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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not pay full amount for school trip?

149 replies

bingisthebest · 12/05/2017 21:49

School send out a letter saying they are having a trip can you a. Pay a donation b. Pay the sum of .....
I have 3 dcs and although our choice it is expensive for us. Wibu to just pay a smaller donation?

OP posts:
BubbleBed · 12/05/2017 23:16

Oh I know. The school is one of the few to have one. And we are lucky as every year group get lessons, not just one group a year like other local schools. Thank God for our PTA tbh.

prettybaubles · 12/05/2017 23:19

How about we all stand back and look at what these trips are about?

I was born in the 60's, don't remember schools trips or going swimming every week. I somehow seem to have ended up doing ok.

I don't understand this need for constant trips and don't get me started on swimming lessons where a school has no pool. This stuff is not education is lovely extras which unfortunately schools now can't afford.

Here's an idea - lets get volunteers back in schools to hear children read and lets do walking trips to whatever is local and free.

Siwdmae · 12/05/2017 23:20

It's a 'voluntary' contribution, but basically the company says eg £350 per child. If you don't pay it, the cost needs to be absorbed by others so will go up. Trips are set for eg 35 children at £350. If fewer children go or less people pay, the cost goes up for the other children. If you get free school meals or your children are pupil premium, you can get up to 50% paid for depending on the school.

Or you could be like my parents, who couldn't afford school trips, so we didn't go. Pretty simple. They are not usually curriculum requirements, they're bonuses, so IMO, yabvu to pay less than has been requested.

WankingMonkey · 12/05/2017 23:22

Unless your later pregnancies were complete accidents, I think it's a bit much to complain you can't afford to pay for school trips because you have too many children!

Yes, there are absolutely no reasons at all why people would have kids and struggle for money besides purposely planning kids they could not afford. No contraception ever fails, no one ever loses their job, no one ever gets a disability, no families break up, and do on Hmm What a disgusting attitude.

Also, do people seriously PLAN for children they cannot afford at the time? I mean people outside of the daily mail headline grabbers...

Caiooo · 12/05/2017 23:25

It depends on the trip. If it's something like a primary school residential where everyone in the class is going, and you can't afford it, then yanbu. On the other hand the school where I work now offer a trip to the US during the summer holidays with 20? spaces when there are 2000 students in the school, so a student not going wouldn't be left out.

I guess if they have phrased it saying you can give a donation or the specified sum then maybe they have some other money they can use? Whereas we always say that if not everyone pays the "voluntary donation" then the trip will have to be cancelled - sometimes we can use PP/bursary funding for specific pupils though.

PickAChew · 12/05/2017 23:29

Here's an idea - lets get volunteers back in schools to hear children read and lets do walking trips to whatever is local and free.

Yes, localschool already does that - lucky to have a big pool of non-working volunteers, for a start. it doesn't have a pool but uses a pool in a nearby secondary school, so swimming is free, when the pool is up and running.

Sostenueto · 12/05/2017 23:32

If u can't afford full amount all at once ask the school if you can pay a bit at a time. So if cost is £10 and you have a couple of weeks notice then its just a fiver a week. Much better amount to find. I am sure school would be fine with this.

DailyMailReadersAreThick · 12/05/2017 23:36

On the other hand the school where I work now offer a trip to the US during the summer holidays with 20? spaces when there are 2000 students in the school

What genius came up with that terrible idea?

NoSquirrels · 12/05/2017 23:37

School reading volunteers & walking trips - yes, my DCs primary's school has/does both. But if your curriculum topic is India, and your nearest Sikh Temple is 40+ miles away, and your school is set in a rural idyll where forest school is pretty much all that's in walking distance, with the best will in the world you'll need contributions fir a coach even for the "free" school trips... or miss out, and only ever see the world on your doorstep.

RainbowsAndUnicorn · 12/05/2017 23:38

Your choice to have three, why should they get to do nice things at the expense of others? If you can't afford don't send them or if you can then pay the full amount.

For every parent who fails to pay the school budget is hit. Contributions should be compulsory or no place on the trip etc.

AntigoneJones · 12/05/2017 23:44

Yes but Rainbows, that would mean the less advantaged children missing out on chunks of the curriculum. Do you think that would be right? REally? in a state school?

Obviously I am not talking about the fancy pants ski trips to America and the like. Those are not part of the curriculum, more as a way to identify the 'nice' children...:)

ShakingAndShocked · 12/05/2017 23:46

Of course you'd BU not to pay it if you can (which your OP seems to suggest given as you've enquired in a 'which 'choice' do I make kinda way).

Why shouldn't you pay if you can and, more to the point, who the fuck d'you think should pay the extra for your DC if you can but choose not to?

There is no magic money tree in the school grounds OP. HTH.

DailyMailReadersAreThick · 12/05/2017 23:49

Pretty sure the "choice" referred to in the OP is her choice to have three children, not her choice of whether to pay or not. She's acknowledging that she chose to have three which makes life more expensive for her.

supermoon100 · 12/05/2017 23:50

Antigone, it depends what the school trips are and how much a part of the curriculum they really are. The more expensive trips (involving overnights) aren't really part if the curriculum.

prettybaubles · 12/05/2017 23:51

I just don't get it. Just because they are studying 'India' it doens't mean they have to travel to see a Sikh temple. What next - they are studying the habitat of cheetah's so they need to go to Africa! These trips are 'icing on the cake', they are not essential to education. It sounds as though most of the cost is the coach and insurance, how about imagination and creating something in the classroom.

This has all gone too far. The solution is for more people not to pay then the schools will have to drop the trips and do something local.

Floggingmolly · 12/05/2017 23:52

Op still hasn't explained why she has to pay for three school trips simultaneously, though. Are they triplets, op?

pheebo · 12/05/2017 23:55

Some people really do live with their heads in the clouds don't they 🙄

AntigoneJones · 12/05/2017 23:56

Supermoon, that's right, but the way some people are talking, it seems that children with hard up parents do not even deserve to access the curriculum trips.

PickAChew · 13/05/2017 00:00

flogging it could be a key stage wide trip, or a house - some schools put siblings all in the same house - or family group, as local school calls them.

SaucyJack · 13/05/2017 00:04

"How is it going to be paid for, without requests for 'voluntary' contributions?"

We have our own pool at DD's state school Multivac.

For the first time this year (due to budget cuts) they've said that payment is mandatory- you either pay or you kid doesn't swim.

No idea if that's legal or not, but they've just said in the newsletter that 100% of parents have paid for the first year ever.

DancingLedge · 13/05/2017 00:09

Choice to have 3 children?

Cause nothing has ever happened to you that was not your direct choice?

Well lucky you.
The rest of us , not so clear cut.
The death of DH?
The unexpected arrival of DC3?
You are, I hope, fully insured against contraceptive failures?
Guaranteed that DH can't leave you?

Glad you've got everything sorted.
Do feel completely free to judge those of us who didn't have written guarantees about what life held for us

Carry on.
One day, you might just walk in our shoes.

cherish123 · 13/05/2017 00:30

Strange that the school says you can pay a donation. What would happen if everyone did this? I have never come across this. Normally, if you don't pay, you don't go. Sometimes, however, schools have fundraisers to cover the cost of trips etc. Just pay what you can afford.

KittyConCarne · 13/05/2017 00:41

We're a low income family/ near the breadline, with 3 of 5 DC currently in FTE.
We've often made use of monthly instalment plans for school trips, but have always paid in full. Our schools also give options on the trip letters; for paying in full or under/ overpaying.
I like to think that if we were to really struggle to pay at one point, that we could use the facility to underpay/ accept help- and then hopefully overpay when our finances improved.
If you're genuinely struggling right now, then YWNBU to to pay a smaller donation this time.

WankingMonkey · 13/05/2017 00:44

I do think schools set the price a bit higher than it is also. The 'donation' amount we are sugegsted to pay does always seem pretty high. For example last year DD had a trip to the local farm and the 'suggested donation' was 20 quid. Most will just pay the 20. Some will pay over too. So it makes up the funds for any who are short (or just won't pay...in the case of one fairly well off family in DDS school...who make a point of saying they wont pay a voluntary donation as voluntary means they don't have to Hmm )plus a bit more to go 'in the school pot' I reckon.

Caiooo · 13/05/2017 00:45

What genius came up with that terrible idea?

One who's come up with plenty of "interesting" ideas which the head always seems to wave through even when the rest of us suggest it's not the best idea.

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