Voluntary contributions for school educational trips?

[Swankyswishing]

Do you always pay these? I always have done but I was talking to a friend who said that she never pays a penny as they are educational visits, those on benefits get them for free and she doesn't see why others should have to pay too if it's to do with the curriculum.

I have to say, I do agree with her. Lots of school trips do seem overpriced too. I'm wondering if those that do pay are charged a bit extra to pay for those that don't pay?

Sixth form books have to be bought, gcse revision books gave to be bought. Then there is all the sports kit

Op. Save your whinges for secondary school where it gets REALLY expensive.quibbling over £12 for a school trip really doesn't cut it when some if us have BIG school trips to fork out for. Which ARE necessary.

THC if he wants any help with RS books or anything you have my email, it's what my degree is in and I have books a-plenty I could loan.

Peachy.... To take them to Westminster abbey costs a fortune! With school I guess they get a discount

Dd went to Aushwitz with school 2 years ago. I personally could never go as a 'tourist', seems so wrong to me! But she went with history dept. Very moving for a 15 year old. Heavily subsidised too. The trip wasn't even full.

Oh not complaining about the cost at all, seems cheap with theatre tickets in

Just saying a child's education would not suffer without that particular trip

Though am as have ne
ver been there and would dearly love to (back to the RE degree above LOL, Church Geek).

peachy .Thank you but have brought them though if he gets stuck will ask you for help .He is loving it seemed a strange choice for a non relgious child but he enjoys learning about it and the deeper reasons behind peoples choices

Ilovetiffany

thats the trip ds2 was meant to go on but they wanted £200 with 10 days notice as the deposit ( total trip is just over £600 for 3 days ) .Did ask for extra time but wa stold not available

swankyswishing I think I know what you're getting at.

I've just paid £10 for my dd to attend a school trip today. The letter did say it was a 'voluntary contribution' but that if a parent had genuine difficulties paying to speak to the class teacher. I think it's fair enough that if a family is in geuine hardship and cannot afford the cost of the trip they shouldn't be expected to pay. I would not begrudge the children of parents who cannot afford to pay the school trip at all, and would be upset if I thought they would be excluded from the trip because they couldn't pay.

I was recently made redundant (thankyou coalition government) and money is tight so parting with £10 was not easy. But I did, willingly so dd could attend.

However, to say I was angry when two friends told me that they weren't going to pay the £10 and had just told the school they couldn't afford it, is an understatement. One friend is better off financially than me, has a bigger house, swanky new car, gym membership etc and the other is always able to find the money to go drinking every weekend.

It is this piss-taking which makes other parents feel resentful. Some parents are scrabbling around trying to find the cash while others who can afford to pay don't bother.

peachy you and ds2 would get on really well he enjoys a good look round the church .He is very much of the do not have to be relgious to appreciate them

i got a letter asking for £20 to put in the school fund for parents who can not afford to pay for trips and school uniform, i am sorry but i shall not be paying, as alot of parents that i know who are on benifits have more disposable income as myself, bigger tvs, drive everywhere, smoke, go out, have take aways, do i need to go on and then say oh we have no money i do pay for school trips though for MY child.

oh and the school trip my dd is about to go on was £14 and this is about the average cost.

well they are not free here at all .Its case of you dont pay then your child does not go and some of them at senior school are very expensive

ditto, here. there is no subsidising of the students who don't pay - they just don't go!

and as we are not on 'the mainland', costs often seem to include airfare to a location that, as others have mentioned, we could not even afford as a family holiday.

THC there wwere only 1 or 2 religious people on my degree, atherism / agnosticism were the main routes. He'd have fitted in well! He sounds fab . I am Quaker (ish), so not churchy but not without a religion either.

The thing about asking for help if you can't pay- would seem to me most people could manage maybe £1 a week even if not a tenner at short notice, would make sense for schools to offer that option no?

I don;t know how true it is nationally but we were told that insurances have pushed coach hire sky high- I know Cubs nearly cancelled tehir winter trip as the prices were just unmanageable.

If nobody pays for school trips, they wouldn't be able to go on trips any more and everyone would lose out. If you can afford it, you should pay, if you genuinely can't then it's different and should be covered by school funds. It is very expensive to hire a coach these days, so that affects the cost of trips.

peachy to be fiar after beoing involed with a PTA trip the coach prices are high even for short distance

Ds2 is not going to Germany on the trip but we are fortunate that have friends ibn berlin so he be able to go that way just cost of flights .Though school were not happy about time of school even though will go the same dates as he would if wa son school trip

I remember that HC; seemed odd they were unhappy for him go separately.

I wish someone would come on here who thinks it isn't unreasonable not to pay for a trip when you can afford it. I'd love to hear their justification.

mrs damvan I'm in the same situation as you (we didn't work at the same place did we?). It's a little annoying being asked for money for trips when you're trying to watch the pennies, but I figure that DH is in work, I am getting freelance work here and there and we're not on the breadline so it's perfectly reasonable to pay. The people you describe who don't pay sound pathetic. What kind of values are they passing on to their children?

As a teacher, I have never factored in the costs of children not paying into the cost per child. If not enough money comes in, the trip is cancelled, we cannot afford to support lots of non- payers. Fwiw, the coach costs have risen astronomically in the last few years, mainly for fuel and insurance costs. We may well take advantage of group discounts, but then pay for a workshop or a guide, which pushes the price back up again. More and more teachers are just not organising trips as it is not worth the aggro!

I decided, as it always states it's a voluntary contribution I would on this occasion not pay for the school trip. When my son handed the consent form to the teacher she told him he must pay and sent a second form home. Again I sent it back without sending any money. Today the school rung me saying I must pay. I pointed out that it clearly states it's a voluntary contribution. I was informed that this wording is policy but it's compulsory to pay. A second call from school informed me that it's the law that the school use the words voluntary contribution but it is in fact compulsory that I pay. I have requested a written explination of why voluntary actually means compulsory because where I come from voluntary most definately does not mean COMPULSORY and out of principle I will not make a compulsory voluntary contribution.

Many people are on benefits- cb,ctc,wtc,dla/pip,ca,hb all paid to those whp work also (ca limit hours of work obvs) and those with primary aged children are unlikely to be at their earning peak plus the chances of needing to claim ca is likely to be high in this group. So if those on benefits don't pay then it will be a rare school in highly afluent area that gets any contribution.

It fucking sucks that schools are not given enough funding, parents shouldn't have to contribute. But i allways donate as we can and my dcs schools have put a huge effort into supporting them, going over and above frequently. We also dobate old books and toys and uniform too. If it helps the school i'm happy to do so.

I always pay, and I always add in a little extra too. So glad I'm probably subsidising those who can afford it but feel entitled.

Schools are strapped for cash these days. Why not help them out pay just paying up? It all goes towards your child's education in the end.

Children on Free School Meals or with parents on certain benefits, are entitled to extra government funding via Pupil Premium. The Government is very stringent on making sure that the money assigned to PP children is spent on interventions to specifically help that child/children, but inevitably it also helps non PP children due to the fact that it may go towards the cost of an LSA etc. Governing bodies are statutorily bound to ensure PP money is spent appropriately. Pupil Premium children may well have the cost of a school trip funded from their PP money (especially residentials for example) but this is NOT 'free' it is from their PP entitlement.

I’ve not read the whole thread (because I’m a bad person) but the trip doesn’t cost more to paying parents because they’re subsidising FSM - the trip is the same cost for all pupils but the kids on benefits money is taken out of ‘pupil premium’ funding.
Your friend is an arse. I’m a teacher, I’ve lost a third of my department budget this year due to cuts and am buying pens and glue sticks with my wages. Schools need all the help they can get!

Zombie Thread

Same at our school. Recently had £200 residential to pay for but some children fgot to go for free. Sadly some parents who work full time in average jobs didn't qualify for the free places and their kids missed out. I don't know the criteria but I thought that seemed really unfair. Also my daughter was home saying well X can't go her parents work but can't afford it, y is going her parents don't really work so school will pay. She was really confused about the whole thing and sad some of her good friends couldn't be there.