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.

Oh and to add - when DD is on her trip they're not doing fun activities like zip lining. They will be soil sampling and rock pool analysis and all that sort of (free) hing.

OP specifically said that price doesn't include transport

The cost of everything has gone up so I don't think it is unreasonable. I didn't see when in the school year it was, our school did theirs in the October of year 6 to keep costs down.

Well the school aren't making a profit so if that's what it costs, that's what it costs.

If they do it every year, parents have six years to plan for it and I am certain some will be paying in instalments and some won't be paying at all.

If the price has increased significantly and only recently, then the school may well already be thinking that it is time to consider something cheaper in future but it will be too late for this year (alternatives will be booked).

They may be going ahead because this cohort have missed out on two years of trips due to covid.

We run a residential trip to a lovely, family-run outdoor adventure place. It's 4 nights, with four full days of things like mountain climbing, zip lining, tunnelling, archery, cooking, feeding animals, etc. They have locally produced, organic food and sleep in dorm rooms of no more than 6, with ensuite bathrooms.

It usually costs around £300 per child. We go in winter so it's cheaper, but still can only run it once every two years, as it tends to be only half of Y5 and Y6 who sign up to go. The rest can't afford it. That also gives our (mostly low-income) families two years to save up and pay by payment plan.

I think £300 for two nights seems hugely excessive.

Worth mentioning that, at our school, a group of parents thought they could do it cheaper and set about planning to do just that - plans abandoned when the costs came in significantly higher than ours.

It seem high if transport not included

DS school Yr4 residential is the same price for 2 nights as well and I agree it's expensive. I know costs have gone up etc but another local school are running the exact same trip at £100 cheaper because they've been flexible with the dates to get it cheaper for the parents, but ours didn't do that.

They also run residentials every single year so we'll be expected to fork out this amount every year.

What annoys me is they are also putting on an additional 2 trips during the year, which will probably cost another £100+! They don't need 3 trips in one academic year, but parents will pay it as they don't want their kid to be the one to miss out.

In contrast a friend's DDs school have put out a notice to say they are conscious of the cost of living crisis and outlining everything that they will ask money for across the year, including only 1 trip per year. That's how it should be at the moment.

Trip costs and coach hire have gone up hugely in the past few months so it is what it is unfortunately

Ours was £320 in year 5 and £275 in year 6 - with twins it was a lot but we knew in advance (since reception) and had planned for it. I think schools should produce a letter with the costs for each year group for different trips for all parents to see so you can prep even if locations and full details change.

Dd1 is going on her school ski trip and they set the price in June for February but the travel company has increased the cost so it’s an extra £55. We had a fortnight to pay that which I thought was poorly handled.

A reasonable cost is whatever the venue and transport company charge per person, divided by the number if children attending. In some cases, schools might factor in the cost of supply to cover teachers accompanying those on the trip, as ratios are different and some children will stay at school. Mostly, they just absorb this, like the teachers themselves with the hours extra hours they're giving. You don't have to go.

That does seem expensive. I say that as someone who has organised school residentials, though ours was funded by a sponsor and involved sole use of a youth hostel.

I kept the overall cost minimal by having kind staff offer to cover internally where possible. We did all activities ourselves, so no rock climbing or canoeing etc. Biggest costs were therefore transport and accommodation.

My dad has just done a one night, two long days residential trip, full of activities.

£60 pp. That included lunch, dinner, snacks, breakfast, lunch again and coach travel plus the accomodation and the activities. So £300 without travel does seem steep. I know a few families that really struggled to afford the £60. It was spread out over installments to try and help and some families who approached school and couldn't pay didn't have to pay. The school has a policy of not leaving any child behind because of cost. (We have a very active PTA that raise a lot of money throughout the year to help with this ethos: they subsidise the kids that wouldn't be able to go because of cost).

we pay about that amount for dc residential for 4 nights/5 days.

there are no additional travel costs if dc decide to cycle, otherwise it's public transport (not uk). most dc cycle as that's part of the fun.added benefit is that they sleep very well when they return

it's the activities/equipment that's costly. abseiling, surfing, escape room...

Ours last year was £480 for four nights. Apparently is used to be cheaper because they were able to take their own food but because 'covid' not anymore.

All the kids complained about the food and the activities less than normal. Again 'covid'.

PGL

@Tommyrot which schools pay their staff for trips? In 20+ years of teaching I've never seen that. As a pp above said, the key point is that schools don't make a profit out of these trips. It costs what it costs. There maybe good reasons why they can't be flexible on dates..
.like the staff going can't be away from their own families on the cheaper dates.

"A reasonable cost is whatever the venue and transport company charge per person, divided by the number if children attending" - isn't a reasonable cost the amount that the bottom tier of parents can afford multiplied by the number of kids, plus a bit if there is scope for some parents to pay extra to help others? That would be the way i budget at home. I see what I can afford and cut my cloth accordingly not the other way round... Just my thoughts.

And i know we don't have to go. And probably won't and that's fine. But still interesting to see what others think.

I think it’s unreasonable. Are school offering help for those families who will be unable to pay? I will be taking my class to London (from NW) in June for an overnight. We will travel by train and spend the night on hms Belfast. They will have a cinema trip and a meal in a restaurant. We have applied for and received a grant and we are also sponsored by a local firm. Costs to families are kept to an absolute minimum to make sure everyone who wants to go, can. However, we are a school in a deprived area. I think for things like this there are grants etc available if school look for them.

That is exceptionally cheap and must be heavily subsidised

That's a lot. North West here and in may this year we paid £220 for 5 days in the lakes. Activities were Brockholes tree top trek, watersports on Lake windermere and gullivers theme park on the way home plus play park at keswick and a day of walking at Grasmere (free). Stayed in a hostel at Grasmere.

Ds did 2 days for his year 7 retreat in keswick in September but staying in a church run hostel and going in small groups to use the schools own transportation. So just one night away. Cost £60 which I thought was expensive as they didn't do any costly activities.

Maybe they are using a costly outdoor pursuits provider?

At our primary school if you can't pay the school will take you anyway.

The charity will be able to do it cheaper because they have chosen a weekend, schools can't do that ( well they could but staffing might be an issue!) so it will be more expensive as the centre will charge more.

That sounds so good!

“The bottom tier” as you put it probably wouldn’t be able to afford anything for a trip so by that logic no trips should go ahead.

Depends on what they doing.....if it's three or four activities per day ..like archery rock climbing,kayaking etc then these things cost money ...
But if it's just teacher led ..walking ,sandcastle building etc then it's quite expensive