Since our daughter moved to a new - more local and smaller - school in the last school year, I have been a bit more involved in what basically is a school or parent association. As I was not quite familiar with what this is all about, I decided to have a little look into it, to gain a better understanding.

I myself went to school in Germany and am not familiar with a parent association. We had parent representatives, that basically met with the teachers on occasions for an information exchange or to represent/support a parent and their child.

Here however, the school association has a somewhat more important role. From what I gathered so far, generally the name of the association actually shows how essential this group is: sou des écoles. I'd loosely translate this to 'school funds'.

This seems to be particularly important for smaller councils with small village schools like ours. Some call it parent association, others a cooperative. My understanding is also that there is a difference between a 'normal' parent association and a 'sou des écoles' [short: SOU]. Whilst both operate under the same legal framework, the SOU - especially for smaller schools - seems to have a more important role: making sure there is enough money available in the pot to support the local school, i.e. buying school materials, help with functions or (part-)funding trips or services; basically a non-profit organisation to support your kid in school. Or, if we use the service-public.gouv.fr website's explanation: 'Its purpose is to represent the interests of families within a school, to participate in the life of the school and to promote the link between parents and the institution.'.

But... why?

Let's base this on our own experiences here in our area. We live rather remote, in a little hamlet with... if I were to guess, about 30 inhabitants? The local council - according to the latest information I could find from 2021 has 288 habitants.

Despite those low numbers, we do have a school in our council. It currently consists of 17 kids from the ages of ~5 to ~10. All in the same class, from different villages and hamlets nearby. But as you can imagine, with loads of these little schools open, the government has a limit on how much funding it can provide and that's where the SOU seems to play a vital role.

The SOU basically is a group of fundraising parents to make sure that their kids get the most out of their days at school. It seems particularly smaller schools struggle with certain costs. Of course, every school, small or big, have their own financial struggles. But logically I suppose smaller schools in more rural areas lack the funding opportunities and sometimes even the numbers make a difference. I.e. a school trip for a small rural school will cost more per pupil than it would for a big school, bigger towns have more competing service providers which does make a difference when quotes are being requested.

What is the money actually used for?

Of course I can't say what other schools need the money for, I can only refer to the things our little school does and again, this is from school to school different and I am absolutely certain that it also makes a difference where this school is based.

• Sports: I think this bit will be directly related to where the school is based. As we are in the French Jura mountains, kids will attend sport sessions that others (i.e. in Bretagne) won't attend. During the winter months our daughter had skiing lessons, alpine and cross-country, the older kids even could have a go at biathlon! *pew pew* We are lucky as the council we do belong to has an indoor swimming pool. So recently the kids started swimming lessons. At one point our school had a climbing wall temporarily stationed in front of the school. And of course, you might have guessed it, the cycling-crazy country... there are cycling lessons as well. 😊Basic equipment costs are of course also covered by the SOU, i.e. for skiing boots.
• Nature Trips: Particularly in summer, there will be quite a few hikes in nature. The kids love this in particular as they get to have a picnic as well. We have a lot of wetlands, lakes and generally a rich biodiversity. Currently our kids have a couple of hikes planned, of which one will be accompanied by a fauna expert, another will be attended by someone from the local fishing association.
• General Cultural Outings: Particularly in our case I'd say that would be museums, workshops, farm visits. Plateau d'Hauteville has a yearly nature festival and school kids usually plan around this event as well. We're quite lucky, that we have several agriculturally focused families around our school and one family in particular lives right next to the school. So they were happy to show the kids their new-born goats, for example. This is something that is of course highly appreciated and I know for a fact, that our daughter loved this.
• Transport: During our last meetings I also noticed that there is quite a steep cost when it comes down to organising these travels. In particularly for the year-end school trip I was informed about a quote for a bus of several thousands of pounds. Generally it seems, that these are the most expensive bits for any event. You will also often find, that other schools pool together to share the cost for travel. I.e. certain nature hikes or even the swimming pool sessions might be put scheduled at the same time so the bus pickup can be shared.
• School Trip: the end of year school trip. Now this one is rather particular, as obviously the school only has limited funding for this. There seems to be a funding pool for all schools in France, that all schools need to apply for, from what I gather that seems to be a first-come-first-serve basis. As not every parent can pay for this trip, the SOU jumps in and covers most of the costs and only asks for a small participation from the parents. And if it's a small school like ours, that has pre-schoolers as well, this can get rather expensive, as not every facility - as we unfortunately just discovered - is able or willing to accomodate pre-school kids. In other schools where the nursery and pre-school kids are separated from the primary school kids, this is not much of an issue. The nursery kids stay and continue as usual and the primary kids go on their trip. In a school like ours that is not possible. We only have one teacher (that obviously joins the kids on the trip) and therefore the pre-schoolers will join on the trip. I haven't seen the details of that quote but I am sure an accomodation for these pre-schoolers comes with an additional fee.
• Yearly Events: and then of course you have the events like Christmas party, Easter Egg Hunt, Summer or End-of-year BBQ.
• Materials: i.e. new toys, arts material, books, additional teaching material and resources, gifts for the kids that will leave at the end of term (i.e. to move on to secondary school).

All these are not required in the curriculum from what I understand, so obviously any parent that is willing to put any sort of effort in to help fundraise for these events, so the kids can get the most out of their school days, is much appreciated.

The Fundraising

Raising money for the school is not easy and requires a lot of commitment by the parents and it seems also having the right connections. 😊

Our school for example has several fundraising events through-out the year. At the start of the year there is the galettes sales (or in English terms: a cake sales). In our case the SOU is able to coordinate the event with the local hunters association and whilst they are selling their hearty dish, the parents then sell the galettes and pizzas. Kids do their bits by walking from house to house (often with their parents) to sell tickets/reservations, so a proper estimate can be done how many items need preparation.

During the summer months, there will be a car boot sales or flea market which - in particular last year - is usually very well attended. Money is made renting a stall space and then of course selling drinks and food through-out the day.

For Christmas they organise a tombola/raffle, again kids and/or parents walk from house to house to sell raffle tickets and the winners will then be drawn at the school's Christmas party, where everyone is invited. This event in particular is also supported by many local business who generously donate items for the raffle, foods, wines, vouchers, etc.

And sometimes schools of course have either temporary or possibly even permanent donation pages. In our case we have a temporary one to help our kids to have an end-of-year school trip. Whilst I haven't seen a permanent donation page yet for a school, legally it would be possible, from what I gathered. And at the end of this page, I will of course post the link to our collection in the hope there will be a few more € to help our kids with their school trip. 😝

Why do they need fundraising?

That is a very good question that I wasn't quite sure about. So, with the help of our beloved Google and the AI CoPilot (I am so glad it also translates!), I tried to find some information, why so much funding is required privately and it turns out that the government and municipal funding is actually rather limited. From my German school days, I was pretty much used to the fact, that the basics are all covered by the local government of education (as every state in Germany has its own) and only basic things like school books are being paid by the parents or out-of-the-ordinary school trips.

So in summary the government basically pays for the teachers, inspectors and the admin staff, provides the national curriculum and educational programs. But then when it comes to the actual school buildings, maintenance and basic equipment, this has to be covered by the local council, including insurances and utilities. Our daughter stays for lunch in school, so I know I am paying additional fees to the council for providing food (yes, that's not included, no free lunch) and ATSEM (or teaching assistant) which is basically childcare. Though as I found out last week, I can get a tax reimbursement for the latter, which I was quite happy to hear.

It seems transport is also covered by the council, but I am not sure how this is organised in our council, as utilities and transport are merged into one governing body and they seem to actually cover several councils, not just ours.

So this means that basically everything else needs to be paid by someone else. When we moved here, we were quite happy to learn that education is free (and our head was spinning already, when we started getting approximate costs for our daughter's schooling in the UK) and it might sound weird, as it is of course not all free. But as much as we liked our (private) nursery in London, so far our daughter has already done more extra-curricular activities here than she did in London. In fact, in London she went out once to a local gym where they setup different stalls for professions (teacher, nurse, doctor, etc.) for the kids to experience what these jobs involve. And she can do that at home already with her doctor playset and her play kitchen. 😝 Yes, it's not quite as free as one would suggest, hope or expected. But generally the struggle to help pay the bills is on a community of parents that care, rather than on every single parent and I do feel the community effort here is much stronger. In London it often felt that everyone is on their own unless there is a complaint to be made and then people started talking with each other...

Of course I am not leaving any opportunity out to ask for a little donation. Not to me, but to our school, for our kids. I am not making any money with this website, I am not getting renumerated in any way. But if you do enjoy my website, please feel free to help our kids with their end-of-year school trip. They are planning a trip to the Auvergne mountains and see the volcanoes there. It is a trip not only to get away from the parents (well, some will have to join the trip) but they will also learn about nature, flora, fauna and of course geographical and geological knowledge will be passed on. The donation will help fund the transport costs and a special hostel that will accept pre-school kids as well, which apparently is hard to find as most hostels focus on primary schools upwards. Thank you !