Does 'name and shame' work?

jh385

I had another parent's association meeting tonight, and the same 2 subjects came up again that have been coming up for the past 3 years. If anyone has ideas or advice I'd really appreciate it.

I'm not going to name the school yet, but it's a primary school in South Dublin. The two main problems are;

1) Parking outside the school gates.
The road in front of the school is very narrow. 99% of parents park in roads around the school, or in car parks opposite. But 1% of parents stop their cars in front of the school to 'drop off' their children. This causes a major safety issue and blocks traffic on the road.

We've involved the Garda (who occasionally stand outside telling drivers to move, and get nowhere) the principal has had a go at asking them to move, it even got the stage where the parents formed a 'human chain' in front of the school to prevent these parents parking!

I've thought of clamper vans, parking wardens, lollipop person, bollards, chichane type barrier to narrow the road, etc.

So, any other suggestions as to long-term fixes to stop this? (I want to present some ideas to the principal/garda)

2) Fund-raising.
Yes, I know, a problem many schools face. Many schools ask parents to make an annual contribution of €60 towards books etc. At the last count something like 20 parents had paid, leaving us thousands of euros short. The problem here is that parents who have paid are indirectly funding the children of parents who haven't.

Would it be fair to start a 'name and shame' campaign? I was thinking of not naming parents who HAVEN'T paid, but creating a list of parents who HAVE paid, so it becomes obvious who hasn't.

seavill

jh385 wrote: »

I had another parent's association meeting tonight, and the same 2 subjects came up again that have been coming up for the past 3 years. If anyone has ideas or advice I'd really appreciate it.

I'm not going to name the school yet, but it's a primary school in South Dublin. The two main problems are;

1) Parking outside the school gates.
The road in front of the school is very narrow. 99% of parents park in roads around the school, or in car parks opposite. But 1% of parents stop their cars in front of the school to 'drop off' their children. This causes a major safety issue and blocks traffic on the road.

We've involved the Garda (who occasionally stand outside telling drivers to move, and get nowhere) the principal has had a go at asking them to move, it even got the stage where the parents formed a 'human chain' in front of the school to prevent these parents parking!

I've thought of clamper vans, parking wardens, lollipop person, bollards, chichane type barrier to narrow the road, etc.

So, any other suggestions as to long-term fixes to stop this? (I want to present some ideas to the principal/garda)

2) Fund-raising.
Yes, I know, a problem many schools face. Many schools ask parents to make an annual contribution of €60 towards books etc. At the last count something like 20 parents had paid, leaving us thousands of euros short. The problem here is that parents who have paid are indirectly funding the children of parents who haven't.

Would it be fair to start a 'name and shame' campaign? I was thinking of not naming parents who HAVEN'T paid, but creating a list of parents who HAVE paid, so it becomes obvious who hasn't.

No to this. This is a disgraceful thing to do to anyone. It is also tantamount to bullying as far as I am concerned.

Your idea of naming those who have is just as bad as naming those who have not so there is no point in kidding yourself thinking one is better than the other to be completely honest.

From being a secondary teacher I am involved with certain students in the school where there are massive things going on at home. Things that other teachers are not even aware of. No one has any idea what is happening in anyone elses home what their personal circumstances are etc. etc. etc. It is also not anyone elses business.
This method of raising money is clearly not working so should be scrapped and replaced with a different one if there is an issue for those that do pay.

tony81

1. Find out the main culprits and write them a letter to say they are putting childrens' lives at risk and you will report them to the gardai if they continue to park outside the school gates. You might look into why some schools have lollypop men/ladies and see if your school is able to get one.

2. Big data protection issues here, even in naming people who have contributed. Also, it's a voluntary contribution.. a dunning process might work, where notes are sent home with kids to the parents starting with gentle reminders and a due date (your contribution pays for x, y, z).. followed by overdue letters, followed by slightly nastier letters. Eventually there'll only be a few kids in the class getting these letters and that may teach the parents to buck up a little.

If your school operates trips or plays you could also threaten to exclude children of parents who refuse to pay the charge. You could also refuse to admit further children from that family if the payment isn't forthcoming.

Obviously, you need to be sensitive towards peoples' ability to pay. However, don't forget these days its highly likely traditional "working class" unemployed families can actually have higher discretionary incomes than middle class families.

seavill

One thing to be very careful of is that this has nothing to do with the children. Keep them out of it.

They should not be excluded from anything or made feel different. They should not get the letters to bring home. Post them. Some kids will lose or forget letters for a start and also it will single out kids in a class who repeatedly get letters. Parents talk, kids hear things and it can lead to issues in the class.

Also if it is a voluntary contribution that you are talking about, sending nasty or overdue letters is out of the question. The clue is in the title "voluntary"

jh385

seavill wrote: »

Your idea of naming those who have is just as bad as naming those who have not so there is no point in kidding yourself thinking one is better than the other to be completely honest.

Point taken, thanks for your feedback. Really, this is me running out of ideas as nothing seems to work!

I mean, €60/year - €1.15 a week. No matter how bad things are at home, I can't see how they can't afford that. I really don't think it's an issue of not being able to pay it, but rather not wanting to pay it, or not being interested in paying it (but I'd love to know the real reasons)

seavill wrote: »

This method of raising money is clearly not working so should be scrapped and replaced with a different one if there is an issue for those that do pay.

Yes, I think if the paying parents knew how few people were paying, they'd be a bit put out. The books are shabby and in short supply, I could go on and on about things the school needs. Don't all other schools also collect this annual payment though?

I think I'll approach the board and see if anything can be done about getting designated disadvantaged status for the school, if it'll mean getting extra funding.

Skinnykenyan

Theres loads of ways to fundraise without burdening families. Get families to donate bags of old clothes and get one of them clothes for cash places to come in collect the bags and write a check. Gaelcolaiste cill dara have a scrap metal week same principal applies families donate scrap metal to the school they exchange for cash. Carol singing,bag packs,quiz nights, raffles, get onto any major retailer or local businesses for spot prizes. Use some initiative theirs plenty of ways to raise money. The parking issue is tougher. Are adequate parking/drop off points provided to parents? Clamping is an option if the school could acquire some clamping equipment themselves they could put fines into the school coffers. Car reg numbers could be noted and reoffenders reported to an garda siochana but its hard to see them doing much tbh

byhookorbycrook

DEIS status is very hard to attain, so I don't see your school getting that too easily.Name and shame will only serve to demean kids, right up there with the parish priest calling out who had paid the Easter dues and how much they coughed up.

seavill

jh385 wrote: »

I mean, €60/year - €1.15 a week. No matter how bad things are at home, I can't see how they can't afford that. I really don't think it's an issue of not being able to pay it, but rather not wanting to pay it, or not being interested in paying it (but I'd love to know the real reasons)

This is probably true for most however again unless you have struggled to pay bills, and I mean really struggled you don't know what is going on with people.

I am a teacher and sure everyone knows we have loads of money, if only. My mortgage is due out of my account tomorrow and I will then be overdrawn by over 300 euro until we are paid again. Not many people would imagine this could be the case but it is. for the next two weeks I don't have €2.30 go go towards the books never mind anything else.

Skinnykenyan

But their not asking for a measly 1 something a week schools usually want it upfront when parents havent got it. Alot of families are left with less money than the cost of their outgoings. Theres ways to raise money without pressuring families who probably feel they pay enough money to schools without more expense

tony81

Op, one issue I'd point out.

It was a parent's assoc. meeting.... and you're thinking of a way to collect an admin fee.

Surely the school's administration should have done a better job collecting this fee earlier in the year?

jh385

Skinnykenyan wrote: »

But their not asking for a measly 1 something a week schools usually want it upfront when parents havent got it.

Then perhaps a voluntary donation of any amount would work? - Even €5 would be better than nothing. Or they could give €2 a week for 3 weeks? There are a few options I can explore there (as well as the fundraising ideas in a post above, I like the idea about bags of clothes)

I think this illustrates a fundamental problem. You're making it sound like the school is milking the parents for money for no reason. That money is going directly to try and get new/replacement books and essential items for the classroom. Stuff like laptops would be a luxury! - We're talking basics here, i.e. items that directly benefit the children. Perhaps that's what's needed, the parents should be made more aware of what the money is going towards?

Skinnykenyan wrote: »

Alot of families are left with less money than the cost of their outgoings. Theres ways to raise money without pressuring families who probably feel they pay enough money to schools without more expense

What money do parents pay to schools? - Apart from indirectly through taxes, any other contributions I know of are voluntary.

Which brings me back to another point, if the parents really are that strapped for cash, then DEIS status for the school sounds plausible, I mean, that's the whole point of DEIS isn't it?

jh385

tony81 wrote: »

It was a parent's assoc. meeting.... and you're thinking of a way to collect an admin fee.

Surely the school's administration should have done a better job collecting this fee earlier in the year?

Yes agreed. And it sounds like they didn't (although they did send out reminder letters, and it was voluntary...) But I need to confirm the numbers with the principal.

At the moment we have funds coming from a small group of teachers, the parents assoc., and the admin fee. Although we're not directly responsible for collecting the admin fee, it's one of the main sources of income, and I'd like to address that problem or at least get realistic about how much money the school needs before we spend 2013 trying to make up the shortfall.

twowheelsonly

Dodgy Parkers: Definitely name and shame. Best option is to stand in front of them and either take a photo of them and their car or make an issue out of recording their dozy driving In other words make a point of embarrassing them.
BTW, these are the same people that nearly park in the door at the local petrol station or shop yet are usually wearing runners/track suit/fitness gear and will tell anyone that wants to listen about their daily 3 mile walk - yet won't walk more than 10 yards to get to a shop.

Non Payers. As it's highly unlikely that you know all of their circumstances don't even dream of 'outing' them. Sure enough a proportion will be chancers but it's not worth the risk. Times are tough and many of those that you might think are ok for money are the very ones that are struggling.

tony81

jh385 wrote: »

Yes agreed. And it sounds like they didn't (although they did send out reminder letters, and it was voluntary...) But I need to confirm the numbers with the principal.

At the moment we have funds coming from a small group of teachers, the parents assoc., and the admin fee. Although we're not directly responsible for collecting the admin fee, it's one of the main sources of income, and I'd like to address that problem or at least get realistic about how much money the school needs before we spend 2013 trying to make up the shortfall.

Unless the principal also teaches a class, there is no reason he/she couldn't have made some time to administer it.

Some points off the top of my head that may help collect the fee in future.
1. Implement a dunning process. Set a deadline and make it a big deal.
2. Play down the "voluntary" aspect. Make sure it's referred to as an "admin charge" rather than "voluntary" fee, including on letters. Keep the letters formal in nature.
3. Consider a reduced fee for welfare recipients, or where multiple children from the one family attend the school.
4. Instalments may sound like a good idea but may be a nightmare to administer.
5. reconsider the fee. It's better to get €45 from 100 people than €60 from 20.
6. Incentivise. Enter into a competition for an electronic photo from or something silly like that (perhaps received free from local retailer)
7. An accounting system. Make sure you can keep track of who has paid (even an excel spreadsheet)
8. Good computer skills. A good system could do a mailmerge and automatically produce letters in 30 mins instead of getting a secretary to spend a few days typing up letters (or copying/pasting name and address info into a word document). Even better, integrate it with the system in (7) and you can even target only people who have not paid.
9. Don't spend excessive money administering it (cost-benefit)

Just a few points, hope it helps. Ultimately, it's a bit late this year and the school just needs to get its act together next year.

aisher

Parking - letters only work for a very short amount of time and then the problem will resurface. Try cones - put them all around the road directly to the school and no one can park - then remove them once 9 am arrives and then put back out just before home time.

Voluntary Contribution - its 'voluntary; so you can only ask - if its not paid you cant do anything. Why not introduuce a Fee - must be paid and will be for named items - such as photocopying, school journal if there is one, etc. Its a fee and you can ask for it - we have one in our school and only one child out of 630 did not pay - we give out school journals and the journal is only given on payment of the fee.

jh385

aisher wrote: »

we have one in our school and only one child out of 630 did not pay - we give out school journals and the journal is only given on payment of the fee.

Which almost amounts to 'name and shame', but I see where you're coming from.

629 out of 630 is a fantastic response. If we got that it'd be the budget sorted for the year.

limklad

jh385 wrote: »

I had another parent's association meeting tonight, and the same 2 subjects came up again that have been coming up for the past 3 years. If anyone has ideas or advice I'd really appreciate it.

I'm not going to name the school yet, but it's a primary school in South Dublin. The two main problems are;

1) Parking outside the school gates.
The road in front of the school is very narrow. 99% of parents park in roads around the school, or in car parks opposite. But 1% of parents stop their cars in front of the school to 'drop off' their children. This causes a major safety issue and blocks traffic on the road.

We've involved the Garda (who occasionally stand outside telling drivers to move, and get nowhere) the principal has had a go at asking them to move, it even got the stage where the parents formed a 'human chain' in front of the school to prevent these parents parking!

I've thought of clamper vans, parking wardens, lollipop person, bollards, chichane type barrier to narrow the road, etc.

So, any other suggestions as to long-term fixes to stop this? (I want to present some ideas to the principal/garda)

2) Fund-raising.
Yes, I know, a problem many schools face. Many schools ask parents to make an annual contribution of €60 towards books etc. At the last count something like 20 parents had paid, leaving us thousands of euros short. The problem here is that parents who have paid are indirectly funding the children of parents who haven't.

Would it be fair to start a 'name and shame' campaign? I was thinking of not naming parents who HAVEN'T paid, but creating a list of parents who HAVE paid, so it becomes obvious who hasn't.

Contact you local council with this issue together with parents and school management.
If no means for realigning the road to make it safer for kids, then Requests no Parking (double yellow lines) or Keep clear sections on the road on area of the most problematic nature and the Gardai can act the problematic people. The Keep clear I would go for as some Judges let people off if they park less than 5 mins on double yellow lines which is 5 mins too long on this stretch of road which block traffic.

The Courtenay boys School in Newcastle West in Limerick solved most of their safety issues to have safe parking for kids drop off and pick up.
http://maps.google.ie/maps?q=maps+newcastle+west&ll=52.453322,-9.057053&spn=0.001586,0.003825&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&hnear=Newcastle+West,+County+Limerick&gl=ie&t=h&layer=c&cbll=52.453309,-9.057176&panoid=iZWjKxgu4ofGVMw2pJ4x6w&cbp=12,30.28,,0,19.56&z=18
http://maps.google.ie/maps?q=maps+newcastle+west&ll=52.453825,-9.055638&spn=0.001586,0.003825&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&hnear=Newcastle+West,+County+Limerick&gl=ie&t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=52.453825,-9.055638&panoid=Qq5IYW9EAeJ2KW9g-WN2OQ&cbp=12,262.92,,0,7.95
It was a major Traffic and safety issue for the Town and for the kids. People had atrocious parking ability and pull out infront of kids who were crossing the road.
They solve most of their problems when it became a drive in drop off and drive on or a lane to pull in for temporary parking. It involves the school to give up some property in front and for the Council Library to give up some space for this to happen. For the most part it work except for the 1%er who will always cause problems.

What ever the solution the school comes up with you will need the cooperation of the Local council and the Garda superintendent of the Area for enforcement of any traffic violations. It is best to gather evidence for both the Council and Gardai about the problematic individuals and the traffic chaos they cause around the Area.

The more the schools involve and highlight issues to Local Councils about Traffic management and safety around their schools the better, to keep any problems at bay. You should request from the Council if they have conduct any safely and traffic study around the School over the years and if they have, Can you have a copy of the report for School records and if they have not then complain that you will need one for Children and Public safely.

In fairness most Local councils work with the schools management for better Traffic management outside schools when it is highlighted to them. For the next school management meeting, you should invite both a Council representative, Local Councillors and someone from the Traffic Corps in the Local Area to attend.

Before then you will need to gather evidence, photos and maps of Current Road traffics Marking and signs and recommended changes to the road.
Survey Parents who have kids in the school and an idea how many parents drop their kids to school by Car, cycle, walk or bus or a mixture of transports, Car pool etc.

Video of traffic chaos and Normal incidences (Do not be in people faces or shouting at them - keep your distance and be quite) in front of schools over a period of time with permission of school management.

You might want to contact Shane McEntee and ask how well he been doing on Road safely for Kids in front of schools since Fine Gael are in Government.

Gaping hole in traffic management at schools
http://www.educationmatters.ie/2007/03/13/gaping-hole-in-traffic-management-at-schools/

Fine Gael Road Safety spokesman Shane McEntee has called for the appointment of full-time dedicated Road Safety Officers in every local authority area. He made his call after learning that many schools have no traffic management plan, in spite of the worsening traffic congestion outside schools. Deputy McEntee warned that roads outside many schools are chaotic and subject to ridiculous speed limits, and that without immediate action a child is very likely to be killed. 'The lack of any overall traffic co-ordination means that roads outside many schools are degenerating into chaos at the start and finish of the school day. 'Increased car dependency means ever more children are driven to and from school, and school buses and cars are competing for limited space. Many children are running the gauntlet every day the minute they go near the school premises, and parents are becoming increasingly worried. 'Even boarding the school bus can be a dangerous activity, as some buses have to park on the road due to the lack of proper parking facilities. I have seen footage at a school in Co. Meath where children are boarding the bus in the middle of the road, with cars passing only feet away. 'Responsibility for traffic management at schools is currently split between school management and the local authority. The school is responsible for monitoring traffic management within the premises, while the local authority has responsibility outside the school grounds. 'Each and every school needs an effective traffic management plan in order to manage these increasingly dangerous environments. Local authorities are best placed to draft these plans, but the problem comes back time and again to a lack of resources. 'Although every local authority is required to have a Road Safety Officer, these positions are usually part-time. The result is that a significant number of schools still have no traffic management plan. 'Fine Gael is calling on the Department of the Environment to fund full-time Road Safety Officers in every county. These dedicated positions would also have an educational .function within schools, teaching children road safety. 'They would draft traffic management plans in tandem with school authorities, and review speed limits outside schools. 'Donegal has already appointed a full-time Officer, and Meath County Council has advertised for a position. It is essential that every other local authority follows suit. 'No parent wants to play Russian roulette with their children's lives whenever the child goes to school. We must take action now before a child loses his or her life."

If nothing is done or you feel that they are brushing you off then you will need Several petitions from parents and locals living in the area and more important those living nearby and give the petitions to Both Local Council and to the Garda superintendent will help to speed things up or any inaction by either. A few interviews to Local Radio stations and to Local newspapers about the issue. A Local TD should be made to be involve for any funding that may be needed.


Name and shame Problematic Parents rarely work or can often back fire and you could end up in Court over children privacy or harassment to the individuals. Persistent problematic individuals when it comes to bad behaviour rarely change their behaviour and most often you end up directly or indirectly embarrass or humiliate their children. The innocent ones.
Funding issue.
The funding issue is a sensitive issue to many families and even more so after the next budget with household taxes. Many families have their belt tighten so much, that they are staving themselves to meet the bills. €1 could mean the difference between soup today or not.

RainyDay

jh385 wrote: »

2) Fund-raising.
Yes, I know, a problem many schools face. Many schools ask parents to make an annual contribution of €60 towards books etc. At the last count something like 20 parents had paid, leaving us thousands of euros short. The problem here is that parents who have paid are indirectly funding the children of parents who haven't.

Would it be fair to start a 'name and shame' campaign? I was thinking of not naming parents who HAVEN'T paid, but creating a list of parents who HAVE paid, so it becomes obvious who hasn't.

Name-and-shame is a terrible idea. Have a think about why people have NOT paid. Do they know where the money is going, i.e. have the school shared the accounts with the school community, as they are required to do? Have the school made it easy for people to pay in installments, e.g. €5 per month standing order?

maryk34

The school my children has the same problem with parking. Our school sent out dozens of letters asking parents to park correctly at the gate. The odd few still refuse to adhere to the rules and don't park in the designated area. There's not much the Principal can do either. He/She can only ask people to comply. Nobody can make rule for irresponsible ans silly people. As for the name and shame idea, Two words- Forget it!!:)

the_syco

jh385 wrote: »

No matter how bad things are at home, I can't see how they can't afford that.

Punish the kid for having an alcoholic parent? How nice...

mikemac1

jh385 wrote: »

Would it be fair to start a 'name and shame' campaign? I was thinking of not naming parents who HAVEN'T paid, but creating a list of parents who HAVE paid, so it becomes obvious who hasn't.

Either it's voluntary or it is not.

If it's a fee like for photocopying or for a specially ordered school journal or art supplies then it needs to be paid at the beginning of the school year.
And it's too late now to start imposing fees, this should have been done last summer.

As said already, this naming and shaming goes back to the old days of the parish priest naming his parishioners.
The teacher here commented on their mortgage and overdraft, many parents are in the exact same situation despite holding so called "good" jobs.

There are countless ways to fundraise.
The recession seems to have put the country on a fitness craze, can you do a sponsored walk?

Does your parish have a local history expert? Produce a video and sell it? It won't make much money but it's an amazing project for the children and teaching about making films, editing on a computer and it's something they can point to and be proud of.
When I was a young 'un we went around interviewed elderly locals about the old days. Small simple things like people getting married in "The Emergency" and how they had no tea at their wedding. History isn't all about leaders and politics, it's about social history and ordinary people too.
Sure these days you can burn DVD's no problem, the days of needing a specialist to make video tapes are long gone

syklops

I mean, €60/year - €1.15 a week. No matter how bad things are at home, I can't see how they can't afford that

They said the same thing about the household charge, only 2 euros a week, but then they didnt give people the opportunity to pay 2 euro a week. Give people that opportunity and a few more might pay. 60 euro in one go is a lot. If your on jobseekers, 60 euro is one third of your dole money for one week. Thats the household budget gone.

Start thinking of other ways to raise money.

thesimpsons

OP - are the parked cars actually illegal. We had similar problem when I was on a BOM and after going thru the letters route, the Principal asking people to move on, explaining to kids that their parents should park safely, etc, etc we had the gardai call down one morning. Were told there was nothing we could do unless the council would put double yellow lines on the road. We could not put out cones, could not put notices on cars, and had no authority to ask drivers to move on or to stand on the road blocking it from parkers, etc. After many years, we just gave in and gave up some land to make a drop off zone - simple drive in, drop off and leave again and still some parents insisted on idling there for ages cos they were "dropping off". Some parents will always do the right thing, some will do it sometimes and some will just do whatever they want when they want.

as for naming and shaming - no way. I can understand the frustration of parents who do pay and end up subsidising the ones who don't pay but I agree that you never ever know what goes on in another household. There are also a lot of parents who just don't care what the school has to pay for insurance/books/etc and will not contribute no matter what you do. Accept the monies you get and leave it at that.

the_syco

Get a yellow box painted outside the school gate?

juan.kerr

jh385 wrote: »

2) Fund-raising.
Yes, I know, a problem many schools face. Many schools ask parents to make an annual contribution of €60 towards books etc. At the last count something like 20 parents had paid, leaving us thousands of euros short. The problem here is that parents who have paid are indirectly funding the children of parents who haven't.

I'm sure plenty of the parents pay tens of thousands of euros of taxes each year so can easily see why they would not want to pay this presumably voluntary contribution.

There's nothing stopping you NOT paying it.

juan.kerr

aisher wrote: »

we have one in our school and only one child out of 630 did not pay - we give out school journals and the journal is only given on payment of the fee.

Presumably you dont expect the child to pay? You're probably better off asking the parent(s).

As for excluding the 1 child like this, it's a bit petty and I certainly wouldn't be proud enough to post about it.

seamus

Re: The parking.
http://www.transport.ie/upload/general/12971-tsm_chapter_7-7.pdf

Page 46. Have the council paint these on the relevant road and arrange for some kind volunteer to stand on the road before and after school for a couple of weeks taking photos of all vehicles who stop and reporting them to the Gardai. It can help if you get a single interested Garda liason who can take all of the photos and follow them all up him/herself.

It will be the same offenders doing this again and again, so once they're warned off, the dangerous parking should stop.

Glinda

Voluntary contributions are exactly that, voluntary. Compulsory contributions are in fact school fees and you are not allowed by law to charge school fees at a non fee-paying school. Collecting fees for photocopying/journals/art materials etc. is fine, provided that the money collected is used for the stated purpose and not any other purpose.

There are lots of creative ways of raising funds for schools that allow parents to donate their time and effort instead of money, (we did calendars which raised thousands for example) but speaking from years of experience, you will always get a dedicated bunch of enthusiastic committed parents, and a large bunch of others who either cannot (for reasons that you are not party to) or won't contribute.

In my case, I am oblivious to lectures and glares from new parents in the school who resent the fact that I don't participate in fundraising activities. The reason for this is that I gave eight years of full-on fundraising to the school and four on the Board of Management during which time I administered the payroll, was responsible for Health and Safety and dealt with all manner of time-consuming and emotionally draining issues on a completely voluntary basis in addition to my full-time job. I don't say this to complain, just to illustrate that, from my point of view, I have more than done my share and am simply taking a couple of years off. Not all the parents who don't help or don't contribute have always been that way, some have very changed circumstances and may have a long and noble history that you are completely unaware of.

The idea of naming and shaming people makes me quite angry to be honest, and don't even get me started on the idea of singling out their kids for special exclusion :mad:

titchy

In my sons primary school the VC is printed on the end of the book and uniform list sent out in June.
It is printed as a list e.g.
10E library books
10E PE
(cant remember actual details but it amounts to 60Euro)

So it appears on the list as another item(S) that have to be provided for the child on their return to school.

I dont know if this makes much difference to the percentage of parents that pay, but maybe seeing it listed on the book/uniform list as an itemized bill might help?

The same school also runs a non uniform day once a month each child brings in 2Euro. I don't know what percentage pay but it might raise some extra funds?

I pay a lot more towards my daughters secondary school.
Again each item is listed locker, journal, etc.
Each item has a box beside it which you tick if you are paying (no need to pay science fee if teen not doing science)

All items are tallied by yourself at bottom the of page which ends with a final addition of 60Euro VC.

The VC comes with its own separate letter that I sign to say wether I am paying in two installments or one.

All other fees plus at least 30Euro of VC must be paid on registration day when students receive locker, journal, timetable, art pack

If you figure out a solution to parking issue let me know Ill pass it on to my sons school;)