School requesting £80+ for school trips before Christmas!

[flowerfairy]

DD is Y3 and yesterday brought home 2 letters about school trips. One is for a theatre trip the whole school goes on in January which is £14, but has to be paid in full by mid December. Y3 also do a 1 night residential at local outdoor ed centre, at the cost of £67, which is at the start of December, so will need to be paid for in full before this date. This letter also includes the classic line "Unfortunately if there are insufficient numbers then the trip may not go ahead which would be a great shame."

I understand the reason for the high cost of school trips (insurance/coaches/etc). But AIBU to think that the school is asking for over £80 in the lead up to Christmas is a bit much? Whilst I am not on the breadline, nor entitled to Pupil premium, this amount of money will affect the amount that I have towards Christmas presents, etc.

DD is desperate to go and I know how left out you can feel if you are the only one who doesn't go ( I was that child).

Opinions please.

Uniform is usually cheaper than buying clothes for every day.

Schools don't "demand", the teachers are trying to provide your dc with a rich learning experience outside the classroom. Teachers don't get paid any extra for overnight trips. They do it because they like the kids.

Sorry OP, I've read some outrageous stories on here of schools making totally unreasonable demands/ requests for money for extracurricular trips, but this isn't one of them. It's still 3 months till Christmas. As long as the school has some kind of contingency for the minority of families who would really struggle to find this money even with that much notice, I think they've been pretty fair.

We had a request the second week of term for £40 for a theatre trip for June!!! To be paid before October.

I do agree though, I have 4 children so already panicking about all the extra costs Christmas brings and there will be several trips in the lead up to it. I do think it's great for the kids though, they get to experience a wide variety of activities and places which some, may otherwise not. But, finding the money isn't always easy.