To have put a P.S at the bottom of the school trip consent form?

[charliecat]

DD1s school trip was to a very expensive zoo, miles away...cost £10.
DD2s school trip is to a local forest costing £20 to park the coach...no expensive entrance fees....they want £11 per child.
Ive put a P.S at the bottom querying the cost....as im writing im realising they will have to hire a coach..but they had to to get to the expensive zoo too...and it costs to get in there.....
Am I being unreasonable.

No not unreasonable, I'd have phoned them up & asked why it cost so much!

coach hire . Are they younger ie higher pupil to staff ratio / wages. Are there less of them going so more expensive for the coach ? Lunch ?

not at all, that seems extortionate! I'm pretty sure my ds school has a policy of not asking more that £10-15 from parents each year for trips and they go on coaches to various places. I'd ask for a breakdown. Also I'm pretty sure that they can only ask for a voluntary contribution...

We provide lunch, 60 6 year olds.

No Charlie, your not but there is a hell of a lot of stuff that is required for trips and many different insurances too.

The Zoo, while costly from your POV may be closer, be covered by cheaper insurance requirements etc

A forest trip may be further away, requie more fuel, additional driver requirements, different staffing levels and more costly insurance considerations.

I wouldn't be a school secretary for anything. Trying to organise a school trip is a logistical nightmare.

I agree that it would be nice to know why the difference tho

Message withdrawn

I think it's insurance.

Was the other trip subsidised by the PTA?

That would be two coaches then ?

1 coach apparently andschool mini bus. They used to word it voluntary contribution, not its will you pay before we book.
But many dont as you can hear the teacher asking the kids for money and forms up to the last date...maybe ive just answered my own question............

I did write a PS as well once for exactly the same reason. For the following year , I was taken on the side by the teacher everytime there was a school trip to be explained "once again"why it was so expensive. I did not write anything anymore but DC do not go to all school trips anymore as I decided it was my privilege to choose value for money.(DC all do understand very well)I decided I was not going to be treated like I was simply for voicing an opinion.

It is extortionately expensive to hire a coach these days.

Schools are not generally out to make a profit on such trips and you also have to remember that the cost of any adults (who are either staff or helping voluntarily) needs to be accomodated for in the costs to the pupil.

Dd just come back from a 3 day residential trip at a very low price; we were lucky in that the school managed to get part of the costs covered by some sort of fund. Perhaps that was the same for your zoo trip. In which case, count your blessings.

The school won't be making a profit you can be sure of that!

My school teacher friend showed me the other week why one of her trips cost as much as it did. I was gobsmacked by the cost of hiring a coach. There is also staffing/cover costs/insurance to be factored in. And then they have to add on about 12% to cover all the children whose parents won't pay, as schools cannot make it compulsory - they have to ask for voluntary contributions.

Fair enough to withdraw your child if you don't want to pay. That's the reason many teachers don't organise trips anymore. And that's without even starting on the risk assessments....

I take my hat off to any teacher prepared to organise and lead a school trip these days - it is literally HOURS of work just to organise one, and then you still have to set your lessons to be taught in your absence. Far easier to spend the day teaching thirty kids in school instead.

this is a conversation from march.

Correct

There seems to be a lot of resurrected threads just recently why? Hey maybe I should start a new aibu - 'Am I being unreasonable to wonder who replies to old threads 18months later?!'

I suspect people resurrect them because they're relevant to them at that point in time. After all, it's reasonable to expect that the same or similar topics will re-occur on threads.
Or is that just too reasonable an explanantion?

I guess so. I suppose I just ask the question I want to have answers to and don't think to 'search' for it.

or to state the reason why you brought it back would help even more

problem is, people are answering the OP without checking the date.

In this case though 'Onthewarpath' hasn't offered any advice nor asked for any - just told an anecdote. bit