Choir trip costs a fortune

[Fitmum8719]

I was wondering what's your thoughts on the following: my daughter attends the choir club at lunch clubs in school. Their school hasn't organised any school trips whatsoever since Covid. She's 13 in year 9 at the moment. All of a sudden I've received a letter that they are organising a choir tour to Belgium next July and asking £715 for the trip plus spending money. On top of that pay a deposit by next week and a total of £325 right before Christmas.
I am fuming as I explained my daughter that I cannot afford this trip right now and it would put us into a very vulnerable situation. She is so upset and telling me that all her friends are going and she will be the only one left out and she's in tears.
I just cannot believe the school puts parents into a position like this especially with the cost of living crisis. I am seriously thinking about writing a letter to the principal since previously the excuse for not organising a UK trip was costs and now they decide to go for this..... cannot get my head around it and feel like my daughter will have to miss out because of my financial situation.

…and the fact she has 2 other DDs would make such a trip hard, and I doubt op could get two flights, transfers, a room for two and excursions, for a couple of nights, for less than £715

And she would have to pay for the school activities as well. As if any school would agree to any of it.

Thank you for answering me. Flying in and out over 2 days will cost me more not to mention that I have 2 other daughters who needs to be looked after so I cannot leave them on their own.

Just to be exact school hasn't mentioned to parents officially. It was something my daughter came home with 'we mighg be going on a tour next year' and that was it. Teenagers say all sort of things so I thought if its actually being planned school will let me know well in advance. But they didn't.

Can't imagine this would be cheaper...
Also who wants their parents on a school trip !??

I would speak to whoever is organising the trip and ask if it's possible to pay in smaller instalments, and not pay the full deposit before Xmas. If you have a low household income the school may have a fund that can help, or might be able to sign post you to local charities that could help.

I help organise music trips for young people and it is a difficult and thankless task. I feel for you, OP but in my own situation I know that if we try to organise cheap fairly local trips fewer people want to go and some parents complain that we 'can't be bothered' to organise something more 'special'. If we don't organise a residential trip at all we are accused of making the children miss out on a right of passage.

Costs of these trips have increased dramatically recently and unfortunately to get the best deals the suppliers often ask for a significant deposit within a short space of time, which my organisation (and I assume your school) just can't afford to pay in full without commitment from participants. Coach transport, ferries and suitable accommodation for a large group all book up really fast. As the coach will be with the group for 4 days they will have to pay for 4 days' hire and driver pay (possibly 2 x drivers depending on distance) even for days when they are not using the coach. Accommodation suitable for these sort of trips is not as cheap as you would think, as there is still more demand that suitable places. Organised trips also have to cover the cost of accompanying adults (you can't expect people to pay to go away and be responsible for other people's children), insurance etc and for music trips they often actually have to pay for licences to perform and/or performance venues. We currently find it impossible to organise any residential trip that involves a coach and more than 2 days away for less that £650.

Organised trips also have to cover the cost of accompanying adults (you can't expect people to pay to go away and be responsible for other people's children)

Well that's exactly what happens in Guiding and Scouting.
You usually get a free adult place for every x amount of children and as Guide and Scout Leaders are volunteers you don't have to pay them to look after your children on residentials, even on overseas trips. And the insurance is already covered in your subs, so no extra for that either.

It it's a "trip away" experience you're after, rather than the "choir" experience, you could send your DD to Guides or Scouts. They do plenty of cheap trips and there are lots of other benefits to belonging to either of those organisations too.

Trips are optional, I'd be very surprised if everyone can go. They will be putting it out now for the summer to see if its even feasible. It seems a fair price to me based on how much we paid in the past (mine are adults now). Six months notice is quite a long time but they obviously need a deposit to make sure people are serious. Touring is usually part of being in a choir or orchestra, the fact she hasn't been before means you have saved on all those other years but just say no if you can't afford it

My sons school are also doing a choir trip. Booking was opened last week and it is costing £750, similar amount.

We can’t afford this at the moment so he won’t be going. He totally understands that things are costing more than they used to, that our bills have increased whilst household income hasn’t. Have you explained this to your daughter?

It never occurred to me to speak to the school about not being able to afford it. They do have a hardship fund, but wouldn’t expect that to apply to us.

Lots of his friends are going, good for them. I expect we’ll be in a similar situation next year when the ski trip letters go out.

I totally agree re Scouts/Guides. I volunteer with them and what they offer is amazing! If parents are looking for an affordable way to give their DC experiences and trips away I don't know of anything better- ours offer a full week away in the Summer with all food and activities for about £100. They keep the costs down because almost everything is done by volunteers- often even fairly specialist activities are run by volunteers with appropriate skills. Near me, Scouts also own a lot of the centres that we use for residential trips and a lot of the running/maintenance of those is done by volunteers too, so the cost to scout groups is kept very low. We don't (as volunteers) usually pay to go on the trips though- our accommodation etc is still priced in to the overall cost but it's just pretty minimal.

Music club/school trips are different because they will have to pay a commercial price for accommodation/transport and activities. I find that the cheaper options also don't offer any free adult places. Trips packaged up and organised by a tour company often offer free places for trip leaders but they are a lot more expensive than DIY trips organised by teachers etc.

It seems so, so wrong that the school is organizing trips that are so expensive that some kids can't attend. I'm British but grew up overseas and no one would have even contemplated allowing anything like that. It simply shouldn't be happening that kids are excluded.

At my school, we had to fund-raise to afford certain activities. Everyone would pitch in and the fees were low for everyone as a result.

I (personally) would write a (polite!) letter to the organiser, thanking them for running the choir club and pointing out how much your daughter enjoys it. Acknowledge that you realise costs have gone up after covid. Say that your daughter would love to go but the short-notice financially is not workable for you. Ask if there's any flexibility in the payment schedule and then consider if that works better for you. Of course it might still be a no. But warn your daughter that you can't make any promises. I can understand you're angry because it's a surprise/shock and you don't want to disappoint your daughter. Might your daughter be able to handle her disappointed better if you said that you would look into it with no promises, but with a view to seeing if it's feasible with a different payment schedule. And maybe discuss a compromise re. less at birthday / Xmas / other treats. I really really understand where you're coming from OP. But work with school / daughter to see if there's alternative. Then at least you and your daughter will know you tried.

If she enjoys singing, are there other choirs she could join? through your local music hub? they might have more affordable activities?

That's terrible timing, just before Christmas, and shows their lack of organization as you should have had months to pay. My two DSs have trips abroad next year with instalments and both schools said clearly on the letters that they didn't want anyone to miss out for financial reasons and could therefore discuss ways around it so definitely speak to the school.

I suspect one of the issues for the school is that accommodation and coach providers etc are now requiring more of an upfront payment, or possibly giving cheaper rates for an upfront payment. All travel related companies were fucked by covid and a lot went under. Then some will continue to be impacted by brexit.

I am sure the school (or the choir, which may be a couple of teachers ringing round in lunch hour) has done its best.

The lack of notice is pretty rubbish. My DC are at different secondaries and one is brilliant at giving lots of advance notice about trips. They post every single trip for pretty much the whole of your kid's school career with a guide to costs so you can plan which ones you might opt for. We immediately ruled out some of the more expensive ones but planned for a handful of UK and Europe trips. At DD's school you only get notice of trips a few months before they want a deposit and you have no idea of what else might be coming up. DH put a panicked deposit down for a ski trip for DD which there is no way on god's earth we can afford. We got the same from DD "all my friends are going" when in fact they aren't because it is so bloody expensive.

Also costs have to include the costs associated with covering the teachers who are going on the trip if it’s term time…. I am support staff and as such I am a “freebie” because I don’t get covered if I’m not there. I refuse to go abroad but end up on several day trips and doing an overnight to London next year as this saves approximately £300 in costs that are not then divvied out to the student cost.

The teacher who organised it will have had to a shedload of paperwork, risk assessments etc etc and get signed off by SLT.

i can understand your daughters disappointment and your frustration. I have a teacher who runs an overnight trip once a year and they are always oversubscribed, then she gets snotty letters from parents asking for their kids to be put on the trip, will have people pulling out and then expecting their deposit back which clearly on the letters is not refundable under any circumstances.

They have a fabulous time whilst they are away, but it is mostly a thankless task for the teacher organising it.