To ask how many of you pay for your children's school trips.

[psiloveyou]

This week I have paid
£10.50 for ds1 trip
£14.80 for ds2 trip
£5.00 for dd3 trip
Now dd4 has come home from nursery with a request for £17.80 for a trip to a local farm.

All the letters state the money is a contribution but if enough parents don't pay the trip will not go ahead.
We are lucky enough that we can afford it. I have no problem with parents on a low income only paying a small percentage.
I just wonder if there are any parents out there who can afford it but choose not to pay.

Why would anyone choose not to pay if they can afford it?

Your trips are incredibly expensive though.

We always pay.

Yes! I am shocked at the cost. Where are the trips too?
My DS go to "educational" places,eg museums and the like. They have a trip to the beach coming up as end of term treat. These trips usually cost £2. This is often added to the school bill.
It is very rare we pay more.
We have a fabulous local farm. It is £3 in for a child. How can it possibly cost £17.80p for a trip to a local farm?

Transport is very expensive. If children have to travel in private-hire coaches over longish distances then costs will soar.

I've got to find £8.50 for a trip to the farm for my DS, it's DD's birthday this weekend so things are a wee bit tight because I am on benefits and don't always have lots of cash, but I'll find the money, even if I have to borrow from the clothing savings to do it. Going to have to shift things around soon as DD starts school soon and I'll have two of them to fund for things. I'm hoping that her free school dinners will mean I spend less on food, thus balancing out the money I spend on school trips and the like. Otherwise I'll give up something else at home. It's a fine balancing act.

We always pay but struggle to find the money. £12 is average per trip here and is usually 2 or 3 times per year. Plus residentials in years 6 and 8 and other options on trips away at high school. Music lessons, sports clubs, swimming... Children are very expensive!

We can't afford to but still pay .
It's a pride thing. Occasionally my MIL will pay.

Don't even ask.

DD2 is at an independent school which has trips galore until they come out of your ears. You pay for one, anothers waved in front of your nose. Yes, I pay, but I sometimes thing FFS, I'm not a sodding cashpoint machine!

'We have a fabulous local farm. It is £3 in for a child. How can it possibly cost £17.80p for a trip to a local farm?'

Are they going by coach. That's what has made the costs of trips rocket to ridiculous amounts in many cases. Coach costs have become unbelievable.

Have just paid £14.50 for DD (5) schooltrip to a nearby (ish) "country park"

DS 4 day trip to France £420

I think school should, in the letter requesting ££, break down the costs.

I assume coach hire/insurance/Group bookings Youth Hostels is astronomical

Whereas DS scout trip 7 days £155 Brighton and always cheap/great value

Mine don't go to all the trips as I can't afford it. If they do go, I pay for 2 out of 3 children. (I have triplets)

Oh and DS is already talking re: school trip to Oz/ China (2 different ones of course)in a few yrs time!! (we should start saving now!!)

I had a day trip to Calais and a week in Wales back in the day!!

We received a letter on Friday asking for £25 to pay for the trip & then to dress them in a tudor costume - £10.

I haven't got the money this month at such short notice, I still have petrol for the month to pay, lunch boxes & school dinners x 3 to pay & that's without buying any food.

I'm lucky that I have just started a new job but that means DD3's new nursery want this month & July's money now £780! I have arranged to pay them in July but that is my wages for July gone, without petrol etc for the whole of July & without any extra money to give to the school.

The children have all been invited to 3 partys this month but I have no money to buy presents & pay for petrol to get them there & back.

It's all so depressing & hard work not letting the children see how much I am struggling this month, and next month.....

DS is only in pre-school but I've never been asked to pay for a trip or given any indication as to cost or how to pay. So no, I don't pay.

I always pay but trips are never very much and very sadly there are hardly any of them anyway...

We have a rule that trip letters asking for payment need to be handed out with at least 6 weeks notice. Talk to your school about advance warning and thus ability to plan ahead with family finances.

I've just written a cheque for £42 for DC to attend a day trip to a Somerset Adventure Park!

The coach journey is less than 20 miles and the school provides a packed lunch. £42 for my child to play in mud!

Our eldest is in high school now. Every year they have week of trips on a certain theme (DC can choose which one they want to do, ie arty stuff, sporty stuff, 'thrill' stuff such as go-karting, theme parks, etc...). Of course DS has chosen one of the most expensive weeks because it's the one 'all his friends are doing'. It's costing us £160 . But although I love to moan about it, they're going out to a different place every day, all of which are usually pretty expensive anyway, so it's probably reasonable value.

Our younger one's trips to places like the zoo for the day are usually around £10, which is fair enough when you consider transport costs, etc.

A friend's DS went on a school trip to Las Vegas a couple of years ago and that cost about £1000. Yikes! He was only 13 at the time!!! Oh, and that was a state grammar school, not public school before anyone asks. You could have a family holiday for that!!

I can't really afford it but I pay anyway.

We have been entitled to fsm in the past, but I didn't let the schools know that! I paid.

I have a fear of them finding out we don't have lots of money. Totally irrational, I know. So I jiggery pokery the accounts, go without other things - have even cancelled a direct debit before now when they sprung a last minute 'voluntary contribution' (yeah right) on us.

I have my grandmother's words ringing in my ears "It's one thing to be poor, it's another to be seen to be poor."

Madlizzy - when you pay why don't you pay for all three of your children? The fact that they are triplets is irrelevant. I have four kids perhaps I should just pay for three of them rather than all four. (School and nursery trips happen across all years). I think the multiple birth stance of not paying is a pathetic excuse.

LAS VEGAS?????
For 13 year olds

Were they doing some Geog project on dams?

My parents (no DCs yet) paid for all trips until I was 11, then I had to pay half of residential trips out of my pocket/birthday money (wages when 15). They still paid for day trips (unless expensive) until VIth form, i.e. £20 French trip to the theatre. The only things I can remember missing out on were a £800 skiing trip (that my sister went on, so probably the reason for my ) and a £1k trip to NYC in VIth form. Went there two years ago by myself and had much more fun :)

I think the average for a (non-residential) school trip at my kids' school is around 20 pounds. They do 2-3 trips a year.
DS1 is in Y6 and has just come back from a residential trip - 260 pounds.
We always pay as we can afford to - we chose to have 4 children, it's one of those things and I'm glad they do lots of trips.

I think secondary school trips take the piss though, I know families who've had to sacrifice the family holiday to pay for 1 child to go away and that is not right IMO.

Schools are not allowed by law to make a profit on a trip, so the cost per child is exactly what its costing. Transport and insurance is so expensive that coaches can easily cost £6 per child and obviously the fewer children the more it costs.

There should be no reason for any parent not to pay, the trips will only be once a term at most and every child gets child benefit and the majority will be getting some tax credits. Residentials in the last year of primary are usually standard and parents know years in advance that there will be one and so plenty of time to save if need be. Having children is expensive, surely most people know that so I never get why they moan about having to pay for things to do with school.

Trips abroad are different as they are the opportunity to go away and the majority wont go, they are offered and its upto the parents if they choose to take up that offer.