To be suspicious about school trip costs?

[SmiteYouWithThunderbolts]

Recently I (and a few other parents) have noticed the cost of school trips reaching ludicrous levels - far more than the entrance prices for the places they're going to and the coach fees. For example, this week ds2 brought home a letter about a trip to a local museum which costs about £3 per child. The letter asks for a £10 "voluntary contribution" from each parent and says, as always, that the trip will not go ahead without a payment from each child.

The last few trips have been similarly priced and we just cannot see how the difference between the entrance fee and what we're asked to pay is entirely taken up by the coach. From the brief research we've done into coach prices, they're nowhere near that expensive, so where is the rest of the money going? AFAIK, schools are not allowed to profit from school trips, but does this apply to academies too?

Please tell me if IABU and it's actually perfectly justifiable to ask for £10 from parents for a destination that would cost a third of that to go ourselves?

If the price is unreasonable, what could we actually do about this?

For context and to avoid drip feeding, there are other issues around the school and money, such as making extortionate PE kit compulsory at a cost of £32 per child (and only available through the school) and charging £1 for non-uniform days 3-4 times a term.

They often did provide a breakdown of the cost and the coach travel was hugely expensive.

soo bdbfan you are saying the cost that the school is charging ie £10 is exactly that of coach at £7/head plus entry at £3/head?
Sounds right to me .

Ask for a breakdown if you must , but remember, schools don't " have " to do trips. They are actually a huge pain in the arse to organise ( risk assess, plan, do all the letters etc etc) and they are not a " jolly" for the accompanying staff. They won't get any breaks that day- no playtimes, no lunch break when the lunch supervisors cover child contact time.

Make enough fuss over things and I'd be not bothering again (like the poster up thread who had no trips for that year group for the rest of the time in school) and I'm only a poor teachers wife!

Is there a PTA? Perhaps the PTA could make the approach armed with real quotes from bus companies willing to take 35 school kids on that specific trip.

They are also factoring in the people who don't pay - teachers and helpers and those who can't or won't pay. If you are taking 30 children plus 5 adults and 5 children don't pay, then 25 people are paying for 35 people.

I quite often organise school trips and go to great pains to reduce costs wherever possible, but in the last 4 years a trip to the same theatre to see a panto has gone up by £5 per child due to rising transport costs.
I would always make a breakdown of costs available to pupils or parents. As I work in a large secondary school, none of the trips are compulsory and are usually limited numbers so pupils choose to attend but only if they pay. Schools cannot pay for pupils to attend any trip, it has to be paid by parents or not at all.
We do cringe at asking for £25 to go to the theatre but we live in a rural area which is at least 2 hours from a major city so it doesn't cost any more than it would if they went with parents. I have found that contacting theatres etc has saved us money as we have been granted money towards transport costs from hardship funds due to our location - it is the best we can do for the kids!

The coaches round here are costing double what they used to. It was about £300 for an all day trip for 48 seater, it's now nearer £700. That is where our costs have shot up.

Times your 32 quid pe kit by 3 and you are in the ball park for what we pay at ds's bog standard middle school. Rugby shirt alone costs 25.

A tenner for a school trip on a coach sounds reasonable as coaches add a lot to the trip.

We hired a 55 seater coach to go to a museum about 50 minutes away this summer. It cost £250....if there are 35 children, thats about £7 each so the cost of £10 for the trip sounds about right.

Are they also providing any food and drinks? Any resources such as workbooks?

If you are worried by all means ask for a breakdown, but to be fair it sounds about right.

DD's school always gives a breakdown of the costs and tries to keep the costs down. For local places parents get together to take them in cars rather than using a coach.

£32 for pe kit doesn't sound excessive to me, its cheaper than my daughter's school. £1 for non uniform day is a standard rate I've been paying that for more years than I care to admit.

35 children at £10 is £350 less £135 for museum leaves £215 for coach and insurance which actually sounds quite cheap to me.

Sorry all, got distracted by housework! Will try to cover all the points but I apologise for not responding individually.

The school aren't providing any refreshments, we have to send in full packed lunches and water bottles. All the activities are provided by the museum as part of their school visit package.

I've just had one mutha of an update from a friend who is similarly disgruntled. She asked the financial doodah lady (don't know her proper title) who works in the reception and apparently the class are travelling in the school's own two minibuses and not by hired coach at all. Would there be costs associated with that which would explain the £215 surplus cost to parents?

Re: the PE kit, I wouldn't mind if the rest of the uniform was logo'd stuff, but that's all plain jumpers and trousers available from Tesco for a tenner. It's a little off topic but I'm adamant that £32 for a primary school child's PE kit is exorbitant.

So ask for clarification, much better than grumbling an feeling tricked and resentful. If the school are scamming you, why would you not want to find out the truth and fix the problem?

i organise school trips. the fee includes: admission price, insurance, admin charge by our finance dept(nominal), transport and depending on the type of trip, contingency money

no one is embezzling or getting rich from your fees. ask for a breakdown, it wouldn't bother me if anyone did.

you could always just not send your child in that day.

Oh just seen your update that transport is via minibus.

I was going to say that £7-8 per head seems about right for a coach - they are very expensive.

I would go and nicely ask the financial doodah lady (Bursar? Clerk?) to explain what the cost covers.

I'm happy to pay for school trips as I find them a lot less than the whole family going to visit the museum etc. My DSs have quite a lot of school trips to London that seem to cost around £35 but they do get to go to good places. It would cost £50 for our family to visit London on the train and we would have to pay entrance and probably miss out on the extra educational workshop type thing they organise. We do lots of day trips but the school ones always sound really good and it's a good experience for the DC to do these things with their friends. I think the £10 sounds about right.

£32 for a PE kit at primary is a lot, if we're talking t-shirt, shorts, plimsolls. Even with the request for a polo shirt in the child's house colour, ours doesn't come to much more than a tenner a child, including joggers for colder months.

Your school should be able to provide you with a cost breakdown. Our school does, to ensure complete financial transparency. Coaches are a major cost though, although now you have discovered that the school is using its own minibuses, I'm not too sure about the costs associated with that. Surely cheaper than coaches though - or what's the point in having them?

I'm going to go in and ask for a full breakdown after school today. It's reassuring to hear that most think it's not an outlandish sum though.

£32 for a PE kit at primary is a lot, if we're talking t-shirt, shorts, plimsolls. - No plimsolls included. It's t-shirt, jogging bottoms & jumper with the school logo & child's full name embroidered on. The embroidery is what pushes up the cost but why, for the love of cheese, does it need a child's full name in fancy embroidery on each item??

The pe kit would annoy me as you can't lass it on to another sibling or family that needs it.

I organise a class trip every year.

This year the price of the coach had gone up by nearly £100.

I used to complain very much about £9.00 for a trip to the local country park, until DS1 went to secondary and now its £400 for a 4 day trip to France.

So what do all you lovely parents who are so very resentful about schools offering extra curricular activites to your DC (which involve massive organisational headaches) actually accusing schools of? Siphoning off money from parents for what exactly?

for real, though, no one ever has to go on a school trip.

ever.

you can just not go.

Coaches do cost that much. I booked one for a trip in July for a day and the cheapest quote was £625.