cost of year 6 residential trip

[waywardkitten]

Namechanged in case outing.

Our DS is at a private London primary school. He is very happy there and it suits him very well. Fees are a bit of a stretch for us, but we manage and feel (for many reasons that I won't bore you with!) that it is worth the money and sacrifices we make so he goes there.

HOWEVER, we've just been told that the cost of a 4 night residential trip within the UK in the summer term will be just over six hundred pounds. This includes transport, food and lots of amazing outdoorsy activities...but am I right in thinking this seems like an excessive amount?!

It's in England and in quite basic, dorm style accommodation...I know that state schools have similar residentials and they might cut their costs by running them off season (ie not going in May or June) but I can't help but suspect that in our case, the school is using this as a way to grab more money from parents? A year group of 80 kids paying that comes to almost 50k. There's no way 4 nights - even with instructors and what have you - costs that. Has anyone experienced similar and what did you do about it? Thanks so much.

My DS is going on a Y6 trip for 2 nights in June which is 20minutes away. There are roughly 40 children and it is £200. That is £8000. I doubt the food or activities are going to be amazing after seeing pictures from previous trips but he is desperate to go.

Don't let him go? It's not compulsory surely.

Anyone who is mentioning what they paid ore-Covid will find prices have risen a lot.

In independent schools, they don’t go for the cheapest options and so you’d expect the trip will cost more. They might choose a premium activity and food package. They might choose to put less kids in each dorm and to give each staff member their own room. They might take a higher ratio of staff to kids and need to pay more for the staff. There are a number of things that could bump up the price. They might be including things like a trip hoodie or capobackpack in the price which all bump it up. It might include a photo book at the end. Most trip organisers will include something for contingency, which is vital for any trip. It’s very unlikely that they are charging in excess of expected costs….but you can expect that the cost of absolutely everything is included and there is no element that is subsidised by the school. For example, if they have to get cover in for teachers on the trip, you might be funding that too. But I really don’t think they’d be just adding extra on top for the school to keep.

Is it PGL OP or is it somewhere a different provider?

I think generally you can expect that independent school trips cost more than state school trips. It’s one of the things people ask on MN about when deciding if they want to go private or not. It’s never just the fees and although some things are optional, you do have to expect to have additional costs.

If you think it’s really expensive, you could ask the school why it’s so expensive and say you find it a lot. They will explain the pricing to you and also take on board parental feedback, especially if a number of people say the same thing. Prep schools differ - some have a very well heeled clientele and others far less so, with the school having to be really careful about what they charge for extras and the risk of the parent body not being able to afford the fees any longer and the school itself being under threat all the time. Schools do close all the time.

Is it a big well-known Prep with affluent parents, or is your position pretty common?

NW state school here, Isle of Man this year for my yr6 is £330. They have cut the trip to 3 nights instead of 4 to reduce the cost from £420 originally quoted.

Mine is £550 to the IOW for a week. Two years ago the same trip cost £400. When they first started this trip several years ago it cost £260.

We pay this year £550 for IOW. My daughter goes to a Estate primary in London

You have to watch out for similar at ex grammar schools too. They seem to think everyone is made of money. Although to be fair I paid the same for my dd to go on a decent German trip as I paid for a short trip to the IoW in primary (both mega expensive due to coach hire costs).

Last year (2022) we paid £450 for PGL-type outdoor place 4 nights, all inclusive, 3 hour trip coach trip and ferry to Isle of Wight, included 5 lunches (ie the day of travel as well) & entrance to some museum or other on the way there. Private prep school southern England. Yr 5&6 trip of approx 40 kids + staff.

This year, similar type of trip for yr7 to different place, £500.

Might be relevant that it is a titchy school so this year it is 19 boys and a few staff going on the yr7 trip - so we may lose out re economies of scale.

Costs are just going up: fuel, food, living wage increases. A £50 increase 1 year to the next seems fair in that context.

People always think these trips are really expensive. And yes they are.

But at the same time, it’s worth remembering that most schools do work really hard to keep the cost down. It might not feel like it, but they do. They really want to run the trip because the kids get a huge amount out of it and it’s one of the things the kids remember most. Schools also know that many people struggle with the cost and also that with all the funding crisis in schools, there are limits to how much financial support they can give people in order for it to run.

So honestly, the vast vast majority don’t just go for an option without looking closely at the prices and how to reduce costs (for example asking parents to bring the kids and pick up if it’s not too far away) as much as possible. Organising those trips takes tens or hundreds of hours work and some of that is in getting the cost down in the first place. People sometimes think schools are charging more than it costs to boost their coffers for spending on other things, but honestly they don’t do that. Activity holidays are simply expensive. The firms running them have significant costs of equipment, qualified staff, insurance, risk assessments etc. When people compare the cost to trips run by groups like Scouts etc, they forget that qualified Scout leaders are volunteeers and that reduces prices significantly, plus Scouts often spend many hours on fundraising so the trios can be heavily subsidised. They choose to do that. Schools and teachers have to focus their time on teaching classes and trips aren’t their sole or main focus.

But it’s hard isn’t it. With everything costing more, here’s another example of something that’s so important for the kids, but becoming out of reach for many. I do wonder if more schools will have to stop offering them because enough parents won’t be able to pay and schools simply do t have the money to subsidise them.

It may be they are booking it through a school provider.

The trips offered at DDs school in the last year - the ones where they have chosen to use a provider to organise it for them have cost a lot more than the trips where the lead teacher has organised it all.

For example a 3 night trip to Paris (no flights) was nearly £600, the french teacher had an outside provider book everything yet 5 nights in Belgium (no flights) including war graves etc was £450 as the history teacher organised it all herself.

Organising trips with an outside company still takes tens or hundreds of hours work for teachers involved. Bear in mind this is all on top of the work they are already doing.

Organising a trip without an outside company is something many schools won’t allow now due to risk assessments and litigation culture. But also vitally, organising from scratch places a much heavier burden on the teachers in terms of time (will be multiple hundreds of hours) and in terms of responsibility whilst on the trip…in case something goes wrong, then they really have very little support. It’s difficult to underestimate the problem of this, especially if abroad.

So, yes it’s true that trips booked with outside providers will cost more. But it’s also true that the cheaper option just isn’t really an option anymore. That might be annoying to parents who are finding the bills higher, but remember that there are limits to the burden of risk and workload that individual schools and teachers can bear related to trips, on top of what they have already.

Teachers are leaving in droves. Those remaining are picking up more and more pieces. There’s a thread running about schools not being able to teach all their science lessons but having a recording of a teacher on a screen. Given this state if affairs, you start to see that the amount of time that can be devoted to trips isn’t going to rise. All of these things trace back to the lack of funding and resourcing in schools.

Ours is 4 days (3 nights) to Devon (which is about 100 miles from the school) costs £540 in May. I'm surprised I signed up for it 😂 apparently I was the last parent to sign up. It seems really expensive but eh ho she won't want to miss out. Equally im happy to sign up to the ski trip as that's planes and lessons so happy with that price but in the uk seems very ££££ for not a lot included (and no doubt we will have to provide lunch for the coach 😂)

I've just paid £400 for my DD's upcoming yr 6 residential trip (London state school). I think everything is more expensive with the rise in cost of living from transport and accommodation to food and activities.

Yes. State school, peak season - I paid as did the rest of the state school parents/families in the cohort.

True, do you get a day in lieu for each night spent away?

A day in lieu? I'd be very surprised.
My colleague is taking a group away next Saturday for a week. He'll be in school Monday - Friday as normal.
He's been graciously allowed the week "off" to go on the trip. That's it.

Wow! Gracious.

Day off in lieu, ha ha ha.
i am taking an A level field trip course next week for 3 days/ 2nights.
it will cost me to go, DH is away for work at the same time so I need to pay for animal care over that time, spend hours setting cover, leave at the sparrows fart on the Monday, get back past bedtime on the Wednesday and normal school Thursday.
School trips are great for the kids but very very hard work for staff and usually end up being a net cost for them.

sparrows fart 😅