Donating classroom supplies

[zach 234]

2 hours ago, alchresearch said:

You've hit the nail on the head there.  Paper waste in schools is absolutely shocking.  I'd see kids print their work, find a mistake, so just print it again, instead of proof reading on screen.

 

Gluesticks wasted because nobody could be bothered to put the lids back on them were a common one, I recall.

 

Expensive projector remotes lost and they just expected a new one with no consequence to themselves.

And let's not forget one of my pet hates during my time working in education...

 

Projectors and the refusal to turn them off. Not only are they high power users but the lamps are very expensive and have an 'hours' life span. The excuse was "I don't have time" What, 20 seconds a few times a day?

 

Printing is a massive expense in schools and in most cases, no regard for the price of a toner. Trust me when I say, toner cost run into the £1000's each year. The printer is the cheap bit!

 

As I said previous, school budgets can be a joke. But if you are a teacher, try and think how many pencils and glue sticks etc you could buy, by simply cutting down the few outgoings mentioned. Obviously the savings would have to be passed on to teachers and not used for the heads expensive coffee budget!

[feargal 21]

There seems to be a refusal at my kids school to use both sides of a piece of paper.  When I asked the teachers, I was told that they like to use only one side in case they want to put that piece of work in a display!  🙄

 

My friend regularly buys bulk packs of exercise books for her kids to use at school, as they are "rationed" .  A couple of quid from amazon, but when the school buys them from their official suppliers, they cost several times as much. 

[bassett one 449]

its the same with all council/that type of organisations they pay top price for everything from books to playground equipment ect,but parents and others pay taxs and there is no way the parents should pay for basics,the money raised should go on extras,day trips ,fun days ect.

[Dozer 13]

All interesting, but back to my original question, is there any organised way for me to donate to classroom supplies for local teachers?

[Annie Bynnol 612]

On 09/05/2019 at 12:05, zach said:

And let's not forget one of my pet hates during my time working in education...

 

Projectors and the refusal to turn them off. Not only are they high power users but the lamps are very expensive and have an 'hours' life span. The excuse was "I don't have time" What, 20 seconds a few times a day?

 

Printing is a massive expense in schools and in most cases, no regard for the price of a toner. Trust me when I say, toner cost run into the £1000's each year. The printer is the cheap bit!

 

As I said previous, school budgets can be a joke. But if you are a teacher, try and think how many pencils and glue sticks etc you could buy, by simply cutting down the few outgoings mentioned. Obviously the savings would have to be passed on to teachers and not used for the heads expensive coffee budget!

Schools policy often require the projector, computer and whiteboard software to be started up and left on throughout the school day.

Apart from the life shortening(?)  effect of constantly switching on and off  the projector lamp*, there are two issues:

1 The classroom must be ready to use and set up before the children enter the class room/lab/workshop/hall so that they are straight away on their first task/starter, screens will be in use through out the lesson for educational reasons. 

2 Modern schools use the computer, internet and intranet for storage, online software, storage administrative tasks such as updates, registers, messaging, etc.

'Signing in' can take ages if a large number of devices and their software are suddenly switched, making the whiteboard/interactive screens slow to start.

 

If printing is still used for information, starters and/or worksheets then your HoD should be asking the question "Why? 

*Modern equipment has a variety of dimmers, standby modes, timers etc. to cut down energy savers to reduce costs and lamp stress. 

There has also been a big increase in lampless screens.

 

On 09/05/2019 at 14:00, bassett one said:

its the same with all council/that type of organisations they pay top price for everything from books to playground equipment ect,but parents and others pay taxs and there is no way the parents should pay for basics,the money raised should go on extras,day trips ,fun days ect.

Schools are no longer comparable with " with all council/that type of organisations".

Rest assured that school budgets, tenders and contracts are audited by professionals whose job is to maximise the profit of the company.

[zach 234]

16 hours ago, Annie Bynnol said:

Schools policy often require the projector, computer and whiteboard software to be started up and left on throughout the school day.

Apart from the life shortening(?)  effect of constantly switching on and off  the projector lamp*, there are two issues:

1 The classroom must be ready to use and set up before the children enter the class room/lab/workshop/hall so that they are straight away on their first task/starter, screens will be in use through out the lesson for educational reasons. 

2 Modern schools use the computer, internet and intranet for storage, online software, storage administrative tasks such as updates, registers, messaging, etc.

'Signing in' can take ages if a large number of devices and their software are suddenly switched, making the whiteboard/interactive screens slow to start.

 

If printing is still used for information, starters and/or worksheets then your HoD should be asking the question "Why? 

*Modern equipment has a variety of dimmers, standby modes, timers etc. to cut down energy savers to reduce costs and lamp stress. 

There has also been a big increase in lampless screens.

 

Schools are no longer comparable with " with all council/that type of organisations".

Rest assured that school budgets, tenders and contracts are audited by professionals whose job is to maximise the profit of the company.

That can be the case in some schools. As for not turning them off, that is a prime example of SLT (in most cases) bowing to the wishes of teachers and not listening to the right people. Three times a day isn't classed as "constant"

 

I agree that a whiteboard/projector probably isn't used much any more. It was a few years since I last installed and we were phasing them out. I always tried to listen to teaching staff and they decided that a large LED interactive display on wheels was more practical. When funds allowed, that's what they got.

 

The main causes of classes not starting on time I used to see was mainly down to poor organisation, all teachers decided to do all their days printing first thing, this could cause a long wait at times. The other was them forgetting passwords. If you know about school software, you'll know that it must be kept secure. Signing in shouldn't slow your system down. Might be worth having a word with the techs. If the network is built properly and the servers are up to the job, you should hardly notice it. Some VLEs were dire a few years ago. They were very slow, I can only hope things have improved on that front.

16 hours ago, Annie Bynnol said:

Schools are no longer comparable with " with all council/that type of organisations".

Rest assured that school budgets, tenders and contracts are audited by professionals whose job is to maximise the profit of the company.

"Maximise profit of the company" Would the company mean the academy/council running the school? As I said, profit and education isn't a good mix (IMO)

Schools usually do pay far too much for basic things for a couple of reasons. The first is because it's easy, and second, because only certain suppliers are on the system. Very rarely do budget holders look for better or cheaper suppliers, they go for the easy route and stick with the usual. As for your comment "audited by professionals" some are good at their job, others, IMO, couldn't be trusted with the tea money, let alone a multi million Pound budget! The easiest job in the world is spending other peoples money, looking after other peoples money takes work.

 

As I said, it's a few years ago that I last worked in education but I doubt things have changed that much when it comes down to suppliers etc. 

 

On 09/05/2019 at 14:11, Dozer said:

All interesting, but back to my original question, is there any organised way for me to donate to classroom supplies for local teachers?

I don't know of any. It might be worth asking your local schools.

[Annie Bynnol 612]

 

 

There was a time when the budget of each was school was determined by the LEA and any big expenditure, lease, contracts was done by them.

A new era bought in a Government policy that devolved budget responsibilities to the Governors and Head teachers.

The policy then was to allow further independence to successful schools and they became Academies, funded and run as individual establishments.

Further policy change has resulted in most schools now belong to a local chain eg  Tapton or a national chain, some independents still exist but are being gradually forced to become Academies within a chain or Trust. Most are charities who  operate through a  commercial arm.

Ofsted investigate the use of money in each school and the NAO scrutinise the finances of the Trusts.

The Trust or Operating company will enter into a tender and supply and leasing and maintenance contacts. They employ professionals to do this.

HoDs budgets are tiny and limited to restocking, books, software, stationery, etc

Teachers are assessed internally and externally on their use of IT in teaching and management etc. to the point that somebody in Loughborough will decide on the when you can turn on your computers, IWB etc. All software is licensed to the school and a teacher must show they are using the systems correctly. This means not using whiteboards and pens. Printing worksheets etc. is often seen as bad practice.

 

 

[willman 10]

On 08/05/2019 at 20:17, Dozer said:

The few teachers I know in the UK all have to buy stationery for their students, and art supplies, out of their own salary. I agree that it's sad and ought not be case, but would like to help if I can.

Teachers have to do no such thing - they choose to do so. Which is an admirable attitude but not one that is enforceable.

 

I often donate a few hundred pens or pencils every year to my daughter to give out throughout the year to her pupils. Occasionally i get a hundred or so promotional rulers and do the same thing. They are of more value in most cases to pupils than some corporate bod who may or may not buy anything from me.

Prior to this i used to take them to my Grandsons nursery for the pre schoolers to use and abuse.

(My daughters school have just started charging pupils for pens instead of spending the entire reading book budget for English on giving free pens to pupils who don't bring one to school.)