Year 6 residential costs

[KingoftheNorth1]

Would anyone be willing to share how much their schools charged last year / are charging this year for school residential trips. Particularly keen to hear what people had to pay for Year 6 activity type weeks.

Totally get that costs have sky rocketed, plus insurance is likely very steep so, so please don't get me wrong, I'm not unrealistic, but just trying to work out if the almost £850 we have been asked to fork out is fair/representative! Haven't been through the process before so don't have any particular frame of reference.
TIA to anyone happy to divulge!

That is insane @KingoftheNorth1 . What do the other parents think? I'm pretty sure some of them won't be able to pay £850 either.

Is it Hilltop OP? Dc1 is going with hus school, its only 2 nights though, and its £230. BUT, and to me the BUT is huge, they're going at the end of November. Wtaf. Its an outdoor activity centre. I would happily pay more for them to go in may/June

That’s incredibly expensive, over £200 per night, they could go abroad for that! Are they are doing very expensive activities? I’d push back at the school, it’s way too much.

2 nights its £180. School are covering a lot of the costs

I can’t agree, no parent should be under that pressure and parents beg borrow or stealing only perpetuates a damaging model. I am still annoyed about my DC missing out on the year 6 residential due to cost 10 years ago, I went myself on a year 6 residential (due to huge efforts fri my mother and the school) and have been able to send my other children, most recently my current year 6 DC who had an amazing time. The school had obviously put effort into how they could do a memorable trip that was affordable for parents, total cost was £220 by staying locally and for 2 nights only and asking for an initial deposit of only £45 and further instalments over the following 9 months. I don’t think there were any children who were not able to go. I believe all schools should have a contingency fund for children whose parents say they cannot afford it ( which should absolutely not be tied to benefit entitlement) With the exception of the ridiculous secondary school ski trips I have never once not paid up for a school trip and this one occasion when we couldn’t come up with the £100 deposit almost immediately (in 2015) then my child had to miss out, I asked the school if there was any flexibility and they said no as I wasn’t on benefits. Ironically I had been a single parent on benefits quite recently prior and had been a lot better off financially then we were at that particular time

Our school's Y6 go to Cornwall on a coach for ca. £375 for 5 nights (2025 prices), so ca. £75 p/n for everything including Eden Project and 2-3 other attractions. Honestly I don't know how the school manage to keep it that low it but I'm grateful they do l. I know there's loads of parents here who wouldn't be able to afford some of the prices mentioned here.

I think ours was around £450
Weirdly, and completely unacceptably, school said the cost would be "hopefully around £450 and we will confirm nearer the time" and expected parents to make a firm agreement to pay based on that vagueness

DD didn't want to go and I didn't push it, she does a lot of that stuff outside of school anyway

I think that's very common, @ILikeBigBookssandIcannotlie, given how far ahead they have to make arrangements. Sometimes suppliers e.g. coach companies can't confirm exact costings until nearer to the time, sometimes the price per child will be slightly dependent on number of attendees, sometimes the school won't know how much can be contributed via the PTA etc.

You can't ask people to make a firm commitment without knowing how much they are actually going to have to spend though

A contract like that would never be binding

Ours was 2 nights to Norfolk from Leicester. They deliberately picked November and they did it over a weekend so they left early on Friday morning and got home Sunday evening because it worked out cheaper, they also applied for grants from local charities and applied those to the costs and the PTA raised money to cover the coach costs, so it worked out to £90 per child which I now appreciate was exceptionally low compared to other schools.

Ours went to hilltop in November and had a ball. They did campfire with roasted marshmallows, hot chocolate and from what I can gather anything else they could find, shove on a stick, torch and eat. They did archery and threw themselves off a high platform onto a giant air mattress. Climbing and hikes through the wood and in muddy puddles, a moonlight walk along the beach. They were not even slightly bothered by the cold weather and piss it down rain and everything came home in a bin bag ready to be shoved in the machine for a hot wash and extra rinse.

£375 for 2 nights at a PGL thing. I think it’s pricey but £850 is ridiculous

Ridiculous - we’re in Kent and my DS went to Cornwall for £450. This was 3 years ago so would expect some increase but that’s bonkers for a residential.

It's year 4, so I think they get longer and more expensive as they get older. 2 nights in an activity center £250 or £190 if on FSM

I do think the cost of coaches has gone crazy in the last year. Our 5 day Y6 residential earlier this year was £550 which I thought was really expensive. Then Y7 3 day trip just last month was £350. £850 is insanity- the school should be cutting either distance or length of trip to bring down cost. Or if not possible then frankly don’t do a trip rather than excluding lots of ppl based on affordability

Ah thank you, this is reassuring!

£600 Mon - Fri. Activity centre in Bournemouth with coach costs.

Yes, the more I think about it, the more angry I'm getting. If that's the price they were given for the place that they usually go to, then I think they should be looking at somewhere different. To ask for over £800 with things in the economy as they are just seems really unreasonable. Comments here seem to suggest that you can do something good for a lot less.

Thanks, I agree. I feel so angry that the school is going to put us in this position. Another parent whose child had previously gone said that it is expected that everyone goes and the messaging from school last year was that the price quoted is contingent on full attendance. If less go, then the price goes up for everyone else. DH says he feels like we'll be held to ransom. Don't know what to do.

I'm not sure - we haven't been given any details of the trip yet. Just the cost in a broader email about trips which the school sent out "to allow families to budget".

Surely there are other parents in the same position as you? What do your DC's friends' parents think?

It would be madness to go into debt for this. You've no idea what else you might need to "budget" for.

This school is unreal.

That's what I thought. Travel and insurance come off that total I guess, which will be significant. But still.....

Three nights, £400

£500 for four nights PGL.

For us around £250 for 2 night, just under £500 for 4 nights (including coach transport, all food and loads of activities)