How does your child’s secondary school handle paid for trips?

[Fookinwot]

DC1 goes to an academy secondary and brought home a letter detailing a trip to Europe for next year £500 cost, the letter details a payment installment plan over the next four months, trip must be paid for on the school online payment system.
I can’t afford £500 in one go so opt to pay the first installment using the online system.
DS came home today and told me that he’s been informed by the trip leader that I need to pay in full now to secure the place?! There are 36 spaces and the trip is being offered to the whole of YR9.
Feels like the low income families are being excluded here a bit, no way can I afford to fork out £500 like that and I expect it’s a similar case for lots of other families like us.
Is it a case of ‘oh well that’s just tough luck’ and I need to accept it, ask for a refund and disappointment poor DS or query this with the school, seems a bit unfair that only the better off kids get to access opportunities like this.

Why wouldn't you query it??

We use parent pay. Any trips over £50 are done via instalments and we also offer £200 bursary to students on free school meals towards trips during their school time with us.

that sounds very unfair.
call the organiser and talk to them.

our school makes announcements at the beginning of the school year for the trip(s) at the end of the school year.
if spaces are limited first instalment & forms need to be in at a certain date.

Don’t want to be seen as ‘that parent’ if this is just how it’s done. That’s why the title asks what other schools do, if all schools operate this way then I won’t make a fuss about it.

I suspect DS has misunderstood and that the first instalment will confirm the place - call school today to check.

I'm not sure what other schools do but we use parent pay too. Normally you have to pay a deposit to secure a place? Maybe your ds has misunderstood.

If it's true it's shocking. Cd you have a word quietly with a parent governor?

Of course you query it. If you've made a payment under the conditions in the letter, they shouldn't be changing the goalposts now.
And if they are contact the head and the chair of governors straight away and tell them how the school is excluding children whose parents are less well off.

MsJaneAusten that’s possible although DS is adamant. Will still clarify it though.

Do not go straight to the head/governors ffs.

He will have possibly undoubtedly misunderstood. Call the school (finance team or the teacher in charge of the trip. School business manager if you want to go higher) to clarify. Such a policy would clearly go against a)the initial letter and b) disadvantage poorer families.

I work in school finance and manage trip payments.

I’ve spoken to the finance officer who is going to look in to it and get back to me, she said yes it’s likely I will have to pay it all but will make sure and email me today, she actually made me feel quite bad as she said it’s not really down to the school if parents can’t afford it!
I told her I was a bit shocked at that statement and asked how that works in line with their equal opps policy? She back peddled slightly at that question and said don’t do anything until she’s spoken to her manager. I really hope this is a mistake

Why would the letter ask for instalments if they want it all upfront?

At DD's secondary school, the residential trips are paid for in installments. The first payment is usually a non-refundable deposit, which presumably helps deter people from dropping out later on.

I've never heard of a big trip where they want all the money in one go. At ours I think they even offer installments for day trips if parents are finding it difficult to pay.

Our school asks for deposits and then you can pay in instalments.
There is usually quite a long lead time for more expensive trips, at least 6 months and often 9.
If you qualify for PP you can discuss with the school and they may subsidise the trip.

However once the first instalment is paid you are committed to pay the full amount even if you drop out unless they can resell your place.

They do also have a web page where the advertise agreed trips so you can see what might be coming up in future years. (e.g. we knew from y7 there was normally a Geog trip to Iceland in y10 and what the likely price would be).

Our school offers several trips around that approximate budget. It's always a "pay £100 deposit to secure your place" and then £50 or £75 every 6 weeks or 2 months until it's cleared. And the letters ALWAYS say to contact school if you would prefer to pay in another way.

Oh and it's months in advance. At least 6. DD is going to Belgium next June and we paid the deposit a year in advance.

DD1 is in yr9 and all trips/Duke of Edinburgh etc are done on the basis of pay a small amount to secure the place, then instalments. This is done via the online payment system that we use for lunch money, music lessons etc. For DofE it's £30 at the beginning of Oct to secure the place, then £31 end of Nov, end of Dec etc til end of Mar. And we had the payment schedule on the first day back to school in Sept - so a month before the initial payment was needed. That's how they do everything.

We pay the deposit and then can pay in installments throughout the year or in full. We wouldn't be forced to pay in full at the beginning

Usually for big trips there's a non-refundable deposit followed by a series of installments.

Whilst her phrasing was off, she is right that it's not really the school's problem if parents can't afford it. She shouldn't have been as blunt as that, but finance office staff deal with their fair share of issues surrounding lots of people thinking a trip or opportunity should fit around what suits their fiances (e.g. we missed the deadline for revision guides that was open for 3 months because I didn't get paid until a week after the deadline, now I think you should do another order just for me, what do you mean the discount was in a bulk order?) You're not in that category, but it just gives context.

Generally, if they've said there's installments then that's an option. The only thing I can think of is either there's a mistake with the person you've spoken to, or that to pay in installments parents had to contact the school to say that's what they're doing and without that box ticked on the system you're down as a "pay in full".

We usually get a few months to pay in installments. All payments must be made in full a month before they go.

They can't tell you that you can pay in installments and then change it.

Both our primary and secondary schools offer paying by installments for more expensive trips. I'm sure the installments usually start 6-12 months before the trip, I presume depending on the cost.

OP, I hear you on this. We have a £300 trip being paid for now, via Parent Pay. 10 months to pay for it, so the minimum payment possible is.... £50. Of course it is. We're paying extra into school meals one months and paying £60 every 2 months into the trip fund as we've got substantial nursery fees for a younger sibling as well to balance.

I agree it doesn’t make much sense, I’m waiting for a call back still, I didn’t get a chance to ask about the point of the installment plan if they’re only giving spaces to the full payment children, I will ask that when they call back.

Instalments at my DD's school. Plus, a trip where only 36 children can go would probably be names out of a hat with a very quick deadline to pay a deposit or you lose the place. Then a clear list of deadlines for paying the balance. Not find £500 right now.

Installments at ds's school. He went on a sports trip to Spain earlier in the year. The cost was £800. We were informed of the trip in October 2017, a payment of £200 had to be paid by December 2017. 2nd payment of £100 by 1st March 2018
3rd payment of £150 by 1st June 2018
4th payment of £150 by 1st September 2018
5th payment of £100 by 30th November 2018
Final balance payment of £100 by 30th January 2019