to think DD's school is being cheeky charging £14 for a school trip

[Mojomummy]

when the entrance fee to the venue is £5.50 ?

Where's the £8.50 of this charge going ?Parents provide normal pack lunch & drinks.

Is this normal ?

We are in an undeprived area, but most of the kids took their sleeping bags/pillows to PGL in bin bags...

No idea about ice cream money , but I organised a field trip (educational) and had to find the money for the children whose parents couldn't pay out of department funds.

(And everything smelt gross by the time it came home )

Well, I've been involved in organising enough to know that it's costed realistically to minimise expense to the school - they always end up running at a loss because of non-payers.

We charge admission + coach, insurance etc.

The level of staffing we are expected to provide (at secondary, lower pupil:teacher ratios @ primary) is not covered by free admission tickets - if x teachers are out of school, their classes have to be covered by (frighteningly expensive) supply. We generally ask as many non-teaching staff as possible to come along to keep this cost down. The school's budget covers supply - not the parents paying for the trip.

I'd agree school trips work out expensive, but it's definitely not to the school's financial benefit to run them at all.

My school had a limit on how much we would charge through the year for trips. IIRC it was about £15 per child.

(No consolation to you though, Godzilla. Maybe you should ask for a BOGOF for the DTDs ).

Residential trips are usually covered by different funding/costing policies to day trips.

So much depends on the LEA, the wealthiness of the school, whether they have the means to get funding from other sources - often schools in deprived areas are eligible for government grants, etc to provide the children with opportunities they may not otherwise get.

It's all hugely unfair, of course. In an ideal world it would all be covered by the school budget but that's just not feasible these days.

They're not all subsidised in Scotland. I teach there (here?)

Aimsmum, i am at your post...

Unfortunately coaches are very expensive. A school near me has used the train for year 6, with plenty of adults, because it works out much cheaper.

Transport. It's shockingly expensive.

DD's school uses public transport for trips where possible to make it cheaper.

We are paying £16 for a trip to a kids' farm about 4 miles away. Entrance to farm about £5, one adult free with each child. So, this is expensive I think but that's life.
What has offended me though is that the letter explained that parents didn't have to pay if they couldn't afford it - the school fund would be raided to pay for them.
I can see how this is going to pan out...I could write you a list of who's going to pay and who's not.
Think the school should have reviewed who had paid the week before the trip and approached parents individually to see if there was a problem paying. I have no objection to the school fund helping out where there is a financial problem within the family, but I know that won't always be the case!

Teachers and helpers wouldn't be paid extra but the schoo would have to pat thier entrance fee, Thet also have to pay for coach and insurence.

... just wait until they get to senior school - dd went on ski-ing trip (invited in year 7 - first year, went in year 8 - second year), cost £980 for the week. And she has been invited to go again the year after next (would be, what I call, sixth form, I think it is called year 12).

One good thing the school does is, when my daughter started, they had a voluntary savings fund - parent can pay anything they like (or nothing at all) and this can go towards school trips. If you do not touch the savings account, they give you a top-up bonus each year. My ex-husband asks why I just don't put money into a savings account for her but I would never get round to doing it - would always find something else to spend it on as I never have money left over at the end of the month.

Me and my husband (when he left) also decided to start up a separate savings account for the children (3 of them). He reduced my maintenance payments by £30 a month but pays £60 a month into a separate savings account. This pays for school uniform, school trips, swimming lessons, drum lessons, etc. - any payment that is outside my normal monthly expenditure regarding children and their clubs, etc.

My DD is now in year 10, have been saving £15 a month since she first started (for 2 years) and for the last 2 years (nearly 3 years) have been paying £20 a month. I do not use this for any school trips as they usually give enough notice to pay for the trip and I can use the savings account (i.e. the ski-ing trip) and I like to think of this as another little savings fund for my DD when she leaves school. I have 'bribed' her that I will give her £x for every GCSE she passes and £x+x for every pass that she gets that is higher than expected (i.e. expected to get a C but gets a b, gets the £x+x).

I remember when I was doing my 'O' levels (shows how old I am) and my parents treated me with a lump sum payment for every pass I got. I must say it made me put in that little bit extra effort because I know I was going to be rewarded at the end (not only with my examination results but also monetary - which, when you are 16, is very much appreciated)!!!

I can only say that with children aged 15, 11 (starting high school September - more expenditure) and 6, it only gets worse the older they get.

when I went on the Bethnal Museum trip I offered to pay for myself but the teacher told me it was built into the payment for the children so I didnt have to.

After half term DS1 is going to a pottery place which will cost £6 as they can walk there.

WE've just booked a coach for a preschoo, ouitng that is about 15 miles away.
£130.
That seats 50.

Transport is so expensive.

They can't actually charge you, they can ask for a contribution to the value of x.

you don't have to pay it but the trip would probably not go ahead if everyone did that.

Lots of places have free adult places for 1:8 ratio so the school often does not pay for the adult entrant either.

Lots of places have free adult places for 1:8 ratio so the school often does not pay for the adult entrant either.

It's for the coach and to pay full price for the extra adults who will be going. You want extra adults to go, right???

Aimsmum, I don't know how your school manages to lay on school trips with transport for £1. You are exceptionally lucky.

There's a phrase that I think all school letters have to use now about payment being voluntary but they reserve the right to cancel the trip if the cost isn't met - so it it basically means pay up if you're going.

Our school trips get uneconomical if all the places on the coach aren't used.

Agree with pps re the transport/insurance costs. Schools have come in for a slating when things have gone wrong on trips, lots of schools aren't doing them any more because it's become a H&S/paperwork nightmare and insurers have put up the cost accordingly.

Perhaps Aimsmum's PTA subsidise the trips. Ours once suggested doing this - approx £2500 pa from funds but was voted out.

No, be grateful she is getting a good education courtesy of the State and having marvellous educational days out.

Message withdrawn

Bumblelion - if i were asked for £980 for a trip i would have to turn it down point blank. I could take the whole family on holiday for that much - and we haven't been on holiday in years so you can tell how financially capable we are!

The £55 trip i mentioned has been subsidised (heavily, i believe). Nevertheless, although we could afford it as i knew about it since last year (yay, budgeting!), i am still slightly annoyed with one of the DTDs' teachers who, when approached about whether it was essential to have a soft bag, (as we don't own one, but do have a case) said "buy one then". And that was it. AIBU?

Coach costs are very high.

Teachers and helpers also have to be paid in