School trip

[PawsPaws]

Has anyone else’s school cut back massively on the end of year trips? My son is in year 6 and for the end of year trip they are going to the local park, a park we visit most weekends and they’ve been to several times on school trips. The year before that my other son went to the beach with the school as the end of year trip and 2 years before that my daughter was taken to a theme park. I guess it’s a money issue. Just wondering what other schools doing for the year 6 children?

I work in school finance. Trips are a nightmare. It is down to money and parents not wanting to pay. We've had to cancel trips because we don't get enough parent contributions in. Schools don't have extra money to make up the short fall it will come off the year group budgets which mean less basic supplies for the classroom. However this type of trip to the themepark is classed as non educational so it would be you don't pay you don't go so there wouldn't be a shortfall as such. Maybe they are struggling to get hold of coaches and staffing to take them. I would ask the school if I were you to find out why. Is there a PTA? They are usually good at raising funds and making things happen.

I think it's a bit unfair to say parents don't want to pay. Over 20% of pupils are living in poverty. Their families often CAN'T pay.

This is completely wrong. Schools have to work out the cost PER child, they aren't allow to charge more to some kids and less to others! Some kids on benefits might get funded by pupil premium money but they won't be allowed to be charging other parents more. It will be a set price for every child. If you don't think this is the case you need to get the school policy and report this.

Our school usually does one trip per year and it’s usually a farm/castle/ nature reserve. Year 6 is always a residential for 3 days. This year though year 3,4,5 and 6 have each done a residential and a day trip. Ds went to a zoo

Our school does a 2 night trip to London costing parents £250. However for a class of year 6 kids to go, school is also contributing £8k.

Its mad, I’d rather they went to the bloody park.

It's not just 20percent of parents that don't pay sometimes its nearly half! Children with pupil premium can sometimes get funded for trips too. We quite often see the parents with nice cars and Turkey teeth but don't pay for trips! Sorry but some parents don't have their priorities straight. We have parents upset about no trips yet it takes time and effort to book everything and then gets cancelled because we don't get enough contributions in. It's sad for the kids. The difference usually is having a PTA who can help with raising money. Schools with no pta do definitely see a difference my son has loads of events at his school discos ect all through the pta. The school I work at doesn't have one and we have a lot less funds to play with.

Just because it's half doesn't mean they are choosing not to pay. Life is so expensive these days and if it's a choice between food, bills, heating, birthday presents etc and a school trip then it's obvious which one has to be deprioritised. Then there's the parents who are just rushed off their feet and forget to pay. It's not always a case of not wanting to pay, in fact I'd say that's a tiny percentage.

Oh i totally agree, if I remember rightly it was to learn about how food got onto the shelves/produce etc! It just still tickles me to this day, he was all excited to hear where his first ever school trip was going to be and it was the shop we went to most days after school 🥲

Everyone went to a big safari park at the end of the school year.
Primary 6 also to went to Sky Academy and learned all about tv and made cool news videos about natural disasters.
My daughter will be primary 7 after the summer and they are going for a four night trip to an outward bound type centre in January. That’s costing over £300, but the other trips haven’t cost anything to parents.

So, we haven’t really seen a cut back. Our schools parent council does do a fair amount of fundraising though with discos, raffles, small donations for no uniform day etc throughout the year.

I’m guessing it very much depends on the school itself, what funds they have available, perhaps the local demographic (in some particularly deprived areas might not want to ask parents to absorb costs), how active the parent council are in fundraising, what priority the headteacher gives to that sort of thing even.

School trips take a huge amount of good will from staff which sadly when there is more and more underfunding of schools isn't going to be hugely available. There are perks to staffing some secondary trips, especially those abroad, skiing etc. There are no perks to volunteering to support a group of 11 year olds on a camp to Devon or take them to a theme park. School staff don't get paid for the overnights or extra hours. The whole system is broken, and the chaos only ramps up in secondary. You are really fortunate if lack of a fancy year 6 trip is the thing you are most worried about with the school system at the moment.

DS is in Y1 and has had 4 trips this year, one to a church, one to a synagogue, one to the library and one to the beach, all trips were walking distance. Although one mum tried to drive her daughter to the beach and then said she was keeping her off school when head said no! It's pretty much exactly a mile and down one straight road with wide pavements all the way down until you get to the zebra crossing that takes you onto the beach.
It must be hard now for schools to juggle cost, parental expectations, those who don't want to go but still expect to be in school, ratios with more parents working so fewer chaperone volunteers.

It's probably the kids and parents that have caused this.

Kids pissing around in mobile phones that were not supposed to be on the trip... Kids not being safe or listening... parents staying nearby... complaining about room allocations... complaining that they don't get enough updates etc etc etc.

Before Covid and subsequent COL, my dc's school did a sleepover at school in year 3, a 2 night trip away in year 4, 3 night in y5 and 5 nights in y 6 (Isle of Wight). Now they still do the y 3 sleepover, and in year 4, they go away for 1 night, they camp on the school field in year 5 and go to Devon in year 6. So the year 5 trip is cancelled and year 4 is shorter. It's due to how expensive everything is now.

It used to be bowling at our school, but now it's a picnic and games on the village green. Similarly, my eldest did a two-day residential at an outdoor pursuits centre in year 5, then a 3-night PGL in yr 6. They now go every-other year, so kids go in either yr5 or yr6, and it's just two nights.

I work in a school. If you only paid £10 for a beach trip then it was heavily subsidised by the school. You keep saying you’re not talking about other trips just the end of year one but have you considered that if parents haven’t paid for other trips throughout the year (across all year groups) then the school can’t afford to run another trip.

In my class this year only 2 parents out of 60 have paid in full for all trips, some have paid part and lots haven’t paid. Our school PTA donates some money to trips but the school pays most of it out of an already tight budget which will be tighter next year as the government is not funding the pay rises schools have to give.

We have had to cut half the trips for next year knowing that not all parents pay and the budget will be too tight to cover it as a school.

My year 6 had a 5 day residential to France in March this year. The school managed to get 50% funding so cost us £200. Then they have the school play, ptfa fun day and leavers assembly. The last weekend before the end of school, they’ve got a pool party, bbq and camping up in the school grounds.

The rest of the school have had numerous school trips throughout the year. We are really lucky though as our head puts a lot of emphasis on the importance of school trips.

I don’t think you can complain as your school offered a residential but you chose not to send your child.

There are def less trips than there used to be. Money and Covid have been factors. My DS had nothing jn year 6 due to Covid. I was suprised this year though, as all the juniors are going to a themepark(dd is year 6). Thats not been the norm for years. The local park is a bit rubbish esp for year 6 though. They do that here for the infants or sometimes the beach. The infants went to a local show at a theatre this year. Year 5 and 6 had a 2 night residential in April too.

My DGD has just come back from a year 6 trip to London for two nights. It’s a fairly big primary (six form groups), on the Wirral. They all met at Lime St station and went on the train. She had a great time. Did London Eye, Lion King, Thames boat trip, museum etc. They’re also doing a leavers play.

I was at a school meeting yesterday where the head said that a few years ago a coach for the day would cost £250 but now it’s closer to £1000 - that’s very prohibitive for schools and parents. Our school asks for fairly low parental contributions and the pta makes up the rest, but of course the pta events then need to be well supported by parents to raise funds.

Yes after SATs it's normally somewhere major like Thorpe Park. Perhaps they think the cost of living crisis means parents can't afford it.

If you're in London, surely they have greater scope for trips die to free public transport for that age group?

(We paid £15 for a days hill walking, simply for the coaches. They took packed lunches, no entrance fees, about an hours drive)

No they do one end of year too, perhaps my school is different to yours? They did it twice on the second to last day of school, they did something for the SATS again that was the local park.

thats bad I’m surprised that many parents didn’t pay, my son didn’t want to go to the residential anyway so he wouldn’t have went either way as he didn’t want to stay there over night, my other son didn’t go on his residential for the same reason, but that didn’t stop the trip, I really think it’s the new head tbh as well said she’s changed a lot of things and I noticed school trips in general cut right back but still thought they would put something special on for the year 6 children.

As a teacher - planning a trip takes months and lots of extra work. Costs are sky high, especially coaches/transport. That's where most of the fees go. If parents can't afford it, the trip doesn't run. Which is then a lot of work for no reason.

So trips don't happen. Also, many parents are simply ungrateful! Teachers aren't paid extra for running trips or staffing residentials.

Just food for thought.

My year 6 child went to Blackpool pleasure beach, it was quite pricy but for last year of primary I didn’t mind. My youngest child year 2 is going to the local free museum that most people have been to before, the PTFA are paying for transport so I’m not really sure why I’m paying £3????

school trips have gone down hill but it’s because of cost of living, you can’t ask parents to fork out for school trips if they can’t even afford food.