School trip

[bippityboppitypoo]

Aibu to think £18 is quite pricey for a nursery/reception school trip to a local farm?

Admission price is £6, I'm thinking that will probably be reduced as a large group will be going.

Can't decide if I am just being tight

It will be the cost of the coach- very pricy.

They'll need to pay for coach hire, insurance and admission for all staff/helpers too. It does add up.

Ah yes maybe, I was just going on the fact we went to a farm recently and it was £30 for a family ticket of 4 so £36 for two dd seems a lot to me.

Transport can be pricey but you say it's local. I think there are insurance costs. But yes that seems very expensive. My kids schools do trips to london (1.5 hours on coach) for less than that.

It will be the transport costs. My dd's nursery trip to a farm was £15, plus if a parent / younger sibling went along it was £15 for their ticket too. I was the only parent who didn't go because we just didn't have £45 and I struggled to send dd. Felt awful but she enjoyed it.

I agree that it sounds a lot.

Three times the admission price??!!

It will be the coach, and sometimes schools buy in extra educational activities from these places as well, so it's not just the entrance fee.

It is quite pricey, but if you don't want your child to go then don't give permission.

I didn't even think of insurance costs .

It is local, I could take them myself for less then £12 each there n back.

Ok with all the things I hadn't considered I think it isn't too bad. I want them to go I was just a bit taken back and wondered if I was being silly

adult ratio of maybe 1:6 for the trip?
So the £18 is made up of the entrance fee (£6), 1/6 of the entrance fee for an adult (£1), coach fare there and back (6), 1/6 of the coach fare for an adult (£1). Which would leave a little over for additional activities or snacks; are they buying them an ice cream and is packed lunch provided?

It is expensive, but as others have said coaches are very costly these days. However we've never been asked to pay more than about £12 for a school trip. A teacher said that they had decided not to run some trips, if they were going to work out about £18, as they didn't feel they could ask parents to pay that much.

I just said to dh I expected around £12

Outrageous. If it's unaffordable I'm sure the head would subsidise for you.

DC's have just been on a school trip, 2 hour coach drive and lunch and it was only £4 each. No addmission fees though.

My daughter goes to school nursery and they are going on a trip to the seaside. They have asked for a donation of £3.75.
£18 does seem a lot.

I would be far too embarrassed to ask for subsidy. One good thing is the letter has come with 4 weeks notice, shall save best I can :-)

It's the coach. Our nursery is going to a farm park and the coach was quoted at £480. It turns out we need two.

So even though the PSA have subsidised the costs it is £13 per parent and child, before their help it was £15.

Ask for a breakdown of the costs. I do this and so does my ds's school. Coaches are extortionate.

Costs are a donation so if you can't afford it either don't pay or pay what you can afford.

Plus a nursery/reception trip may have a higher ratio than 1:6, maybe more like 1:5 or even 1:4 for little ones.

There may also be an education person from the farm doing the tour too.

Reception ratio is 1;4 for trips, nursery could be even higher. The coaches are ridiculously expensive!

Seems reasonable to me. Coaches are expensive for a good company. Our trips are usually around that price and those who can't afford just don't go sadly. Most schools can't afford to subsidise.some schools raise money in the form of cake sales etc to offset the overall cost, thereby bring the per child figure down.

Schools can't stop children going on trips due to non-payment.

I book this sort of trip for the school I work at. It is almost certainly the cost of the coach and having to cover the cost of the staff/adult helpers that is causing the problem. However, I would always try to book things that came in under about £13 - £15 at the very most. It might be worth having a polite word with the head and saying that you found it a bit of a financial strain; this happens fairly often at our school and the head will sometimes suggest to parents that maybe they could only pay half, or somesuch. May also make them think carefully about the cost of future trips.
I always feel very sorry for people with more than one child in the class on these trips (our school has multi-age classes so it is not unusual to have 2 or even 3 children in the same class).
Most schools are prepared to listen to your concerns though. Be brave!

To echo others, it'll be the cost of the coach. We are taking nursery to a free venue soon but with the cost of the coach it's still £2 and that is with pupil premium covering just over half.

This is actually standard price I think for trips Ive always payed around 15 for these sort of trips this year they have put them upto 18. Ive had to pay 5.00 here and there for trips to free museums etc, when queeried it they have said its the coach and extra staffing cost. Its a major pain in the bum its not that im tight but when have 4 school aged children it works out expensive wouldnt be so bad if they gave you a while to pay it but they expect it pretty much straight away