Is £30 excessive for this school trip?

[Moaningturtle1]

My DD (year 9) has come home from school with a letter about an upcoming school trip. The price has concerned me and I’m trying to work out if it’s reasonable.

It’s to the Black Country Museum, which is 50 miles from us. It includes tickets and coach transport from the school. No food or activities included, pack lunches to be taken from home and spending money for the Victorian sweet shop.

£30 is half my weekly food shop or 100% of my weekly petrol. It just seems too much at the moment. Does it seem a lot? I’ve been on the website and an under 16 ticket is £9.95, is coach hire that expensive now due to rising diesel costs?

You know what inflation is right? How long ago were you 13 years old.

It complicates things for me because I’d feel responsible for the kids that miss out if too many don’t pay.

That is a price quote from 8 years ago! And assuming you can get all the kids,staff and helpers on one coach, sometimes it takes two coaches and they don’t come bogof.

This is the sad reality we’re in. I tried to organise a zoo trip for my class and it came to £30 each to cover the cost of coach and entry, it wasn’t authorised in the end so we changed to something cheaper. I think this is the time most schools will be doing things like museums/ parks with free entry.
As a side note, to anyone who thinks teachers/ extra adults “get to go on these wonderful trips” be realistic; we are responsible for around 30 children getting on and off public transport, going to public places, crossing roads, managing behaviour and a whole list of individual needs, all whilst making sure the children have fun and actually learn something. It’s exhausting and it’s stressful, if we get to enjoy parts of it that’s a bonus but it’s a massive responsibility to have.

DD isn’t my first or last child, I have 15 yrs experience in school trips and have been a parent helper many times. It’s not my first time at the rodeo! Objectively this trip is much more expensive than any similar trip I’ve paid for or been on before. It’s never been more than £10 on top for the transport, same coach company and similar distances. My DS did a 4 day residential in 2019 that was 70 miles away including transport, food, accommodation, loads of activities and coach travel for £180.

In my area £30 for a day trip is at least 50% more than it would have been a few years ago.

Coach costs for the weekend are lower. M-F demand for schools is where majority of coach companies get their regular business.

You are not responsible for the school failing to consider whether this is a reasonable ask with cost of living crisis and their particular catchment.
To the poster who asked who should pay for staff, this should come out of the school budget - if the money isn't there, then they shouldn't do the trip. It isn't right to pass that on to people for who this money is their food budget!

Coach and insurance and any workshops cheap, if you are struggling - speak to the school it’s in confidence. I’ve done it both for trips and for scouts - I pay half for all trips now.

I think that is too much. Our school day trips are normally around £15. I definitely wouldn't be happy if it was anything over £20.

Our school recently made a mistake on the coach hire and accidentally sent parents a letter containing an overinflated cost. The teacher spotted her mistake and corrected it. The misquoted coach price was £17 per pupil with a total cost of £25pp, so yes, £30 seems excessive if tickets are only £10 each. (Sorry, I can’t recall the real coach price!)

@Moaningturtle1 You're not responsible for what the school proposes for a school trip. If they haven't considered the current financial restraints on families, then more fool them. They'll have to pick out another, cheaper trip. The more people who are honest with the school, the more realistic they'll be with their choices.

As loads have said, coach hire in the last little bit has risen sharply. It's not comparable to costs last year, or on weekends. I can quite believe it costs £30 but I don't think they should have proposed a trip costing this much.

My DS did a 4 day residential in 2019 that was 70 miles away including transport, food, accommodation, loads of activities and coach travel for £180.

Wow! My Dc1’s residential in 2019 was over £300, and same again for DC2 this year. Parents arranged travel there and back so there wasn’t coach hire.

In 2019 we paid £15 for Black Country Museum trip, similar distance away as you. There was a £10 PTFA subsidy so the ‘real cost’ would have been £25, inc coach hire. It is a rural school, coaches are always the majority of the cost for trips.

It sounds to me as if your school possibly used to subsidise trips more heavily, if your residential was so cheap particularly. But now budgets are slashed for everyone in schools. In addition I know our PTFA hasn’t been able to subsidise trips as much this year because of the knock-on effects of not raising as much funds during last couple of years of lockdowns.

I definitely think £30 is a lot for a day trip for one child if you can go as a family for less per head. It’s just a shame the kids who will never get taken otherwise won’t go if these school trips never happen. Rock and a hard place really.

Email the school and say people are struggling. You don’t have to name them. Tell them it’s 50% more expensive than any trip before and is there no help available with costs?

Coach hire costs here
www.coachhirelink.com/coach-hire-prices/

53 seater for say 40 people for 8 hours works out between £8.40 and £14 per head

Coach costs have always been the most expensive part of any school trip I’ve ever been involved with. I can only imagine it’s going to get worse. At my school we always tried to keep the costs down and our head wouldn’t have agreed to something costing parents that much. The school often subsidised trips but that became unaffordable and had to stop. Unfortunately lots of venues will be having to put their prices up making costs even higher. Wouldn’t be surprised if school trips become a thing of the past.

I'm waiting for the thread in a few months complaining that their DC's school doesn't organise trips anymore. School budgets are insanely tight. Lots of families won't have the funds or general get up and go to take their kids to somewhere like a museum or to make it an educational experience when they do. They won't get to take part in a workshop or any other learning experience. As many pps have said, schools cannot make profits on these trips and they do not have spare funds to subsidise them outside of what the parents can contribute. If you don't want to pay it, don't, but please stop blaming the schools for trying to put on an educational and fun experience.

Their attempt to do this is well meant but it is putting pressure on families and resulting in stress. Schools do have to think about the fact that not every family can just write off £30.

In sure they do know that. the trip is optional. 'Schools' are actually people. Normal people, on normal salaries with the same bills as everyone else. They're not MPs on 80k sitting around telling people to just work harder. They're providing an optional opportunity. That's literally all and there is no benefit to them for inflating the price beyond what they must charge for the trip to run.

Of course OP isn't responsible for that.

But I don't see how the school could do anything differently, other than not offer a trip at all. The price is the price. It's not about "failing to consider." I highly doubt they're unaware of financial circumstances of families. But if the coach is £800 (typical cost at the moment), and they're anticipating 40 children going, then it will cost £20ppp. So either that gets paid or it doesn't.

Staff costs will be included in the cost asked of families. They almost always are, because school already need to allocate budget to supplement parents that need financial support. That cost can't be shared among other parents, but staff costs can (and staff costs tend to be minimal, anyway, due to free staff tickets). Parents aren't paying staff wages as those are already paid out of core costs.

Usually it's a case of offer the trip and know some parents will feel stressed about the cost, or offer no trip at all (or one with much less value to the kids - local park is free, but hardly inspiring).

My year 7 child is off for a full day trip (late evening return) £60 for the day.

Yes, because there's a global fuel price rise and an ongoing shortage of drivers due to covid. So bus companies have increased prices dramatically since 2019.

Your dd doesn't want to go, and you feel it's not the best use of your money, so don't pay and she won't go. Ideally call the school office and tell them why. Tell them if, for eg., you'd ve able to pay £20 or £15, but not the full 30. Then they might be able to arrange a partial subsidy for your dd and possibly full subsidies elsewhere. Or they won't, but at least they'd know why you weren't able to pay.

It's not your responsibility to worry about the other children. And school won't know what's wrong unless you tell them.

I recently hired a 32 seater coach (March 2022, Doncaster). It was £230 for 4 hours, and a 12 mile round trip. That works out around £7.50/head. I can see that easily doubling for a full day, £100 mile round trip! Before even accounting for fuel, museum entry etc.

The cost of the trip seems reasonable. The affordability of the trip is personal to individual families.

This. x100.

I've paid £8 for a 10min return coach trip that DDs year group is going on next week. The activity doesn't cost anything, so that's just the coach price.

Another year group is going on a two day trip in a couple of weeks and that's £230.

I think £30 for coach, entry and a educator is a bargain tbh. If you don't want to pay for your DD to go, then don't and explain that you want to wait for the whole family to go. Be prepared for her to not want to go to school that day though, would be hugely unfair to send her in because you wouldn't pay.

I just paid £5 for my son to go by coach to a castle 20 miles from the school that charges an entry fee.

They may have to charge £30 to cover costs but whatever way you look at it £30 for a child to go to a museum is not a bargain. Spending half the food shop on a visit to a museum for 1 family member for a couple of hours should not be dismissed as a 'bargain'.