payments enabling outside companies to come in during school day etc.

[border1]

At least twice a year dc's school have a company coming in to run workshops. We are asked to pay an amount to cover this. Normally £7 - £8. On top of this we obviosly pay for school trips out. I don't mind this. Plus Snack which I understood should be free in KS1. Plus usual sponsor forms etc. I am feeling like a cash machine. How much does it cost you to send your dc to school?

[mrz]

MoreBeta well our school would do the walking around our Saxon buildings but we might get someone in to do Saxon tablet weaving or making wattle and daub walls with the children.

Your children can't get experiences that PGL offer near the school whereas my school offers the same experiences without the cost of a PGL visit. Your school can offer Tudors & WWII experiences without getting on a coach mine can't. The visitors and visits are there to provide each of us with what isn't available locally.

[TalkinPeace2]

[YummyHoney]

[TalkinPeace2]

Well if schools do stop hiring external people in to Wow the kids and inspire them to listen to their teachers about the tricky topics, DH's income is gone.
Luckily he is so good that kids bunk off football to watch him again and again and the schools tend to pay for him out of their education budgets rather than asking parents to pay.

[YummyHoney]

pudding25 - what an odd inference to make about this thread.

[purits]

I thought teachers liked it when they come up against curious minds who question the 'how' and the 'why'.

[pudding25]

Teachers, don't bother answering back. Yet another thread I have been on recently where it is another opportunity to teacher bash.

For what it's worth, if we didn't include half the things we do in the curriculum (which includes outside agencies coming in) and just taught in the manner mentioned by some people on this thread, then Ofsted would fail us.

[MoreBeta]

Equally well my children could have learned about Tudors, Victorians, castles and WWII without getting on a coach and going to a place 50 miles away. We have a great local museum and lots of great examples of Tudor and Victorian and Medieval buildings in our city. They could have learned about rivers by just walking a few hundred yards.

I would argue PGL allows experiences thay could not get in or near the school. Most trips though with a little imagination coudl easily be replicated within a short walk within our city.

[mrz]

but the maths could have been done without the PGL visit so what it added was fun ... which is what I'm trying to say.

[bruffin]

"See PGL is my idea of an "unnecessary" trip ... fun but not adding to the curriculum"

DS did a maths pgl. Morning was spent doing funs stuff ie quadbikes, abseiling and the afternoon was spent using the results for maths ie stats, velocity etc

[MmeBlueberry]

PGL is amazing. I go every year and it is so valuable on many levels.

[gordongrumblebum]

"The teamwork, the freedom, the inspiration all add to self worth and without self worth who is motivated to knuckle down to desk work?"

Forest School covers all that, and we run that as part of the curriculum.

[mrz]

I've led a number of groups MoreBeta

[MoreBeta]

mrz - DS1 did the rock climbing, rope walk, etc.

However, they did a lot of pure educational things too closely connected to the curriculum.

[TotalChaos]

don't think we'ver ever been asked for money for events in school, looks like school have been v generous. and when they arranged an outside trip last year they probably got a v good group rate as admission was cheaper than taking DS would have been.

[mrz]

Trips like PGL enhance a child's life experience and are fantastic but hugely expensive and don't contribute to the school curriculum. Great if you can afford it!

[OddBoots]

Oh I'm afraid I disagree mrz, those kinds of PGL trips add so much the the roundedness of an education. The teamwork, the freedom, the inspiration all add to self worth and without self worth who is motivated to knuckle down to desk work?

It is all fantastic preparation for life and it's something that puts all the pupils attending on an equal footing, those with idyllic families and homes and those who know what it is to struggle.

[mrz]

See PGL is my idea of an "unnecessary" trip ... fun but not adding to the curriculum

[MoreBeta]

IndigoBell - my children say very much the same thing about school trips.

They never rave about them apart from PGL. In my view one really good trip per year is enough.

[YummyHoney]

purits I don't object - I'm just ungrateful and I totally agree with your posts.

[OddBoots]

Sounds like I am in a minority for loving these kinds of things, I can remember theatre groups and the like coming into school when I was a girl and they were some of the best times and brought things alive.

My children seem to really like them too and while it's not cheap it is cheaper than a day trip with the school and lots cheaper than going as a day trip as a family.

[mrz]

With budget cuts we will have to look at things next year.

[gordongrumblebum]

£10-15 per trip for us. No subsidies available. That's why we've just been told to limit them to one per year.

[bude1]

your

[bude1]

Can my kids go to yuor school Mrz?