Paying the voluntary contributions at Primary school?

[nothing2lose]

I usually pay it all.

Can I just ask if it is a State School?? It seems quite high.

[mummame]

wow that is high. I am bad, my daughter goes to a public school and her voluntary school fees were $40 for kindy and $60 for pre primary... I didn't pay them.

[Catastrophic]

With my DSS I paid the book levy thingy wish added the voluntary contribution but it was never that high! OUCH!

[Nai]

I pay it all but ours generally comes to less than $300 from memory.

[glenny_c]

wow! That is quite high. I'm trying to think what the fees were at the last school I worked at. I teach year 6 and I'm sure it was under $100 for voluntary payments. I'd make sure you check on what the extra fees actually cover and whether your child will be disadvantaged if they aren't paid. I'm not saying I agree with it but a lot of schools will deny students loans of textbooks or access to computers etc if the voluntary fees aren't paid. This is usually only for older kids but you might find access to certain supplies such as paint or paper limited.

The other thing I would think of is that each teacher will be given a budget to spend on supplies for her class throughout the year. This is usually based on how many students in their class have paid the extra fees. Once this money is gone teachers can no longer access school money to buy pencils,rubbers,paint, paper etc for their class and it generally will come out of the teachers pocket. I don't know many teachers who would allow students to go without but I do know plenty who are spending in excess of $2000 a year on supplies for their students. Please don't think I'm having a go at parents because I'm not, I think it's revolting that it's up to teachers or parents to fund a supposedly PUBLIC system. Govt spending is very misguided in the education sector.

[Olive]

Ours are $117 voluntary fees and $117 compulsory, DD is starting prep and we paid the full amount,

[AnyDream]

wow! That is quite high. I'm trying to think what the fees were at the last school I worked at. I teach year 6 and I'm sure it was under $100 for voluntary payments. I'd make sure you check on what the extra fees actually cover and whether your child will be disadvantaged if they aren't paid. I'm not saying I agree with it but a lot of schools will deny students loans of textbooks or access to computers etc if the voluntary fees aren't paid. This is usually only for older kids but you might find access to certain supplies such as paint or paper limited.

The other thing I would think of is that each teacher will be given a budget to spend on supplies for her class throughout the year. This is usually based on how many students in their class have paid the extra fees. Once this money is gone teachers can no longer access school money to buy pencils,rubbers,paint, paper etc for their class and it generally will come out of the teachers pocket. I don't know many teachers who would allow students to go without but I do know plenty who are spending in excess of $2000 a year on supplies for their students. Please don't think I'm having a go at parents because I'm not, I think it's revolting that it's up to teachers or parents to fund a supposedly PUBLIC system. Govt spending is very misguided in the education sector.

The reverse situation is where some parents buy the books and pay the contribution, then all the supplies are collected and placed in a cupboard in the classroom for distribution by the teacher and 3/4 of the way through the year you find out your child is doing all their writing with a 3 cm stub of pencil because the other 5 pencils (or glue or erasers or exercise books or whatever) have been used by other children in the class and now there are none left.

[Floweryfields]

Not having a school child yet, I wasn't aware of such a thing. Seems quite unfair to me that some families help pay additional costs but not all.