Asquith Court - Bikeathon ??? Charity rip off???

[legacy]

DS2 came home from his (private) nursery today (Asquith Court) with details of the 'Big Bikeathon 2005' for all Asquith Nursery on 5th August. It's in conjunction with Leukaemia Research Fund, and at first I thought "Oh, that's a nice way to involve the children in raising money for charity..."
Then I noticed the small print... "all sponsorship money will be collected by LRF, and then SHARED EQUALLY WITH THE SCHOOL " .

I think this is despicable! OK , so if this was some struggling state school that needed to raise funds for equipment etc, then I can understand them 'trading' their ability to distribute sponsor forms for a return, but this is a private company/ nursery chain who charge me over £800 month!! Ironically, this form also arrived at the same time as the letter to parents advising of the 'annual fee increase' - over 10% - despite the fact that inflation is less than 3%....

I am so angry that they appear to be ripping off a charity in this way. I think I will stick a big notice on the exit door of the nursery tomorrow alerting parents to this scam, and also write to both the nursery and LRF - what do you think??

If you have also had the same letter and your child is at AC, I URGE YOU TO COMPLAIN TOO

[legacy]

Hi there - seems that no one else has their kids at Asquith Court then?

Can I ask a favour of Mners - if anyone is a member of other parenting websites, can you please post a copy of this there too (i'm not) so it has the maximum number of opportunities to be seen...
Thanks
Legacy

[popmum]

I know what you mean - my child is not at this nursery, but our one (again national private chain) collect the vouchers for IT equipment (tescos) - i think they should just provide all the IT equipment they need not use fundraising!
I think the barnardos toddle waddle splits money between nursery and charity. Quite agree that if nursery is perhaps a school or community scheme they NEED the money

[edam]

My ds is at Asquith Court but haven't had this letter. Agree with you though, will watch out for it. Think when I posted about them in the past there was only one other MNer who used them and her kids are now in school.

[Fran1]

It's not really a scam and they are doing no wrong - except morally

Unfortunately Asquith has expanded drastically in recent years and i'd imagine they encourage their managers to fundraise for equipment, as they're busy spending money on their next nursery purchase.

LRF most probably have to offer this deal in order for big companies to be bothered to invest their time - sadly.

[Jimjams]

I used them briefly, wouldn't again

[JulieF]

Dd's nursery does similar things but although it is private it is also a registered charity as it is part of a pre-prep school and they are non profit making.

I would imagine nurseries like AQ are profit making and therefore think this is totally wrong. Taking this to its extreme I could do this for our profit making stage school quite legally. I wouldn't dream of doing so of course unless it were to fund a scholarship place.

Totally out of order.

[legacy]

OK - quick update - having discussed this with other Mums at the nursery we all thought it was totally out of order, so we complained to Asquith Court Head Office.
Got a response immediately saying they were 'very concerned' to hear about it, as they were not aware - seems that it might just be our Nursery being a bit over-enthusiastic, without thinking it through properly.
They said that they fully agreed with our sentiments, and that they would be 'investgating and taking further action'.
ANYWAY - There was a BIG notice at the nusery on Friday saying that ALL proceeds would be going to the charity after all.

So actually I feel pretty positive about the way they (Head Office) responded - they also e-mailed us back saying thank you for letting them know.

And the Leukaemia Research Fund also contacted us to say thank you for all our support (we had copied our letter to them!)

Ha!

[edam]

AQ also runs prep schools so guess is in similar position to your dd's nursery, JulieF. Am NOT impressed with it as a company but my nursery is very, very good.

[bubble99]

Good for you legacy! And, to be fair , good for the head office for getting it sorted so quickly.

We used an AQ for DS2 before we set up our own nurseries and were very unimpressed, but as edam has said if there is a strong manager in place individual branches can be good.

[Oliviab]

Yay, well done!

[dropinthe]

My oldest is at Asquith and I'm not that impressed with them but I agree that it is down to the individuals running each branch. Our manager can't be more than 25 and can hardly spell-she is far too young to have the responsibility and I would take my son out of there if it weren't for the fact that he has been there for two full days a week for nearly two years and has made some good friends there and feels safe.I have to keep badgering them to complete his development reviews and they are not aware of alot of the things I know he can do!

[legacy]

We've had our kids in AC throughout the last 5 years, and I have to say I've been VERY happy on the whole. Our local branch is streets ahead of the other local nurseries, staff are motivated, and the manager has a policy of keeping a good balnace between 'mature' (= experienced)staff and new 'youngsters'. Kids are extremely happy there and our eldest had an excellent pre-school education there.
To be fair, on the rare occasions I've had something to complain about they have been very quick to respond and sort things out - like this example I suppose.