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? 😤

Wow, £750 for 2 nights?? That’s mad! I can’t imagine paying that for a trip, let alone with 4 kids. I get that prices are going up but it feels like schools just expect us to pay whatever now. I’d love to take them to Italy or something, but can barely keep up with the school trips as it is 😩. Honestly, the prices for everything just seem to be spiralling out of control. It’s crazy how much it costs to take a few kids out for the day these days!

Be lucky they get trips. Mine don’t.
Also, you had 3 kids so…

Yes this. Coaches are extortionate!

The alternative is absolutely no trips. I went to very basic state schools in a non/Uk country and there were no trips. None. No day trips, no residentials, no field trips - nothing. Very simple. I went to a lot of museums as an adult!

Why does MN hate any poster with more than 1 child? What if the poster had had triplets? 😂

The school trips aren't compulsory, you don't have to pay and send them.
Perhaps you should ask at the beginning of the school year what trips they have planned so you can pick and save for the ones you feel are worth it?

They’re not compulsory, but if OP’s child is the only one they’ll likely be upset at missing out and so it feels to the parents as though they are.

My kids are only little, I had no idea school trips were so expensive these days.

The costs are high to subsidise parents who don't/can't pay. Our school will take all of the kids regardless of whether the parents have paid or not. And apparently a lot don't!

I don't think that's true, I think people are surprised at someone complaining about the cost of having 3 children in school assuming they decided to have those 3 children.
School trips and knowing they cost money is not a surprise.

Schools are not allowed to do this. If anyone thinks they are, ask for a cost breakdown.

Why are coaches so expensive to hire? Would it be viable for the school to buy a coach and pay for a few teachers to take coach driving lessons and test?

Some good points made by posters on here, and I would agree that the cost coach hire has sometimes become the main part of the expense. Unfortunately, even with the best public transport on your doorstep, there is a world of difference between nudging 50 pupils onto a coach in your own schoolyard, who are then captive until they arrive at another "safe" destination, to trying to corrall them onto public transport, which is fraught with all sorts of risks that are not likely to be tolerated by an institution, or those who work in it. Cancellations, delays, "the public", young people doing something unexpected (and they do !), accessibility, supervision, and unknown or unlikely risks that we never really want to think about. That said, I would agree that there should be some thought put into this by institutions about how many trips, what value they bring, and what they cost, what the alternative is, and what the impact is on parents who have multiple children. It's hard to say no to when it is your child. x

I grew up not going on school trips because we couldn't afford them, it was very simply explained that we had no money for it, why is that such a bad thing for children to learn?

Sorry to say but the costs of children just get more expensive as they get older, you may not be paying nursery fees at some point but then there's uniform, trips, school asking for donations to this and that, money for school discos and non uniform day, costumes for book day, after school club, holiday clubs, hobby clubs, replacing shoes that get lost, it goes on and on.

It's coach costs which are ridiculous. Trip we are going on is £7 per child for the museum and £14 per child for the coach which is £21 for a museum 30 minutes away. The kids will love going with their friends but we're already saying we can't really ask parents to pay that next year. So we will probably just do one trip. It's a shame and some parents will complain if we don't do enough trips!

Haha we can't even afford gluesticks.

How long is the coach trip? From where to where?

I don’t think it necessarily is bad, but it’s not a nice position for kids to be put in especially if trips are frequent and they’re often the ones not going.

Maybe schools need to look at how often the more expensive trips are and whether they’re worth it.

My kids school trips are very cheap as the school will use local transport ( kids get free bus passes in Scotland) so definitely the coach

If you genuinely can't afford it speak to the school. Many schools use money the PTA makes towards subsidising the cost of trips for those who cannot afford to pay.

No all the contributions at my school are voluntary but if enough parents don't pay the trip can't happen (I don't think it's happened before). Children on pupil premium can claim it back.
We are so broke we are literally asking for parent contributions for everything at the moment but all of them are voluntary. Some families 24 quid is nothing whereas for some it might stretch a stretched budget.

I’m just running a trip for 30 children. We are going from one side of our town to the over - 3.5 miles and back again later that day. The coach company is based in the town. The cost of the coach £280!!! We are very lucky in that the trip is being paid by a local business and our local university via a grant due to our school being in a deprived area. I was shocked at the cost.

The thing with secondary though is that these trips are easier to opt out of.

Everybody's going on DS2's primary class camp. The whole lot of them. When he was in Y2 he wasn't sure about going on a (smaller, shorter) camp, and I got "Well, I don't really know what we're going to do with him, everyone else is going....." 🙄 It's £350 though, which is actually not bad considering it's 5 days and involves taking a ferry (maybe that's why it's cheaper- parents have to drop kids off at the docks so no coaches involved).

DS1'S secondary trips are indeed ridiculous prices. £800 for a 3 day Geography trip in southern Italy! I got straight online and priced something similar up as individuals - flights, hotel etc- for under £500 in a couple of weeks time! But the difference is that there's no pressure for them to go if parents can't afford it. He realises the prices are ridiculous and that it doesn't make sense to go.

In London, tube and bus travel is free for schools. I've taken reception children on the bus and tube twice a year for nearly 20 years, no one has been lost or injured yet.

We stopped getting a coach and take them on the train instead. Kids get free travel in London.

The coach will have to pay congestion charge and parking too