Granted I have been a tad busy over the last few weeks as I juggle my family and business with the stuff I have been doing for Save the Children.
But I am getting increasingly peeved with the letters requesting voluntary contributions for school activities that clearly aren't voluntary at all.
Take last week.
On Friday a letter came home with ModelGirl about a Roman Day that was happening the following Monday. I had two days to deck her out in Roman gear, I had to pay £5 for the privilege and I was off to New York.
After a frank discussion regarding timings and the merits of Roman fashion model girl decided that we didn't need to stress and that school uniform was good for her.
So off I went to New York and on Monday Roman day happened. Lucky for all the losers parents like me - they had plenty of spare costumes so that everyone could join in.
The following day I had a text from school asking me to pay my 'voluntary' £5 contribution. Two days later I had another text reminding me that I still hadn't paid my 'voluntary' contribution and then today I got a third text.
Clearly the contribution is not so voluntary after all.
Is this normal primary school stuff? Does this happen at your child's school?
And then don't even get me started on school dinners...... Jamie might have made them trendy but I think that our school is way off the mark.
My children all attend a state church aided school in a beautiful rural village setting. The food is pretty rank in my own personal opinion but there is no way I'm entertaining making 3 packed lunches every day. So school dinners it is. The issue here is that they cost £1.90 a day. So with three in school that's nearly £30 a week and £354 for the term. The children who qualify for free school meals can be counted on one hand and there is a real negativity around the fact that us parents feel that the education authority are over charging us to make up the deficit in schools where free school meals are the norm.
I would love to know how much your school meals cost - and if you think they are worth it.
