Residential trip COST!!!

[Cauliflowersqueeze]

Monday-Friday on a PGL or PGL-style break with Year 7 or 8....

I really think £415 is far too much but these companies appear to be constantly putting up prices!

Has anyone experienced anything for a reasonable price?

South Africa, year 10 ..... £2,000!!!

If you can self cater (some activity centres eg Rock UK will allow it) it gets the cost right down but then the school staff or kids will have to cook.
If it's the residential elements rather than the 'activities' that you want, there are lots of places: Scout and Guide centres, Youth hostels etc that you can hire and then make your own programme of activities. Again, self catering but for Y7 or 8 they can do half of it themselves (with supervision).
Travel costs a lot, insurance costs a lot, staff costs a lot. Make it local and hire in outside activities rather than going to a distant activity centre, self cater.
It's more work for you, but that is what the additional cost at PGL covers.

How many kids in the group?

It’s open to the whole year group and normally about two thirds go. I know some families will easily be able to pay for it. But I don’t want to put those in a position who could manage it but would rather put it towards their family holiday. That’s all really.

I can create a nice programme for those remaining. The fact is that I think that a good residential for a week can be a really fabulous thing. I’d like to offer it. But I think really £350 is the top that people should pay.

I think that sort of cost is ok for a residential trip outside of term time for a limited number of students (like ski trips) but definitely not for a term time trip that the majority of a year group will expect to go on and the whole year group will be invited to go on. How divisive. It will be clear that ones not going can’t afford it, not because numbers are limited or because it’s in the holidays.

You may need to move the week you go:
less than £100 for 3 days 2 nights off peak

Yeah. I think the thing that really sticks in my throat is that I managed to get a Monday-Friday PGL at the other end of the country in that week 4 years ago with free bedding and free air conditioned transport for £160.

So anything more than that feels a massive rip off.

That seems about right for what I've paid on school trips

I think that's fine. As a parent I understand that I have to make sacrifices elsewhere to avoid these residentials, but it is totally worth it. These are experiences that parents simply can't provide.

My only advice would be to let parents know as early as possible and offer a payment plan online.

My DD had a junior school residential this year, PGL-type place £350 for Mon-Fri which I thought was expensive - most of the school go but there were quite a few that didn't this year, more than usual. Not sure why. I did whine about the price tbh but my DD enjoyed it!

Oh, and as a Mum to twins please consider if you can afford to offer some sort of discount to parents of multiples!

Ds's school had a yr5 trip with the Bushcraft company and it was very reasonable. They were also massively inclusive and not phased by ds's friend who is autistic and a runner at the time

My DD is heading on a two night three day survival course with the Bushcraft Company next year and the price was very reasonable (£200). Can’t provide any feedback on it until she has actually been though!!!!

That is a good price for Monday-Friday PGL. Our school had to charge a bit more than that. We do get nearly every child going (except a couple where the parents now take them to Florida Disney for that week) and we always get a few who are not happy about the cost, but the vast majority are. That's the point really. The vast majority. It is their final "treat" with primary friends and they learn a lot from it. If the money is too much, for the vast majority, then you need to cut your coat according the cloth of your parents. We are a relatively affluent area. We also subsidise the trip for the PP children. We try very hard to be inclusive and if we thought it ws becoming a strain for lots of parents, we would reconsider and find something local and cheaper. However, the secondary schools and the grammar schools all offer expensive trips so this one is just the start!

I also meant to say, that notice and pricing is given a year in advance. Stage payments are offered. All the children know about it because it is such a highlight. Parents all know about it. It would be a shame to drop it.

My DS's y6 trip costs similar but we could pay for it in dribs and drabs over 12 months which helped.

Personally I think the likes of PGL and Kingswood take advantage of schools ...I have run several events at Kingswood during school holidays most of which were over a bank holiday weekend (for groups which have included adults and children)and it has costs £60-£80 for two nights all inclusive with 1 free place per 10 students ...so pro rata £120 -£160 for the actual food/accommodation and activities ...I dont think schools negotiate they just accept the price....School holidays/HT's tend to be quiet at these activity centres and they are always keen to take a booking and negotiate price....the prices quoted for Brownies/Guides groups etc are much lower than schools.

One of the major providers of school trips to state schools is

I don’t know what happened there! Is the provider Kingswood/Camp Beaumont/Equity, which are all brands of Inspiring Learning, à company owned by Bridgepoint, a private equity firm. Which explains why the trips are so expensive.

www.bridgepoint.eu/en/investment-portfolio/inspiring-learning/

Teenmum - Schools love Kingswood because they don’t have to do any work at all to organise the trip. My DD’s school went on a Kingswood Mon-Fri trip and the parents hated both the nature of the trip (dorms and zip wires with pretty low grade staff) and the cost, so the trip was changed for one the teachers organised.

I regularly make these bookings..... £200 a person for PGL and about another £25 a head for the coach so I don't know where the schools get over £400 from?

I think they should stop these school breaks altogether. There will always be some kids whose parents simply cannot afford them, and it is then not fair on those children. There is no discernable academic benefits to such breaks, so why bother?

It’s not the academic benefit, it’s the opportunity for children to learn how to get along together, how to be more independent, how to challenge themselves. Some come back with a huge increase in confidence and some really deepened friendships.

Really I can assure you that’s the price I’ve been quoted, including transport. Perhaps it’s because of the week requested.

Cost of a coach to go 28 miles and back again cost me £275 last week. Kids paid £10 each.
Going to Houses of Parliament in October and dread the probe of coach there and back though we can get some costing back.

I guess a 'trips week' in the summer term, say, will result in much higher prices that one in the spring term.
Can you find something similar at a campsite maybe?