School Visits - what's reasonable? HELP!

[Greydog]

I'm in an historical group, and we have been asked to speak at a primary school on WW1 and 2. I've done this before, but any payments were made to the treasurer of the group, (and alas, we are no longer in contact) so can't ask what would be reasonable. We would be bringing display items, both real and genuine, so what would any teachers out there be happy to pay?

Is your historical group just a society of like minded individuals who come together and share the same interests, e.g. local history society, or is it set up as a business to make money from talks etc? If it is the former, then I really can't see a school paying for your time to visit I'm afraid. All such visitors at my local primary did it free of charge, to share their knowledge and enthuse children with their interest. If you are travelling a long way, you may be able to justify travel expenses, but from your post it doesn't seem like this is the case. Schools tend only to pay for visiting outreach to professional organisations, such as theatre groups. They don't have a huge amount of budget for such things, my schools' last such visit was paid for by the PTA. Sorry, probably not what you wanted to hear.

I was going to say what Change said.
You do take a risk with 'amateur enthusiasts' too - being interested in / enthusiastic about a topic doesn't necessarily translate in to being able to get it over to dc well. Taking a chance with that (and all the hassle to arrange) is one thing when something is free, but expecting schools to pay and take a chance is just another barrier.

Hard to say without knowing the sort of group you are but I would generally expect this sort of thing to be done for free.

Thanks for your replies. We've done this for free before, and although we are not in business, we do have costs such as insurance, travelling, and our kit is very expensive, so I have asked the school if they would agree to a payment, which they have.

It depends what you're asking for? A small amount to cover expenses and resources yes, payment for the speakers, probably not. Schools have such limited budgets that they simply can't afford that, valuable as this experience will be for the children

Our school cannot currently afford felt tip pens! No way could they afford to pay outside speakers.
Depending on the school you might actually need to pay them

I would certainly ask them to cover your costs.

The school my children go to has a visitor in once a year who is connected with one of their subjects. This visitor spends the afternoon with the class and brings various items to show/hand out... The parents are charged £5 for this visitor. It seems expensive to me, but may be due to the fact there are only 13 children in the class... But I do still pay it as do the others...

I think in your situation I would tot up what it costs you to go, eg travel,asterisks used that day etc. Schools budgets (especially in state maintained) are stretched beyond belief at the moment, so keeping it as affordable as possible will enable them to consider using you again.

Well if you charge the school then the charge will be passed on to the children. When our school have things like the panto then the kids parents are asked to pay a nominal fee, approx £2.50. it is a voluntary donation bit if they don't get enough then the show is cancelled.

Just something to think about

My school can’t afford pencils and paper aped, let alone visitors.

Surely you have agreed a price? It can’t be that you’ve asked for money and they’ve said yes, but you’ve not decided an amount?!