to think that £80 for a night in Milton Keynes at the Caldecotte Xperience is

[GhostInTheBackOfYourHead]

a heck of a lot of money?

DS8 came out of school Friday afternoon clutching a letter asking for £80 for a residential trip next April to a centre run by the providers named above.No other info regarding the centre or indeed what activities they plan to do .

Initially I thought that £80 for a residential seemed like a great opportunity. It was only when I discovered it was for essentially a 24 hour trip that I was a bit .

I am all for residential trips. My DD16 has been on all manner of trips with schools, Guides and City Farms etc so I'm not being PFB about my son's first trip.

The school has suggested a handy payment plan of £20 a month. Some families, including mine, will have to sacrifice other things to fund the trip and whilst I will figure it out, i do feel that it isn't great value for money.

(I don't wish to dripfeed so I'm just mentioning that the Head is a bit of a bully, since she took over in September 2015, over 80% of staff have left and the Governing Body resigned en masse in June. Ofsted made a surprise visit and highlighted safeguarding breaches, among other things. The school is now very much a one woman show with her sychophants in supporting roles. (This is quite identifying if anyone knows the school so I'm leaving it at this) I'm sharing this info as I think it's relevant. This feels like yet another example of parents being informed that something is happening, tough titties if you don't like it. I get that she's in charge but there's in charge and then there's in charge iyswim.)

Obviously I'm not going to just come on here for a moan, I plan on going to talk to the Head about this. What I wanted to know was:

Does anyone have experience of Caldecotte Xperience (gah, I hate deliberate misspellings)? Not a lot on Google about it.

Also, what is the going rate for Year3/4 trips these days? I'm used to a 5 day Year 5 trip, not a 1 night trip. Am IBU in thinking this is pretty extortionate?

This is probably the worst time to post a thread as it's Strictly etc but hopefully I'll get some replies. Anyway, as you were...

Thank you!

[harderandharder2breathe]

Don't know the place or company but generally I would say £80 for 24 hours is expensive. Don't send DS if you don't want to, he will have many other chances to go on residential trips if he's in scouting as well as with school

[IvyWall]

Did you look at their website ? There is a list of packages and prices here
www.caldecottexperience.org/school-groups/stay-overnight-or-longer.html

My ds went there on an overnight trip a few years back and I can't remember what we paid, but it wasn't a lot. Nothing like £80

[Potcallingkettle]

£80 about standard for an overnight residential. Remember that is 2 days worth of activities and meals plus transport and accommodation overnight.

[Kayakinggirl]

DSD (9 years old) went there last month. She loved it, was the usual team building activities. However not to sure she did the full package as was only there from 6pm Thursday till lunch time Friday. We had to drop her off and pick her up. But was only £25.

[GhostInTheBackOfYourHead]

Thanks for all your replies.

harder yes, there will be others but he would miss out on a bonding experience. That's my worry, really.
ivy how did you get that page? I tried clicking on the web pages and kept getting the dreaded Error 404. Thanks for that.
If i go on the basis that it's about 50 quid then the remaining 30 will presumably go on coach hire and insurance.
pot i don't think it's 2 full days though, more like afternoon to afternoon..i think I'll ask the Head for a breakdown down of how she's spending our £80.
kayaking that's good to hear about your DSD. I couldn't find a lot about the place on the worldwide interweb so that's interesting.
Definitely going to ask Head for more info. Only have a couple of weeks to put down a non returnable deposit to secure a place.

Thanks for your replies.

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

Presumably that's will be transport and insurance then food and activities and room for the night. Sounds fine to me.I'd be delighted if our trips were £80.

[spanieleyes]

Package B, afternoon to afternoon, is £67. The coach will need to take them, return back to base, then collect them and return to school, so 2 return journeys. Round here, that would be a minimum of £300 per journey, shared between ( say) 50 on the coach would be £12. So £80 seems about right!