School trips and non- uniform days demands

When I was at school - immediately after the war- the nit nurse was a regular visitor. Some poor souls had to attend the clinic soon after and came back with shaven heads and gentian violet also on any scratches etc. Gentian violet seemed to be an everyday cure for all sorts of skin ailments.

I remember from my junior school days in the 50s having a form which folded in three, and inside was a list of flowers I think, and you had to ask people to buy a flower and pay 1d or 2d for it. I think it was for starving children in Africa then. You tried to fill up the card, but it was difficult!

On the 'wear a colour' days, a simple badge made of cardboard could be enough!
There's too much begging these days, in the form of 'charity/charitable' donations, and it's out of hand now. I much prefer to choose my own charities and how much I'll pay into them but I will not subscribe to them as it'll be 'sell raffle tickets, leave money in your will, pay this, pay that' etc.
Just how much actually goes into these charities, as opposed to admin fees, advertising and whatnot??

How awful Welshwife for the children to have their heads shaved.

fairfraise

How awful Welshwife for the children to have their heads shaved.

I remember a girl at primary school having her head shaved.
Luckily my mother noticed I had nits before the school nurse did!

This thread’s bringing back memories! I remember boys with shaved heads and purple patches at my primary as well - it must have been common as it didn’t seem to cause a stir. I don’t remember any girls having their heads shaved though - perhaps they just had their hair cut short.

I once tried flogging my Sunny Smiles door to door with my friend on a Sunday and we got a right earful for doing it on the Lord’s day.

I was a junior Red Cross member and each of us had to take in a Christmas present for the ten or so children who lived in the local Barnados home. It was a beautiful big old house with a huge tree in the hallway reaching up to the ceiling, a massive pile of presents underneath it. We’d never seen anything like it.

I an remember the "nit nurse" too!

One time I had to visit the nit nurse just after a science lesson when I had spilled something onto my skirt. I got told off for coming to school in "dirty clothes" as they would not believe I had only done it in a lesson that day.

Yes children did often get into trouble because of things their parents had/had not done and they had to "tough it out".

I was supposed to be in from school at a certain tme to let my younger sister in (my mother was working). One day the entire class was given detention but I sloped off home. Someone snitched on me and next day the teacher asked me why I had gone off. I told her that if had to choose between a whallopping from my father or a telling off from a teacher I would choose the latter any day.

Doodledog

*Now it seems that teachers are not allowed to discriminate against children who do not bring in a "donation" to show them up in front of their classmates.*

They shouldn't be 'allowed' to discriminate, and nor should they feel inclined to do so, IMO.

I was at primary school in the late 60s, and remember Smile books, which were for something like Save the Children. They were little books with perforated photographs of orphans, and you were supposed to sell them to friends and family, who wrote their donation on the 'stub' and tore off the photo of the child they liked best. It was all kinds of wrong, and as I was one of three children it must have been a real nuisance to my parents and relatives. There was a similar one for Barnardos, I think. We also had plastic money boxes in the shape of houses for (I think) Christian Aid Week. You took them home and tried to fill them up during the week, and there was a public count of the donations in class with the winner getting a prize. We occasionally did sponsored things, but they were always useful, such as cleaning brasses that people sent into the school, or litter picking.

My children started school in the 90s and had seemingly countless 'days' such as World Book Day, which involved making or buying costumes and paying for them not to wear the (non-compulsory) uniform. Ditto Children in Need and Red Nose Day etc. There were also book sales and fundraisers for the PTA. Some of those were fun, but again, the cost will have added up for those with larger families. I hated the dressing up days, and resented paying for them to do it. Most people bought outfits from supermarkets, which didn't fit the following year and ended up getting thrown away. Anyone who couldn't afford them must have felt bad. I think that if schools insist on doing this sort of thing they should have a 'bank' of clothing that people can use, so nobody is left out.

Some of the 'days' were quite specific - wear a colour for a cause sort of thing, so not everyone would have (eg) a yellow top or a green dress. I can't remember what they were now. Red for AIDS springs to mind as an example, although I doubt it was one of the causes the school supported. They also did sponsored activities but they tended to be silences or other things that benefited nobody, but cost the parents and friends money.

I know schools struggle, and that getting money out of parents is essential, but I would have preferred a voluntary (and anonymous) direct debit or something, with none of the emotional blackmail attached to visible displays of contribution. Some of the parents made a huge deal out of letting everyone know how much they paid up.

And don't get me started* about Operation Raleigh-style schemes to give experiences to 6th formers that they hope will boost their University applications. They are just organised begging, and I lost count of the social occasions we went to that were supposedly for a parent's birthday or something but turned out to be raising funds for someone else's child to get a fancy holiday that would give them the edge over others who were applying for the same courses. How children from deprived areas were supposed to be able to access them is beyond me. Even the ones that don't allow direct contributions are totally skewed in favour of kids whose parents know enough people with spare money or whose companies can contribute auctionable items that can be deducted against tax as charitable donations, or whatever.

*Oh, I got started .

Oh how I remember the Smile books Doodlebug and the books of wildlife African animals we were given by our school to sell
My mother was incensed as she regarded them as begging for money and as we were/are a very small family/not living near other family she objected to 'coughing up' the money herself and certainly wasn't going to take me knocking on neighbours doors to try to sell the very small paper pictures which a lot of children did.

Welshwife

When I was at school - immediately after the war- the nit nurse was a regular visitor. Some poor souls had to attend the clinic soon after and came back with shaven heads and gentian violet also on any scratches etc. Gentian violet seemed to be an everyday cure for all sorts of skin ailments.

When my son was a baby he developed oral thrush and the GP prescribed gentian violet, which I had to paint on the inside of his cheeks.
He was being breast fed so you can imagine what a colourful pair we made 😂

My son started school in the early 2000s.

My first initiation was Jean's for Genes day. £1 to wear what he wore anyway (no uniform). Harvest festival. Children in Need day - back then they did a mini bazaar and we were told that 50p would be plenty for them to try everything. So that wasnt too bad.
Add in sending cakes for Macmillan coffee morning and then going along to buy them back, prizes for various stalls at the bazaar (and having to go and try to win them back), the person standing at the entrance to the Xmas play selling raffle tickets as we filed in slowly so you couldnt avoid buying any. The annual shoebox appeal for Samaritans Purse. (Always ignored that). Oh they were always given tickets for the panto but intribute to the travel, there'd be a Santa trip with a cost to it! No xmas jumper day at that point. Oh and there was a fund raising thing where you bought a book of discount tickets for various local businesses. Some sort of commercial enterprise with a donation to the school - ignored that too.

And that was just one term - although I always found autumn term the worst!!

Iam64….. my granddaughter is 10 and refuses to do homework . Nothing has ever happened to her ….and she is well I. Advance of her age in all subjects. Her dad is a teacher of special needs kids and her mum is a child psychologist …both agreed early on that homework is an ‘anachronism of which we should be rid’ so they personally rid it from their kids lives! Home is family time NOT for catching up on what teacher failed to get across in class time!

Saggi

Iam64….. my granddaughter is 10 and refuses to do homework . Nothing has ever happened to her ….and she is well I. Advance of her age in all subjects. Her dad is a teacher of special needs kids and her mum is a child psychologist …both agreed early on that homework is an ‘anachronism of which we should be rid’ so they personally rid it from their kids lives! Home is family time NOT for catching up on what teacher failed to get across in class time!

Ours do school lessons in school and have time together, at meals and after, for family. As it should be, really.

I think that the Smile booklets were for Sunshine children's homes. We used to get them from Sunday school and I've always hated asking people for money so found it very hard to sell the individual pages which is what we were meant to do.

My daughter and DIL complain about the dressing up days, such as world book day. Most of the children buy an outfit for the day, and they have to pay for the priviledge of not wearing uniform on this and various other days, including Mufti day when they wear their own clothes.
Such a waste of money, particularly the dressing up clothes.

Schoolchildren should not be used to collect charitable donations and schools should not be a vehicle for such outrageous collecting. If schools need to fundraise because the Tories underfund them then they should do so directly to parents or the public, not via pupils.

Chardy

nanna8

What about school fetes? They seem to raise a lot of money and people love the home baked things.Better than asking for donations all the time and the kids serve the goods and they seem to love it.

There are all kinds of rules now about selling things that have been made in a home-kitchen.

Last year I made (after requests) 4 dozen mince pies and 8 litres of tomato and roasted red pepper soup for Gdcs’ school Christmas fair. Nobody said anything about breaking rules.🤔

My daughter’s just left primary school and there were maybe one charity £1 in exchange for wearing own clothes days a term. Then own clothes and bring a bottle or chocolate for the school fair day. Nothing too excessive really. There was a bake day for Children in Need recently. There’s a Christmas raffle. Whereas in secondary, within a few weeks we had to buy a laptop, a pinny, then there was the school trip - it was quite overwhelming especially with putting money on the system for school lunch - thankfully she decided she preferred packed lunch! They’ve had a school fair but the stall holders paid for their stalls and now there are some raffle tickets. But my main bugbear is the cost of the school
Bus, which I know is nothing to do with school.

Yes, drove me nuts..I used to fake the names and give the money I could barely afford..

From the foods Standards Agency.

You do not need a food hygiene certificate to make and sell food for charity events. However, you need to make sure that you handle food safely.

That’s good to hear, Marydoll. I was wondering if things had changed since I retired. A Christmas Fair wouldn’t be the same without the mince pies and guess the weight of the cake (half a ton came close in some cases ).

My mother was a cookery teacher in a school in a Northern town long before the fashion for 'non-uniform' days etc but was very aware of the difficulties parents faced providing ingredients for lessons. She knew of one family who were really struggling, made particularly difficult by cookery being timetabled on Thursday, the day before 'pay day'. As a result she used to buy the ingredients for the girls in the family. They always brought the money to her on the following Monday and none of their classmates were aware.
Years later when 'Friends reunited' was around I was contacted by their brother who had been friend with my brother at school. He wanted to know how my mum was as he remembered her kindness to his sisters! Teachers can make a huge difference to kids in families who are struggling and need to be more aware. As the cost of living crisis deepens there will be families struggling who once would have been considered comfortably off. As schools struggle to fund the everyday requirements of schools I sincerely hope they won't add to the pressures on such families by frivolous fundraising, however necessary it may seem.

I remember the sunny smiles when I was in school, going around the neighbours who would look for the prettiest in the book, thank goodness they stopped doing them.
I look after my two grandchildren quite a bit who are in the same school and they often come home with raffle tickets, sponsor forms etc and it comes pretty pricy when you have to buy them all as I wouldn’t dream of letting them knock on doors.

Witzend

Chardy

nanna8

What about school fetes? They seem to raise a lot of money and people love the home baked things.Better than asking for donations all the time and the kids serve the goods and they seem to love it.

There are all kinds of rules now about selling things that have been made in a home-kitchen.

Last year I made (after requests) 4 dozen mince pies and 8 litres of tomato and roasted red pepper soup for Gdcs’ school Christmas fair. Nobody said anything about breaking rules.🤔

Gracious. I cook treats for the children's school Christmas fair frequently. I've never heard of any rules about home-kitchen foods.

Apart from family from advance eating the treats, no problems.

Many of my husband's suppliers donate, tax benefit to them. And lovely vouchers "Three Blackbirds" always positive! Would be a shame if Christmas fairs, which children enjoy, weren't at hand any longer.

Norah
Ours do school lessons in school and have time together, at meals and after, for family. As it should be, really.
We’re between a rock and a hard place.
X% of parents don’t want homework, Y% want more homework, Z% just accept it. X and Y both complained to OFSTED.
The expectation that children read with their parent/carer is the only one I really support. It makes such a difference to the progress of the majority of children, though whether that’s just the support for reading or also the chance to have 1-1 attention hasn’t been analysed.

I remember Sunny Smiles and getting told off in SUNDAY SCHOOL for not selling them all
I've never forgotten it or that awful woman who shouted at me- called herself a Christian too!