Mandatory school trip

[WolfOfOdin]

Just a quick question

Should parents have to pay for a mandatory school trip that all children must attend?

And just as an update, I have been in and paid for the trip today

The science department run a trip to Chester zoo, but this just enhances learning it’s not a requirement that they go so only those who pay are taken
Are you not aware that’s illegal?

MyDcAreMarvel
It's not illegal if it's an optional enrichment trip.

Every school I've worked in have taken students to poetry/theatre days or theatre performances for English and drama. If students want to attend, they pay. We offer assistance for those who want to attend but can't.

Claiming a trip that enriches the curriculum is illegal means any school that offers any wider curriculum experiences us breaking the law, and that's almost every school in the country.

Then you are using a loophole to deprive poorer students, pretty horrible thing to do.

They can't make you pay but my dc school asks for a contribution towards transport costs for trips.

Legally if a school trip is wholly or mostly in school hours ( ie they get back at 4pm instead of 3pm or leave before 9am) it is education and therefore all children must have equal access regardless of ability to pay I am sure someone upthread posted the link to the government website that covers this
if there are only 10 places ( say a violin workshop) all children that would benefit ie violinists must have an equal chance of going it can't be the first 10 to pay

if a trip is mostly ( ie they leave before end of school day for an evening trip) or entirely out of school hours then it can be that only those paying go ie visit to a pantomime

full guidelines at assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/706830/Charging_for_school_activities.pdf

extract from guidelines
"It is important to note that no child should be excluded from an activity simply because his or her parents are unwilling or unable to pay. If insufficient voluntary contributions are raised to fund a visit, or the school cannot fund it from some other source, then it must be
cancelled. Schools must ensure that they make this clear to parents. If a parent is unwilling or unable to pay, their child must still be given an equal chance to go on the visit. Schools should make it clear to parents at the outset what their policy for allocating
places on school visits will be.
When making requests for voluntary contributions, parents must not be made to feel pressurised into paying as it is voluntary and not compulsory. Schools should avoid sending colour coded letters to parents as a reminder to make payments and direct debit
or standing order mandates should not be sent to parents when requesting contributions"

Then you are using a loophole to deprive poorer students, pretty horrible thing to do

What part of We offer assistance for those who want to attend but can't means depriving poorer students? Running enrichment trips dependent on enough people paying with assistance for those who need it is entirely the norm in almost every school in the country.

Take a theatre trip.

Option 1: School block book and get a deal with a local/regional theatre that includes an education afternoon with some of the cast. They put on a coach and run a trip to the production of their GCSE texts, returning to school after the normal evening performance. The trip is dependent on the costs (tickets and transport) being covered. Staffing the trip has already been done to minimise the cover costs because the school can't afford more supply. People pay for the trip and school assist for those who can't afford it. It's up to students if they wish to attend.

Option 2: People complain that option 1 is mean and horrible to poorer students, so no trip runs in the name of so called fairness.
However, the students from more affluent and/or advantaged families are aware of the production and attend with their families because they can afford at least 2 tickets and private transport to the regional city. The disadvantaged don't.

Those favouring option 2 are actively preventing disadvantaged students from accessing enrichment opportunities. The cost to poorer students is the same between option 1 and 2, the difference is one offers and educational opportunity and the other doesn't.

You going have to get used to badly written letters, for some reason school letter are nearly always written badly.

The school I was a governor at the cost of that any school trip is the cost of the coach as most if not all places they visit are free. Also they need to be linked to the curriculum rather then a 'fun day out'.
We had to have at least 75% of the payment to be paid for the trip to go ahead.

I know a parent who refused to pay for her children to attend an expensive (around £20) trip to the theatre. She was told her children would still go even if she didn't pay, and they did.

The special fund is probably the class teacher or the Head

err, no it isn't!

I am a school governor, and I can assure you that the school allocates some money to cover this, it comes from a variety of sources, and it is limited, but they do budget for covering some kids who can't pay for trips.
There are strict rules though, so on a residential trip, I think they can cover the cost of the centre activities, but not the cost of the food or some such complicated thing.

err, no it isn't!

I am a school governor, and I can assure you that the school allocates some money to cover this, it comes from a variety of sources, and it is limited, but they do budget for covering some kids who can't pay for trips.

And I can assure you that after 30 years as a teacher/Headteacher I have paid for many many trips, lunches, coats, shoes, knickers, toiletries, bikes, cakes on cake sale days, red noses, dog food, christmas presents, bus fares, taxi fares, etc.

I think you are very naive if you think that staff don't put money into school for many many things including paying for trips.

You may allocate at your school- that doesn't mean that all schools do. It is not a requirement.

Brokenlightfitting
I agree. Plus, if school are allocating money to trips then they aren't buying other things like pens, paper, glue etc and I don't know any teacher who hasn't plugged the gap themselves on a few occasions.

PekTafaa it's good her school were able to, though personally I find it ridiculous in a time when schools are cut right back that's parent who could afford a theatre trip refused to. If everyone took that sort of attitude then trips wouldn't run.

What if staff decided they wouldn't run any enrichment unless hourly overtime was paid? I'm sure the same parents would be complaining that the school down the road do X Y Z and why doesn't her child's school? (Yes I have heard that)

Wether you (collective you rather than personal you can afford to pay/contribute or not. They can't stop a child from attending the trip.
They can't penalise children because of their financial hardship.

Not sure what thread MrsJ is reading..

I’m in Aus not UK, but we always pay for school trips here.

We get a permission note that states where they’re going, when, how much and what subject it relates to.

As a poster said above they’re trips that enhance what they’ve been learning, so National Park excursion to complement their geography unit, reptile park to complement their science unit, Parliament House excursion to complement history etc (these aren’t all in the one year obviously)

You pay if you want your child to go, if they don’t go they get split up into other classes for the day and do worksheets.

You can approach the front office about a payment plan so you can pay in small instalments over a longer period of time if you need to.

In the school I worked at the rule was that every letter had to be sent out by the office with the highly specific wording mentioned many times above along the lines of payment being voluntary about unless every parent who is able contributes blah blah blah.

Year after year I would get letters done by teachers to "just email out please" that turned out to be the letter they wrote themselves in 2006 with all the wrong wording (plus out of date letterhead etc) with the dates changed - oddly enough they never re-sent me the corrected version I had amended for them in 2018 or the one from 2017 or the one from 2016 for distribution . . .

I expect the same has happened here: it's an old version of the letter that has bypassed the office. There will be plenty of people up in arms about it , OP, I would leave them to get on with it.

They won't force any child to go, and there is a school fund to pay for children who can't afford it. However, if you can pay - just do it! Schools have a very tight budget and educational trips are a really nice part of making it more interesting.

Op has paid.

BalloonSlayer
We do the same. There's specific wording for all trips.
It's also clear which trips are curriculum based trips and which are enrichment ones (where we may only have a set number of places based on staffing and logistics).

It works well. I'm always surprised how many issues there are with trips on here, either by rubbish letters from school or parents arguing over anything, big or small.