Cost of trips at secondary school

And had a compulsory team building multi activity centre day trip for £40

Forgot to say, choir trip was 24 children, France 40 and water sports is about 30, from a school with 3 cohorts of 150.

Also have a maths challenge trip to London, cost is £5 for the train fare.

DS started secondary in September, a new Catholic school, currently 3 cohorts of children. He has been offered:

Trip to France (Disneyland and markets) 2 nights, 3 days £200
Water sports trip next summer £600 for 9 days
Choir trip to Czech festival of spiritual music £290 for 5 days.

He went on the choir trip, used birthday and Christmas money £130 towards it, plus one grandparent gave him an extra £50 as she thought it was a wonderful opportunity, plus he was prepared to use his money to help fund it.

The trip included flights, coach to/from airport each end, all meals, we had to provide spending money to a max of £25

He had already had 2 residential trips at primary (2 nights in year 4 and 4 nights in year 6).

DD1 has her first residential in April £200, seems a lot for 2 nights

Crikey- bloody expensive for most. Bang goes your family holiday or, in our case getting our house sorted out before it crumbles away!
Significant money.....

These trips usually have about 30 places. In a year group of 200+ it isn't noticeable who doesn't go.

My DDs school do:

Year 7 - Spanish water sports trip for a week (£800)
Year 8 - ski-ing trip to France (£1,000)
Year 9 - no big trip
Year 10 - South africa for 12 days (£1,750)

Lots of other sports team weekends/few days away and a few things relating to specific subjects.

Thanks GinandJag re pp, which was me anyway!!

Pp = previous poster.

What do you mean by 'lowest common demominator'?
PP= Pupil Premium?
Trips can be more inclusive if a school is willing and imaginative.

If you are going lowest common denominator, pp, then there would n ear be any trips ever. Also not ideal.

Let's live in the real world.

Mmm- some children are never going to afford to go. Perhaps the schools hoping they will go else where to school?
Sorry- expensive, non inclusive, unaffordable trips to many make me cross....

I agree with most - these trips are 'offered'. The majority of pupils don't go on them, so there is no issues about being 'left behind'. If your child turns out to be a budding linguist, then you might decide that the exchange ones would be beneficial, or, if the school offer something your dc want to go on, and it's something they'd never get to go on with the family, and you can afford it as a 'one off' then apply for that one, but don't worry about them not going on most - that's very normal.
Certainly don't let this affect your choice of school.

My kids have all had one expensive, but super-curricular, trip 3x Iceland and one to Russia, and one to go.

The most expensive was Russia (£1200) but Iceland remarkably value at c£700 for 5/6 days.

The reason we agreed to these trips was that we could never afford them as a family.

I think some schools do expensive trips to put off less well off pupils applying.
Worked for us. Put preference for school that does, for example, geography field trip in Norfolk rather than 1000 quid one in Iceland.
Other reasons too.....

None of those seem essential to the curriculum. Geography do need to do a field trip, ours do a day in the lakes. Ski trips particularly annoy me, not at all essential, though much cheaper than a family trip would be. If you like the school otherwise I wouldn't let sway you.

I signed DS up for 3 trips

He got in for 1 of them.

There aren't many trips where "everyone" goes.

DS is now in Y13 - so the trips are all behind him.

But he didn't go on every trip offered.

I think he went on two abroad - a short week to northern France (history) and a week in Iceland (geography). He loved both of those - and in particular Iceland - as it was very interesting, and was unlikely to be taken there by me (I prefer warmer holidays )

He didn't even bring home the letters about the ski-ing - as not interested, and another couple that he just didn't fancy. Plus we had discussed that there was a limit of sorts and that he wouldn't be able to do them all.

I think the main important trip was the 3 day residential at the start of Y7. This wasn't very pricey - and was strongly encouraged by school to attend. The kids at DS' school were from a very wide catchment area (selective grammar) so very few actually knew anyone else onthe first day. This trip was to get them all to bond.

Honestly, it's really, really not an issue.

Secondary school trips tend to have something like 20-30 places and are maybe open to up to three year groups at once. That could be 600 kids. Nobody cares who does or doesn't get one of the few places there are.

There might be one semi-compulsory team-building type trip in yr 7 or 8 but they tend to be cheap and local ish so much more affordable and, even then, there will be some kids who still don't go and, hopefully, help for those who want to go and can't.

The fact that they have many trips makes it much easier if you can't afford them I think. You won't get all the kids going on any one trip so it is less noticeable and no big deal not to go on any particular trip. If the sum total is that the DC don't really go on any trips (other than the compulsory / core curriculum ones which will I suspect be few and affordable) it will be far less of a big deal than in a school with just one big fun expenive trip every year or two. In the second scenario DC are likely to feel left out and maybe ostracised for not going. That's my experience with DS who has been at both types of school.

I don't think you should let it interfere with your decision about whether to send your DC there anyway. It is quite a small issue in the scheme of things given how many years your DC will be spending in the place.

I've told both my DC that they get one big trip funded by me but it must be around £500-£600 mark. Ds has opted to wait till S4 for the battlefields trip but dd is blowing it on a ridiculously expensive trip to London - we used to live near London and she's done all the things on the itinerary - eg Harry Potter world. Any other big trips they need to save for! I will pay for day trips and educational ones. Am a single parent and just can't afford it. Most of their friends are the same but one of my friends lets her DC choose 1 trip a year and it's usually skiing although her did is going to Morocco this year. Their budget their choice, but most children don't do that many.

My kids' school runs lots of trips.

They go on some, they don't go on others. It's fine OP, please don't stress about it.

IME it's not like primary where everyone goes. In fact everyone usually can't go (in terms of space available).

DS2 came home with a letter about a trip to ski in USA a year ago (no discernible educational value btw) - it cost £1300. Errr no. Most kids won't be able to afford that and won't go. They will just have normal lessons with some students missing or classes are sometimes collapsed together and do more general work. That's what happens at the school where I work too.

FWIW all my 3 went on the year 7/8 language trip as I am a big fan of that; DD does music and drama GCSEs and has been on a couple of inexpensive trips to see plays/concerts for those.

OP I know the school you are talking about. Some of those trips are only for the sixth form and the USA ski trip doesn't take place every year. All pupils do not go on all the trips. The popular trips are the language ones eg the year 7 trip to France. There were still pupils who didn't go and continued on normally at school.

Whoever said help is only available to families on FSMs is wrong, certainly in this county. Support is available for any family on a low income. Basically if you're getting tax credits, it's worth asking. When my business was hit like a ton of bricks by the recession I asked for and received help with uniform, the exchange trips to France and Germany, and a couple of other trips too. I did think it would be taking the piss to ask for help with the Watersports/Skiing type trips though, thankfully none of them were that bothered. Oh, and the fund also paid the registration fees etc for Duke of Edinburgh.

Make up your mind in advance which trips you would never pay for, which you might pay for some yrs not others, and which you can always cough up for. DD is banned from skiing & NYCity, and only got to go on one of the expensive London trips. I'd love her to go Iceland if I could wrestle a parent-helper place too but no interest, boohoo.