Supporting the cost of your child(ren)’s education in 2020
Kia ora e te whānau
In New Zealand we are told we have a ‘free education system’. Whilst, in theory, that sounds amazing, in reality, schools rely significantly on families’ contributions to enable them to offer a rich and broad curriculum to students.We acknowledge these contributions have an impact on your family’s finances and really appreciate your help in funding your children’s education. In the past, we have asked you for a $60 annual donation per student at the beginning of the year, plus a contribution each time we organised activities, plus your contribution to the costs of running overnight camps. Activities include the costs of swimming, visiting speakers to the school, trips, transport for school cultural and school sports events, some software licences, and so on.
This year, the Board of Trustees have decided to try a different approach. We are going to ask you for a flat donation of $150 per child, for all trips and activities. This approach is based on the new government scheme (2019) for Decile 1 to 7 schools which, as a Decile 8 school, we are not eligible to receive because the government believes that Decile 8-10 communities will receive this funding and more from their whānau and community.
The only other separate request we’ll be asking you (Y5-8 whānau) for, will be for overnight camps (Y5/6 every second year, and Y7/8 annually) which are impossible to fund from the $150 request and still offer all of the other rich curriculum options.
For most families, the amount we ask per year will be close to the same, or less than it was last year. The big difference will be that we will not be asking you contributions frequently during the year, activity by activity, and you will be able to budget your family’s school costs from the start of the year. It will also make it simpler for our staff to budget and account for funds coming in as well, and our administrative costs will also be significantly reduced, resulting in more savings.
You can pay in full, in instalments, or set up a regular automatic payment which would need to be:
- weekly $3 per child = $156 /yr ($6 per Y5-8 child if you want to pay for most of camp across the year
- fortnightly $5.75 per child = $149.50 /yr ($10-$12 per Y5-8 child if you want to pay for most of camp across the year)
- monthly $12.50 per child = $150 /yr ($25 per Y5-8 child if you want to pay for most of camp across the year)
12-3148-0131641-00 into your internet banking and use your child’s name as the reference.
Please set up a separate payment for each child.
As the costs of camps are not known until closer to the time, budgeting for $150 per camp is a good guide. More detailed cost information will be sent out closer to the time.
Please note that uniform, stationery, the take-home component of Technology (South intermediate charge), and optional activities such as mini ball, music lessons, etc have always been, and will still be, chargeable (goods and services) and need to be paid in full before the activity takes place.
You can claim your school donation from IRD as part of the 33.3% tax credit each financial year, making the real cost of the donation only $100 per child if you claim this back. These donations can be claimed for up to 3 years previous years, so please contact Sandra Rauch by emailing accounts@beckenham.school.nz if you would like a tax receipt for previous years.
Thank you all for continuing to support the education of our tamariki.
Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto Board of Trustees