restricted by the Education Act 1996 to include only “optional extras” or “board and lodging” for residential trips, not items or goods that form part of the school’s everyday delivery of education, or even for educational trips taking place during normal school hours. Nor can any charges be made to families in receipt of universal credit.
As a result, some schools request “voluntary contributions” from families. Those that do so walk a fine line; they should make it clear in their requests that no child will be excluded from any activity by dint of non-contribution, and that the school will provide all materials needed for the child to take part in all curricular activities, with or without payment. But how voluntary are these contributions, really? When a parent receives a letter asking for money to support an activity, usually with a deadline, instructions on how to pay and a veiled threat that the activity might not take place without it, most families will try to find the money to contribute.
Those parents and families who are unable to contribute for whatever reason should never be made to feel in any way embarrassed or compromised by their inability to dig deep. The correlation between disadvantage and educational outcomes is well known, and schools that actively practise inclusivity should consider the effect of financial requests on participation in practical subjects, the arts and extracurricular activities.
Of course, there is an obvious solution. If state education funding were returned to levels where schools were able to deliver an enriched curriculum to all students, regardless of their financial circumstances, schools would happily tear up letters home, stop bagging up spare change and instead focus on the real priorities of delivering a first-class education to our young people, with equal opportunity and social mobility taken as a given.
Hilary Goldsmith is director of finance and operations at a large secondary school, and tweets at @sbl365
