I dont think that they are wrong in offering rewards for those that help out but their mistake was mentioning those that ONLY attend and dont help. There was no reason at all to mention them.

I have no problem with parents that help being rewarded.

Ridiculous. If you work full time and can’t help out then, sucks for you but, you aren’t able to get free stuff. Why shouldn’t people be shown appreciation for helping out? People getting upset by this need to take a step back. If you are able to volunteer and choose to do so, you might get a few little perks. If you can’t volunteer, then you don’t have access to those perks. Welcome to the real world.

I can understand how desperate the school would have been to get regular volunteers. When my kids were at school, things were simply stopped due to lack of volunteers. So a reward system is a good idea for those parents that can, but not fair to those who just can’t

That’s an awesome idea, for those stay at home parents. But what about those who work full time. Not sure it’s an entirely fair system

For some families it is very hard to gain time to volunteer with more families requiring a dual income.

It’s sad you need to offer incentives to get volunteers. Maybe a morning or afternoon tea so volunteers can me as one group would be a better idea.

I think it is a fantastic idea, as a mum who is able to volunteer at my children school on a regular basis….often I am there more then at home doing what I should be doing.
I would love to receive acknowledgment for what I do to help with my children schooling, I know some parents work full time and can not help out, but at school we also do BBQ’s, discos and other things on weekend that those parents can help at if THEY wanted too. But in fortunately seems to be the same parents so some acknowledgment for those parents would go along way.

If we didn’t work full time the school fees wouldn’t get paid! Don’t most parents work these days? If I was a “kept woman” I’d give lots of my time to volunteer. I feel guilty for not being able to offer my help – it’s wrong that working parents are made to feel this way.

I actually really like this idea and think more schools should think about things like this. It’s just a bit too much freebies. I’m a mum and teachers aide at my kids school and I see how hard it is when no parents help.

It is hard to get volunteers and I think its great to reward those who do! People shouldn’t be so precious about it.

Well yes, they’ve gone about it the wrong way. But, I also absolutely understand the struggle of trying to get any help with school activities. We’re now in a culture of parents/families thinking the school should do everything for them andnothing in return. I’ve been there and strugled with what needs to be done vs what help we have and basically you end up burnt out.

i dont agree with this as you will attract the wrong type of volunteer. the ones who only do something if it benefits them or their child – not for the benefit of the school and children. You want people who are hard working and who can commit and want to do a variety of jobs for helping others not for selfish reasons. I think this will create a very bad culture in the school.

Well our primary school isn’t like that. I would volunteer to help out all the time but when it came to excursions I seemed to never get picked and it was others, who never helped out who got chosen! Would frustrate the hell out of me.

Schools still cater for this idea that Mum’s are at home and available ALL the time. I’m always called or notified for anything at the school despite my husband being the contact there (he has a more flexible job than me). And again, work doesn’t operate around a 9-3pm schedule. I don’t dispute the idea of families who contribute getting something extra but it needs to be done in an equitable way. Let’s be honest, we all know there are families who put in a lot of time and effort at the school and some who do bugger all.

I suppose it’s good incentive but I mean I have to work to feed our family so…it’s all about balance I suppose

The way they did this was not pretty, but their apologies sound sincere and their motivation doesn’t sound wrong to me.

As if it doesn’t happen anyway.

Understand the motivation behind it, but still think it’s the wrong way to go about it.

That’s one way to get families involved but it doesn’t take into consideration working parents.