£800 'hidden cost' of sending a child to a state school - your experiences?

If you live more than a certain distance from the school you get free transport to and from school , regardless of income .

Not any more see the Oxfordshire cases
not if you live "out of catchment"
not if your kids are in 6th form college

If you are on FSM here you get a clothing grant for school uniform and you don't pay for school trips or music tuition

Maybe in your school but not in the ones in this county

If you are on FSM here you get a clothing grant for school uniform and you don't pay for school trips or music tuition .

If you live more than a certain distance from the school you get free transport to and from school , regardless of income .

Bus fare £200 per term per child
Lunch £250 per term per child
Uniform £100 per year per child (incl shoes)
Sports kit £100 per year per child (incl footwear)
Day trips £100 per year per child (curriculum linked)

Music tuition £300 per year per child (optional, just)
Residential trips £500 per year per child (optional)

it's true ds hasn't yet been to a school with a uniform but I simply don't believe that having two sets of clothes (three sets if you count PE) costs less. I do mend and patch ds's clothes a fair bit, especially as I buy almost all of them second hand so they come with a bit of wear already, but for most of them he grows out of them before they wear out. He also doesn't need school shoes, he can just wear trainers for home/school/PE, so that's less cost as well IMO.

I find it amazing that we will be able to send dd to a top specialist boarding school for less than it would cost to send her to the local secondary.
Even the uniform is a fraction of the cost, most trips are funded by the school and there are no extra curricular activities to fund as these are the education.
Having said that some state schools are more expensive than others with the extras you are expected to pay for.
You don't have to go on the expensive residential if you don't want to and ime children aren't singled out for not contributing to the many charity none school uniform days.
I know you have to feed and dress them anyway, but having been H.ed for the past 3 years, we found we saved a lot as can do cheaper lunches and no uniform required.
Hanging around at home and generally out and about Primani is cheap and cheerful and no worries for playing and ruining expensive clothes.

School u inform does lessen the amount of other clothes you need. Children who wear uniform 9-3, 39 weeks a year surely have less wear and tear on their usual clothes than children that don't need uniform!?

I wouldn't count school uniform as part of normal clothing. It's always in addition to that. You don't actually need less clothing because they're in school, because they're on holiday so often that you always need a full week's worth of normal clothes. And you can never get any non-school wear out of the uniform.

So uniform is always a purely going to school expense. Food not so much.

No way, but i would not count feeding and clothing them as you would need to do that anyway.
Be thankful they are getting an education!

I reckon on £80 per term not inc uniform, dinners or books/text books.

I don't know why they did the whole school, I wonder how many bought it? So we had DS1 on his own, DS1's tutor Group, and the whole school.

Except we didn't because I bought none of them.

I weakened with DS2 as his first year at Secondary, got the pack i didn't want to get the ones I did. i didn't get keyrings/mugs/bookmarks mind.

£800? And the rest! My children are at a Catholic primary and they are constantly asking us for dosh.

whole school!!
Why?
:)
The packs aren't too bad here...I can usually get what I need for £18. It it's £18 I don't really want to spend...

My issue with them Badvoc is the packs. I would only ever want two desk size ones. One for us to bung in the loft and one for my parents. But no, you can't because they are 'Add Ons' and you need to buy a ££££ pack to get the two desk ones.

At DS1's school we even got offered a whole school one. That's over 1000 children.

I wish I could buy I have sets of GPS that expect them :(

I can quite believe that amount. I have two at Secondary. I don't begrudge any of it either.

I avoid buying school photos though. They are such a swizz.

Tunip, it is a faith school in a rather mc area, many parents cdm easily afford this, which makes it harder for those who can't. The school is actively selling the clubs - I should think They take a cut, like they do from sales of photos and visiting book fairs etc, like the pta take a cut from uniform sales. The second hand uniform sales also benefit the pta.

However, I guess if DDs didn't wear uniform they'd want another pair of jeans, another hoodie and smarter summer stuff than they normally wear. But for Y7's who can still get into H&M children's sizes, that wouldn't cost anywhere near what uniform does.

I've just remembered, I worked out DD2's starting secondary uniform bill.
For a whole year, with summer polo shirts and PE kit it came in at about £250. Very ordinary state school, no blazers.

Quint, is that a state school?
I am utterly gobsmacked. How come my dcs' schools manage to do all this so much more cheaply?

To some extent though, I think parents have to start saying no. Schools that are charging £50-60 for lunchtime activities are simply taking the piss, given that my dcs' previous and current school manages to provide an excellent range of activities for free. And as for the pressure to buy mugs, photos, Christmas cards etc, just don't. I've never bought this stuff other than the occasional photo.

Sixth form is dreadful, they still have uniform and ties (all different to Y11), £450 for the bus, about £30 for bits and bobs in the first week, £150 for textbooks and we certainly haven't finished, that bottomless pit. Then art stuff.

Fortunately DD did art last year and as a hobby all her life, so that doesn't land all at once.

Oh and £20 for concert tickets plus petrol to rehearsals and far flung venue. (Singing lessons are another £330 a year, but they are private).

Petrol and the assumption everyone has a car (and parent available to drive it) is the one that really winds me up.

In Y11 they had endless after school revision classes, many DCs rely totally on 3.30 school bus. We are far from the only people 3 miles from any public bus route.

We easily pay that for our primary ds, not including residential trips.

Uniform will be in addition to, not instead of "normal" clothes that children have. Just logoed jumpers/pe jumpers are nearly £100 per year, as we need two of each. Shorts for summer, long trousers for winter, a couple of each, logoed polo shirt for summer, long sleeve for winter. Logoed swimming cap.

It cant be just any pe track suit bottoms, or any swimming trunks, they need to meet exact specification, and what child wants to wear school style tight fitting swimming trunks for their leisurely trip to the pool?

£11 per week for lunhces, ie £44 per month, easily 300 per year. (I have moved to packed lunch) I think £800 is on the low side.

£50 per year "voluntary contribution" to the maintenance fund. Fund raising, like baking and donating cakes, wine, new toys/gifts/books for tombolas and fair stalls. Bake sales 3 times per year in addition to Christmas fair and Summer fair? Thats two lots of wine, two lots of new gifts/toys/books per year!

£40 fee for swimming. (to pay for the coach etc)

Each extra curricular or lunch time activity is £50-£60 per term.

£10 each for various trips and museums.

I estimate that the cost is more like £1000-£1200.

This does not include the Y5 and Y6 residential trips which are several hundred.

Dont get me started on the annual rip off that are school photos which children feel pressurized to do.

And the childrens artwork put on mugs, teatowels, Christmas cards, etc that children are encouraged to get, and that the schools, like the photos, take a cut on!

£900 for school bus pass (6th form). And that's Before trips, equipment, books, revision guides, charity events, photos, house badge (£10).....

This is interesting. I teach in a secondary school that runs a lot of trips. In the last few years uptake for trips has fallen because of the cost but when we decided not to run two of them there was uproar with parents complaining - we can't win!
Uniform is expensive but I don't think you can count meals in this, surely children would eat lunch if they were at him all day??

It's nothing like that much at my DDs primary school which has a mixed catchment. I can imagine it might be more like that at the more mc schools... (which are faith schools in my area) The RC primary has introduced blazers this year and they charge parents for the whole class instrument learning, which is funded by the county. I'd say I pay £70 for shoes. Uniform lasts more than a year so averages out to appx. £50 a year. Trips/visiting theatre groups/charity donations, maybe £20 a term. Most clubs are free except art and cooking, which hardly many children do. Music tuition is £120 a year. Instruments can be borrowed. I don't think lunches should be counted either.