extra curricular activities

[wotaday]

Just got letter re special day planned by school. Not only do we have to pay but we have to provide a costume. They have even given us the option of paying over £30 for one.

How many letters like this do you get from school?

[prh47bridge]

Do you have to pay or are they just asking for a voluntary contribution? Are we talking about a maintained (i.e. not fee paying) school? What is the nature of the special day?

In general, maintained schools are not allowed to charge for activities during normal school hours (although there are some exceptions). They can, however, ask for a voluntary contribution.

We've had requests for voluntary contributions for outings, often associated with special activities - we had to sort out a Victorian costume for one of them. It doesn't happen very often at the school our DCs attend.

[lljkk]

I don't... get letters like that, I mean. There'd be a riot among the parents if a request like that came thru.

[wotaday]

Normally they ask for a voluntary contribution but this one says cost of day will be ...

Its a historic day so yes we need costume. Think I will have to improvise abit.

It is an ordinary state school.

[prh47bridge]

Sorry for the delayed response.

Without knowing the full details it seems questionable. If it is entirely within normal school hours they should almost certainly be asking for a voluntary contribution rather than stating a cost.

If it were me, I probably wouldn't kick up a fuss about a single day - after all, it may just be that whoever wrote the letter forgot to say "voluntary contribution". However, if they started doing it repeatedly I would have a quiet word with someone (class teacher or head teacher).

The only thing I would personally do at this stage is keep the letter in case you need to use it as evidence. But that's just me. You may want to take a different approach.