To be fed up with the cost of school trips?

[0TiredMumOf4]

Hi all,
Just having a bit of a rant because I feel like I’m being totally swamped by the cost of all these school trips recently. DD1’s school trip to the Science Museum in London is coming up, and it’s a whopping £45. That’s for one trip! And to make matters worse, I’ve already shelled out for DS’s farm trip (another £35), and DD2’s little museum trip just up the road (which, okay, is £15, but still) 🙄.

I get that these trips are important, but seriously? £45 for a museum trip? That’s not even factoring in the cost of packed lunches and the inevitable begging for snacks to take on the coach. And they expect me to fork out this kind of money for all three of them every time there’s a school trip?? 🤦‍♀️

It’s not like I’m made of money, and it feels like they have a trip every other week. Am I being unreasonable to feel totally fed up with how much these things are costing? I don’t mind supporting the kids, but I can’t keep up with this!

Anyone else feel the same, or am I just being a tight arse? 😤

We're just inside London Z6. DS went to the science museum including the paid for activity science area for no charity. Apparently the science museum dies certain days free of charge for some school groups and they travel free off peak on the train. They do have to walk to and from the train station but they get faster as they move up the school.
They've also had school matinees for less than £12
At £45 they'd be better taking the train, even if outside London as I'm sure they'd get a cheaper rate of they booked in advance as a group fare and it's a really good learning experience for the kids.

i Don’t think “technically” schools can charge for trips undertaken during school time. I also have 3 in school and the trips are outrageous and parents get about a weeks notice to pay.

My school did a trip to a free to enter religious centre this year and wanted to charge £10 per Child (for transport!) .. I politely told them there was a bus stop outside the school entrance which drops off outside the venue and maybe they should put into practice some of the virtue signalling do-gooding they do about teaching about climate change and sustainability. They said they couldn’t possibly take the children on a public bus - the horror! I told them that I work in the centre of London and frequently see whole classes of children being taken on the Tube for school trips and if they could manage it with children half the age of my child I’m sure the school could. They said no. So I didn’t pay.

talking to teachers at the other schools there is definitely a different ethos of schools that don’t consider themselves in deprived areas. My school is in a fairly well off area and there is little thought given to cost of school trips, branded uniforms (which can’t be bought at ASDA) etc yet a local school 3 miles down the road in what is considered a deprived area the teachers openly talk about how hard they work to keep cost down and are more creative about where when and how trips are organised

I am not sure I would want teachers taking 60 children on a public bus if I was a normal bus passenger.
There would be issues surrounding buying tickets and whether the bus had enough space. Also no seat belts on public buses either.

My kids school doesn't do expensive trips. I can't remember one costing more than £15. They also say it's a voluntary parental contribution but if not enough people pay the trip won't go ahead.

I work in a school. Parents complained about the cost of trips (which we can't control - we don't set the entry prices or coach costs and we obviously don't make a profit). Three years ago we stopped running trips due to cost as so many parents weren't able to pay. Parents now complain that we don't run trips. It was the same with school camp - it was getting really expensive and parents were vocal about the rising costs so we cut camp from a week to three days to keep the costs down and everyone was upset about that too. It's very difficult to provide the same level of trips, camps and in school visits that we did a few years ago without the costs to parents going up too.

Yeah, I totally get that coaches are expensive but £45 is a lot for just transport and a free museum. I’d be fine if there were a few more activities included, but it feels like it’s just a big chunk for getting there. I’m definitely going to speak to the school to see if they can break down the cost a bit more, maybe there’s stuff I’m missing. As for the three kids thing, I knew it would be expensive but didn’t realise trips would be this much! 🤦‍♀️

Username suggests it’s actually 4 children!

More expensive when they get to secondary school. £600 for the Battlefields, £400 for the UK residential, Skiing is around £1k etc etc

Lots of schools use funding from the Turing scheme to run heavily subsidised/ free trips for pupil premium kids. Then parents who can afford to take their kids abroad complain that they aren’t getting a free/ subsidised trip.

That’s nothing, my son’s trip at the end of the year is £750 for 2 nights lol……..

@Moonnstars
the trip to the religious centre in question - the two classes of 30 were going on different days anyway…and then the class was split in two so half going for a morning session and half going for an afternoon. So 15 children at a time…more than manageable on a public bus. The distance was about 2 miles or 10-15 minutes on the bus.

in London this week I got on the Tube at Euston and there was a class of I’d say 20-30 boys all on there going on a trip in one carriage and from I saw a similar number in the next carriage

Dd1 goes to Italy on Saturday - ancient history A level - £1400. For what they are doing it’s good value but I was surprised how many are going (1/4 of her year group). Dtds want to go on the skiing trip - £1200 per child but we’ve planned for it as older dd went 2 years ago. Our days of £45 trips seem a distant memory. Mind you, the ski trip when I was at school was £850 and I’m now 43 years old. School also has a “charity trip” to Kenya for 4 weeks at £7k. This is a state school in a deprived area apparently (my dc are not going to Kenya).

I run a youth group and a we are off to a weekend camp which is an hour and a quarter away. We have costed a coach there and back and the cheapest is £1100 and the most expensive is £1800! It’s obscene! In 2018 we did the same journey and it was £700

but when you’ve got 3 kids in school it really adds up

Which is why on "shall I have a third child?" threads a lot of responses are from posters reminding them that children are expensive, and get more expensive the older they get.

I agree that those prices for day trips are insane though.

And this is what makes the trips so expensive. The contribution is voluntary, and a chunk won't or can't pay but the school is not allowed to not take them based on this. Costs are worked out based on the percentage expected to pay. For example, a trip may cost £20 per child, but if only 50% likely to pay, then they charge £40 to cover the costs of the trip for all.

It’s the cost of coach hire! We’re trying to organise a series of amazing ecological and heritage days for schools in a neighbouring town about 12 miles away, and the cost for coach hire alone is approx £500.
just dreadful given that the cost of the outreach sessions themselves for the whole day are £250

Maybe they are going to the Wonderlab or one of the other paid parts of the museum.

@Neverplayleapfrogwithmrpipes
at mine the residential trip 2 hours away the parents are expected to drop them off and pick them up….during working hours no less …a few parents have offered car sharing but some parents don’t want the responsibility of taking someone else’s child plus most parents work. Everyone is a bit 🙄

i really don’t get why schools even need to provide school trips - most local attractions the majority of parents will have taken their children themselves at some point - for considerably less cost!
and as for the ones abroad…what exactly is the school getting out of it since there is usually a thread or two from teachers saying they hate having to go on them and it’s “not a holiday”

They'll likely become more expensive as fewer parents are available to volunteer as chaperones on public transport.

You also have a real shock when they get secondary school. Those prices are eye-watering.

Agree, that's ridiculous. Two weeks ago I paid £120 for the overnight trip to Bath in July as enrichment trip, few days later £20 for the theatre trip (plus train fares). Yesterday got an email - there's an enrichment day in May costing £55, and two Geography trips £40, also in May/early June. State school. I was speechless.

Wait for secondary school when the teachers put on skiing trips to France and language trips to Spain and history trips to Germany and cricket trips to South Africa...

A lot of my local primary schools (not sure about secondary, as I mostly work with primary schools) are using public transport for trips now to keep costs down.

Which is great if you live in London or other areas with plentiful public transport.

Sadly, not doable round here.

Yeah it is the coach costs because museums are free. If it’s £45 a kid and most coaches can take two classes so it’s like £2700 for the coach hire. That is a shocking cost though.

@ThisUsernameIsNowTaken

in Year 5 there is a skiing trip in Italy …during term time …the cost is ridiculous so I costed up for me to take my child skiing in a similar resort …also outside of school holidays and I could do it for half the cost but the school refused to sign the leave and threatened a fine even though we would be away the exact same days they would be doing the exact same activities 🤔😂

The school has to pay for all that extra stuff though - museums etc don’t do that for schools for free