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? 😤

Where would they keep the coach? How would they convince staff to agree to drive it?

This. Why not take public transport.

So pp merrily pop out babies with no thought as to how to actually fund them? Most of us do take that into account when determining family size yes.

You’re not being unreasonable or tight.

Mine are little, but I am now dreading the cost of secondary school trips after my friend with older children telling me a horror story recently about a Year 7 trip costing hundreds. She wanted to discuss it and hasn’t started the monthly payments as no response, and is now being badgered that she is behind on these monthly payments for something she hasn’t actually consented to yet!

I don’t remember trips being like this when we were younger. I remember the pricey ones rightly being more optional. I would refuse to pay/let my child go, especially if it were to prevent us affording a family holiday. But then I guess the children get upset and want to go with their friends. Really tough for parents!

As others have said, it's the coach costs. A teacher at DD's secondary told me it was £6k for a coach into London - about 25 miles away. The train is not really that practical or cheap when there's 240 in the year, and the school is nowhere near the station. They have cut down massively on the number and types of trip offered.

Are they going to see the Versailles and Science exhibition at the museum because that isn’t free.
DS is a primary school teacher and his school has few trips because parents can’t afford the coach. Taking the children into London involves a walk, bus and tube.

Not all schools are on public transport routes!

OP are they doing a workshop or special exhibition?

I understand to an extent, however if there were no trips that would be worse. I remember school trips, and they were great fun, I think they are important not only for learning but for building relationships and having a shared experience outside of school grounds.

My son in HS has a trip to Berlin next year, it is £770 for 3 nights, which was a bit of a shock, but I've got 9 months to pay it!

Because not everywhere has good public transport! Why is that so hard. Taking a year group to London on the train from us would mean having to travel at the same time as commuters. To be safe I’d need to take another member of staff really (which increases costs).
I wanted to take sixth form to a free event at our local university. Outreach lectures. Would have been great. But…we have to put cover costs into a trip. Felt wrong to charge people £5 for a free event that they would then buy a bus ticket to travel to.
We also have to charge the admin costs of the trip now (not the case when I started teaching). Trips are a nightmare to organise now. I spend ages trying to get the prices down.
We mainly stick to walking them to the local theatre (10 minute walk: 20 minutes with year 7!).

So pp merrily pop out babies with no thought as to how to actually fund them? Most of us do take that into account when determining family size yes.

I really wasn’t thinking about school trips when working out how I would find my family. Childcare, food, clothing, housing yes. Going to the science centre in P5 really wasn’t on my horizon. I don’t think I’m remotely alone in that.

I would want my children to have as many opportunities as possible not just the bare minimum basics. If that meant limiting family size then so be it. The larger family is often for the parents benefit not the childrens.

Thanks. I guess living in sw London with everything on the doorstep gives access to so much so the our incurring the costs you described. Although I will say when travelling in to town there are regularly groups of primary and cinders children swamping the train with us. No biggie. And finally if a university event you could ask for help to lay on a coach. They may say no but you might’ve surprised

I know it's an unhelpful thing to say but for me this is one reason I won't be having 3 kids. Children are expensive and the more you have the more the costs are multiplied.

I think it's so brilliant that you have insight into the unfairness of this, even though you yourself can afford to pay for these things.
So many people have an 'I'm alright Jack' mentality. It's refreshing to read a post that shows empathy and concern for people in a position less fortunate than themselves.

"Otherwise, the kids whose lives are already enriched by travel and cultural experiences get more of it and the ones who don’t are just stuck at school learning about nail art and never seeing beyond our tiny little town."
You're so right about this and it actually makes me feel sick. It's the start of lifelong inequality based on your social status. And schools shouldn't feed into this. They should do everything they can to work against it.

It really isn't MN being ridiculous! Part of responsible family planning is considering the long teams costs associated with having children. It isn't all about maternity leave and nursery fees but things like school trips and extracurricular activities as they get older and it may well become more expensive clothes and tuition fees as they get even older. Of course you don't know the exact costs before you have the child but as a general rule things go up not down and expectations of what is normal also increase. You really should factor all of this in.

Also, trips abroad/camping can be a fantastic way for poorer kids to access these things as the families can fund just that child and don't have to pay for the whole family to go. I know that was the case when I was younger and went abroad for the first time with school.

That’s 3 separate trips for 3 different kids….?

Cost of living has had huge impacts on schools as well as families. Having kids is expensive, especially 3.

Coaches are expensive in part because drivers are expensive. Drivers are expensive because they're scarce, because a lot of drivers were from the EU and have left the UK. There's also long time lags in all licences including the Category D ones you need for the large vehicles.

It's not "mad". People have explained why.
Do you know what coaches plus insurance cost?
If you can work out how to do it cheaper, tell the school

You're completely justified in finding it difficult OP.
I've got a DC in year 6 and a DC in year 8.
For my year 6, school have asked for £55 for a day trip last month, £145 for 2 day trips in May, £650 for a 3 day PGL trip in May that's a 1 hour drive away, money for leavers hoodies, endless asking for money for a leavers celebration, they have asked for my DC to go to school tomorrow dressed as a WW2 evacuee which has meant I've had to buy an outfit which will only be worn for 6 hours (funnily enough we dont have kids 1940s clothes laying around ready to wear for a dress up day at school), they've asked for money to fund an Easter party, they ran a school disco last week and charged us for the kids entrance. This is a regular state primary.
In August, in preparation for moving to secondary in to year 7, I will be shelling out £500 for secondary school logo'd uniform and blazer and logo'd PE kit and new school shoes and the exact PE trainers they specify plus football boots (DC doesn't even play football but the school insists they all have to have a pair and they are expensive!).
Meanwhile DC in year 8 - school wants £485 for a 3 day trip in July also an hour away, £50 for a day trip in April, and in July I'll be spending another fortune on a load more logo'd uniform for DC who has grown out of this year's uniform. The uniform has to be bought from a specialist private shop that's a 35 minute drive away. It's literally the only shop that sells the school's specific, personalised uniform. You have to take your kids there to be measured up for all the uniform. Even the skirts have to be from this shop with the school logo embroidered on them. It's only a regular state secondary!😰

If you can afford to have four kids you can afford the cost of their school trips! Come on now.

Wait until they run a £1,400 skiing trip your dc want to go on. And yes, we had to say no to that one.

We were just offered 3 days/2 nights coach trip to go to a European city £1,400. Oddly enough no one showed any interest. School now pushing a 4 day coach trip to another city for £800 but not much interest in that either.

Start praying they don't choose geography as a GCSE. You can imagine the cost for 5 days field trip to Iceland...

I’ve never paid more than £10 for a primary school trip. £45 is a lot.

You think they don't? Those who are Pupil Premium/FSM go for free. Other parents make a "donation". If they don't pay, the school pays.
No-one is excluded for reasons of poverty.