Residential trip COST!!!

Oh, and as a Mum to twins please consider if you can afford to offer some sort of discount to parents of multiples!

My DD had a junior school residential this year, PGL-type place £350 for Mon-Fri which I thought was expensive - most of the school go but there were quite a few that didn't this year, more than usual. Not sure why. I did whine about the price tbh but my DD enjoyed it!

I think that's fine. As a parent I understand that I have to make sacrifices elsewhere to avoid these residentials, but it is totally worth it. These are experiences that parents simply can't provide.

My only advice would be to let parents know as early as possible and offer a payment plan online.

That seems about right for what I've paid on school trips

You may need to move the week you go:
less than £100 for 3 days 2 nights off peak

I think that sort of cost is ok for a residential trip outside of term time for a limited number of students (like ski trips) but definitely not for a term time trip that the majority of a year group will expect to go on and the whole year group will be invited to go on. How divisive. It will be clear that ones not going can’t afford it, not because numbers are limited or because it’s in the holidays.

If you can self cater (some activity centres eg Rock UK will allow it) it gets the cost right down but then the school staff or kids will have to cook.
If it's the residential elements rather than the 'activities' that you want, there are lots of places: Scout and Guide centres, Youth hostels etc that you can hire and then make your own programme of activities. Again, self catering but for Y7 or 8 they can do half of it themselves (with supervision).
Travel costs a lot, insurance costs a lot, staff costs a lot. Make it local and hire in outside activities rather than going to a distant activity centre, self cater.
It's more work for you, but that is what the additional cost at PGL covers.

How many kids in the group?

South Africa, year 10 ..... £2,000!!!

My secondary school dd is going to France with her school for the same amount of time for less than that so I think it is expensive.

I think it depends no on whether this is too much in general, but whether it's too much for the parents of your students. And also what proportion of the year group you are planning to take (if less than 50% then not going is more of a valid choice).
I (for example) think Center Parcs is ridiculously expensive, but many posters on MN happily pay out large sums of money for somewhere to sleep plus access to a swimming pool. Those sorts of parents will likely not balk at £400+ . If your parents are more wondering how they will feed their DC over the summer, then you have a different equation to do.

I did admin for a school and asked for a breakdown once when organising a trip and one of the biggest chunks of money seemed to cover insurances.

It is a lot of money but in my experience all providers, PGL, Kingswood, Etc etc all seemed to be around the same price although feedback was better from Kingswood than PGL for quality of accommodation and activities.

It also used to make me cringe when it said on letters "the voluntary cost of the trip is"£xxxx

What that meant was if you can't afford it your child can't go. The PTA at the school subsidised the same amount for every child one the trip regardless of household income to try to be fair. It was just embarrassing for them coming to the office and admin staff having to explain that, I never did work out why they just didn't write "the cost of the trip is £xxx per child, please reply on the slip enclosing cheque or bacs transfer details to the School office by xxx date" wouldn't that just make more sense!!!!!!!! And saved us and the parents feeling awkward.

I do feel for kids who's parents can't afford these trips tho - it must be awful for their friends going and coming back going on about it.

My daughter is going on a residential trip in October (she'll be Yr7) and it's £200 for Mon/Fri. I was cursing at another £200 because they've been on 5 residential trips in the last 3 years but from the sounds of it we have a deal!

Over £400 would be a decline from us. I'd rather put the money towards a family holiday (especially as we spent a week in Devon during Easter for less).

Just got Monday to Wednesday. sorted. FWIW I think the price is reasonable - it;s about what I spent on the year 6 trip several years ago.

How many kids would you be expecting to take and what will the rest of Y7/8 be doing?

Could you not do a day trip involving similar activities but much lower cost and available to the whole year group?

Is this primary or secondary?
As this is 'trips week', are there cheaper alternatives available?

My 15 year old went on a similar length trip to Belgium and the WW1 battlefields. Similar cost. More than happy to pay it, school implemented a payment plan with it split into chunks of £50 and we had a year's notice.

Teacher and guide leader here.

It’s a lot of money, but it is what it costs and some parents will pay it. Some will refuse on grounds of cost, some happily, some with great regret.

I think as long as you offer a sensible (and long) payment schedule it’s reasonable to offer it as an option. Is it part of activities week? Will there be other (cheaper) options for kids as well?

For reference my 7 day guide camp is costing the girls £165 plus transport this year. That’s obviously much better ‘value’ for parents but that’s the difference when you are prepared to sleep in a tent and none of the adults involved are drawing a salary.

So as you are the teacher:

Yes it is £415. It is pricey. Is it good value for money though?
How many are you offering the trip to out of the year?
Even if good value for money, is it likely to be affordable by the school's demographic?
Are there any subsidies available for pupils who would really benefit but who can't afford it?

If it is too much, can you go at a cheaper time of year? Our primary year 5s did this kind of trip in March rather than say end of summer term as it was much cheaper then. They still had fun and got a lot out of it.

I didn't pay for my dc to go to the Yr8 PGL trip, because I thought the cost was phenomenal. My dc have been through Scouts, so had done most of the activities at one point or another, and would normally do a weekend for about £40, so there was no logic to us paying out £450 odd for 4 days (less time, once you factored in travel) at PGL.

The issue sometimes arises because the school give the dcs the impression everyone must go, and then individual dc get upset when their families can't afford it.

5 days activities, 4 nights accommodation and food.
A day at legoland - wander round and go on some mechanical rides - costs £47. Plus your travel costs to get there, plus car parking plus food.

On a PGL trip they will presumably do loads of activities which are in themselves expensive to run. Kayaking, abseiling or whatever. Staffing the coach trip, staffing the activities. (A session at Go Ape costs £33, for example.), staffing the accommodation (a full board night in a youth hostel is £31, for comparison).

So:
Coach trip and travel while away - say £50 pp
8 activities (1 on Mon and Fri, 2 each on Tue, Wed, Thu) x £30 = £240
4 nights accommodation and food = £120
Which takes you to £410 before you cover Teacher supervision, insurance, evening entertainments, equipment hire if they are loaning the kids boots, cagoules, rucksacs etc, and any other overheads and expenses.

I'm not saying it isn't a lot of money, but I don't think it's a rip off.