Our secondaries have been much better about this than primary. One is private, and they ask for very little extra. And negotiate very good prices for their uniforms and kit, and use the same sports kit across a variety of sports. Art supplies are bought in bulk and we pay a very reasonable amount for an art pack. Aside from the big trips, most of their days out have been hikes or volunteering in the local community.
The other is state and by the time you add up all the extra costs, crested kit for hockey, football, pe, and a hefty “voluntary” contribution, there’s very little in the difference. But they are, at least, considerate in their timing.
It helps that there are payment apps now where you can see all the various activities across different year groups. I think schools forget that even though they know they always collect the deposit for a trip at a certain time of year, for most parents it’s their first time.
Things like Christmas jumper days where you’re expected to fork out a contribution and rustle up a jumper annoy me most. But our primaries also had red day, green day and blue day ffs. And mad hair day, mad socks day, non uniform, fancy dress, cake sales, book fair, Christmas fair, summer fair, sponsored walk, small change collection, kris kringle and a variety of school trips that each entailed a bus ride, entrance fee, and pocket money. They changed the PE uniform twice in my time there.