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This U.K. school planned to offer incentives to parents who volunteer more of their time.

Lane Primary School in Greater Manchester, sent home a letter to parents about implementing a new structure to the PTA and perks for parents who volunteer more of their time.

The letter outlines the list of perks, such as VIP seats and free drinks at assemblies, free school photos, and free tickets to school events.

The school also proposed the use of a new four-tiered system to divide the PTA.

Tier 1 members would get the best perks, while Tier 4 are families who simply attend school events and got nothing.

The list was soon withdrawn though, as it faced backlash from parents who were unimpressed by its ignorance to single or working parents.

“I feel for the parents who work and cannot take time off to be part of the PTA, who don’t have holidays or free evenings,” one mum tells Metro UK.”

“It’s not fair on single parents, or those who have children they can’t leave in the evening. It’s penalizing people.”

The school has since apologized, and stated that the notice was simply meant to bring in more volunteers and show appreciation for those that helped.

Samantha Foord, head teacher at Heyes Lane, wrote: ‘I am writing to you to respond to the feedback from parents and carers regarding the flyer sent out yesterday about our PTA recruitment drive.

‘I would like to wholeheartedly apologise for any offence caused and to assure you that following your feedback, we will not be introducing this idea.

‘The last thing I wanted to happen is to upset or offend any part of our wonderful school community.

‘The motivation behind the flyer was simply to drum up more volunteers and I thought the incentives were a way for the school to show its appreciation for parents and carers who volunteer to help.’

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  • 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.

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  • I have no problem with parents that help being rewarded.

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  • 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.

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  • 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

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  • 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

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

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

    Reply

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