I recently asked teachers/SNAs on Facebook to give me some examples of what they spend personal money on for their classroom. To say that I was amazed at the array of items listed would be an understatement. Of course I expected to see books, paper, pencils, paint etc. on the list. However I was not expecting to see that teachers were buying items such as tissues, wipes, cleaning cloths, spare underwear and socks for those little emergencies.

So, in order to try and quantify the extent to which teachers are spending their own personal funds on classroom materials, I am embarking on the following survey. I’m asking teachers/SNAs to fill in the form below each time that they spend personal money on items for their classroom. I am asking teachers/SNAs to continue to do this over the next number of weeks so that we can get an overall picture. This is an anonymous survey so no personal details will be revealed. The idea is to come up with a collective sum that we are all spending on financing education.

Please let your colleagues know about this survey and encourage them to record here each time they spend personal money on items for their classroom.