School trip - what is a reasonable cost?

[oblada]

Y6 school trip. Our school is asking for close to £300 for the end of year school trip (2 nights away). It doesn't include transport which is covered with fundraising.
Now I can't complain too much, I can probably afford it. I don't have £300 to burn but I can manage.
But it feels wrong. Especially at the moment.
We're in the North West. Not an affluent part of the country.
I think I have made up my mind about what to do but I would be interested to see what everyone thinks generally on the cost. School is adamant it is a reasonable cost. Most people I discuss it directly with tend to agree with me (but maybe they don't really won't knows).
My own view is that up to £150 per kid is relatively affordable for most, in installments, and should be the max budget for a school trip. Whatever the kids do together will be unforgettable to them. They don't need millions of activities crammed in.
But is that unreasonable? Are other school able to do trips for cheaper than £300 per kid? Our weekends away are far cheaper than £300 per person. Now we don't have to worry about the safety aspects etc but then I'd think they'd be savings in the number of kids involved.

That does seem a lot. Our school residential was for a full week and cost about that.

Cost of cover: that's somewhere in the region of £150/teacher/day.
Cost of accommodation.
Food.
Activities.

Teachers don’t get paid to do residential other than their salary - no over time for these trips.

They do have to include the rooms food activities and staff where they are staying. Probably two teams working shifts.

I agree that the kids will enjoy and remember being away with their friends and having a ball whether they do expensive activities or cheap ones. They would love orienteering or mountain climbing or swimming for instance as much as going to Harry Potter World or Thorpe Park. There is no need for the school to decide families should appreciate their children doing high price things especially when people are under financial stress in general.

Ours is £300 but is 5 days. 2 nights makes it seem expensive. Our local cub camp costs £35 for 2 days but that is run by volunteers rather than teachers.

It’s pretty much what a residential school trip costs. I agree it’s a lot of money, but I’d be surprised if the school could do it for much less.

They do get paid at some schools.

You don’t say what the trip involves which will obviously make a difference to if it’s good value for money.

unfortunatly residential trips will always be out of the reach of some families for many your acceptable £150 will be just as impossible as the £300.

The thing is whether you/I think it's a reasonable cost or not, that is what they've been quoted then that's how much it is.

Our Year 6 trip was quoted the same for three days/two nights. It included transport but I know the school contributed to that cost.

I know that residential centres have had a difficult time with recruitment and rising costs so may well have raised their prices.

Think it’s important to clarify that the volunteer aspect isn’t really what makes the difference in cost here. Teachers do not get paid extra for running school trips. They volunteer.

It may be the case that scouting volunteers have the skills to run activities (eg rifle shooting, archery, climbing) that schools have to pay trained professionals to lead, which accounts for some of the costs. Schools also pay for accommodation which is usually different from scout groups using tents / facilities they already own.

I don't think it's too bad. Our school costed the usual one last year and it had increased from £150 to £300 and wasn't run as our families were unlikely to be able to pay. This year we have already started consulting patents so they are ready when it comes around but tbh the cost will probably have gone up again making it unaffordable. We already subsidise every school trip across school but can't do that with the residential at these levels. Many schools near us were asking for much more for their trips even before cost rises so I don't think it's too much tbh.

Except those ‘cheap’ activities all cost too once you need appropriate insurance and qualified professionals to lead them. Then there ends up being little difference in cost between the ‘expensive’ day out not requiring specialist staff and the ‘cheap’ activity requiring specialist skills.

If the trip is actually end of year ( post SATS) it will be expensive. School trips in February or March are usually much cheaper.
But the school doesn't choose the price, this is what the activity centre will charge. You can't really compare it with a family weekend away as there are back-to-back organised activities provided with tuition and supervision, as well as accommodation and food.
If, on the other hand, the trip is 2 nights camping in a field, then yes, £300 quid is a bit steep.
As other posters have said, teachers contribute their extra time for free, there is not charge for the overnight supervision/responsibility, they just get their normal wage, not even time off in lieu for working 24/7. Having been on these trips, I can say it is not unusual to be up till 1am dealing with homesick children and then woken again by 5am.

What it involves is relevant and it isn't. Because even if it is good value for money my question is whether a cheaper trip would be more sensible and more inclusive. Even if less 'busy'.

It involves the various activities kids will love like zip lining, climbing etc but quite a lot crammed in. We do a very similar weekend every year organised by a charity we're involved in and it costs a fraction of that (removing the discount we all get due to fundraising activities and adding up staffing costs) so I'm not convinced it's good value for money but even if it were my thoughts are they could do something cheaper and just as exciting to the kids.

If it was £150 I'd actually be able to pay for that and help a parent struggling. At £300 a pop i can't afford to do that.

Re your suggestion of doing fewer activities, are they going to one of those residential activity centres? If so the price is usually a fixed amount per child, I doubt the school chooses how many activities to do.

Depends where they are going and what they are doing, surely?
Going to Blackpool/out hiking in Lancashire with no paid activities involved, it's on the steep side of reasonable. London for 2 nights including entry to some events, it's cheap.
It's all relative.
Plus, my school for example, syphons off a small % of anything parents pay for into the hardship fund which then covers the children who can't pay.

Xpost.
Sounds reasonable in that case.

I agree it seems a lot at the moment. A few years ago ds went to USA with his state school. Managed with dm help and ot at work. Can only remember going camping with my school in the 80s.dont think dp could have managed to pay it .tbh

We've just paid £350 for 2 nights in June at a PGL for my year 6. School is in a deprived ex mining town in South Yorkshire!

Seems excessive to me.

Ours was a few weeks ago and was about £180 for 2 days/nights, that included all food, activities and transport. £300 seems a lot

Yeah, that’s about standard I think. People always think they’d magically be able to do it cheaper than schools, but they won’t once everything is added up. And what you’ve done in previous years with a charity is irrelevant- costs have gone up massively and schools have to do things in ways charities don’t. I can’t see how any school would manage a two night trip for £150 next year without massively subsidising it.

Bus costs are insanely high at the moment.

DD is going away for 3 days 2 nights this week (wednesday-friday) with school and it's costing £120, BUT they are all 16/17 and are travelling with the teachers on train/ferry/bus from Glasgow to the centre at an extra cost of about £50.

My dd is year 12 is going to Paris with school for 3 days. Costing £500.

Depends on where the trip is and what they are doing, but £300 for 2 nights, not including transport sounds expensive to me.

We've done that 2 months ago so it is a very current comparison.
But yes possibly a charity can do things different. I don't know.