My old College wanted $230 for a Ball ticket??? Tell ’em they’re dreamin!
A $230 school ball ticket in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis? For many parents, that’s not a celebration — it’s a financial stretch too far.
Ōrewa College slashes $230 school ball ticket prices after parent backlash
An Auckland college has slashed the price of tickets for its school ball this year after a backlash from parents over costs “escalating out of control”.
Why school ball costs are becoming unaffordable
Parents at Ōrewa College hit out online at the “obscene” $230 price tag to send their teens to this year’s ball, which is being held at the city’s new $1 billion New Zealand International Convention Centre.
One mother with twins said she faced a nearly $500 bill for the event that she couldn’t afford.
Ōrewa College principal Wiri Warriner responded yesterday in a message to parents saying his team had “carefully” reviewed the event and been able to reduce the ticket price by 15% to $195.
He said the Ball Committee had “spent considerable time working through options to ensure we could bring the cost down while still maintaining the key elements of the event, whilst still being held at the NZ International Convention Centre”.
Are schools losing touch with what families can afford?
Ōrewa College is my old College and when I heard they were demanding $230 for the bloody ball ticket I literally choked on my coffee.
What the bloody hell were they getting for that? Half a gram of coke and a lap dance?
Jesus wept, these bloody schools these days seem to think we parents are made of money!
Every single email you get from the school is demanding more money and more money and then the teachers go on stop work meetings at the drop of a hat (or if there is a storm brewing) and you are left thinking, ‘wait, isn’t the deal that we all work to generate the tax that pays your wages and you look after the kids so I can work’?
Apparently not.
$230 for the ball ticket and then the poor bastards have to travel all the way from Ōrewa into the CBD to go to the bloody “NZ International Convention Centre”?
The petrol there and back will be almost as much as the ball ticket!
The schools these days just seem to believe Parents have some magic money tree to pay whatever crazy prices they think they can get away with.
It’s like a charter school but more expensive and less smug!
My old College wanted $230 for a Ball ticket?!? Tell ’em they’re dreamin!
Strewth Martyn, you hit the nail on the head! I’m an old boy from Orewa College too, and reading about those $230 tickets honestly made me want to chuck a u-ey right then and there. It’s absolute madness how these schools think we’re all made of gold. Between the uniform costs and these “prestige” balls at the Convention Centre, it feels like a constant shakedown. I was actually looking for some side ways to cover these sorts of crazy costs for my niece’s formal and stumbled onto some info about international betting platforms and their security—do you reckon these schools are getting kickbacks from the venues now, or is it just pure greed? Also, has anyone actually checked if those “fast payment” claims like the ones mentioned at https://guiadepixbetbrasil.com are even legit for us here, or is it just another way for parents to lose more cash while trying to keep up with these school demands?
Taxpayer teat teachers called out on NZs most left wing blog. Dont they have a school hall?
Cut costs, reduce absenteeism. XD
I went there too (1988-1992)… tickets didn’t break the bank back then although the class of ‘92 broke just about everything at the Convention centre!