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?

The activity centre business is, tbh, a scandal.

Hmm, all residential trips are in holiday time or over a long weekend at our secondary. It was different at primary when the residential trip was seen as a rite of passage.

If it is over the holidays then obviously staff are paid for the extra time, and if it's a desirable destination then some may see it as a free holiday (not sure PGL would ring anybody's bells on that score though)

If it's in school time then I would question whether it is an "optional" trip and suggest maybe the school should be covering the cost, at least for pupil-premium students. I'd be annoyed if my kid was left behind because I couldn't afford it.

If it is over the holidays then obviously staff are paid for the extra time, and if it's a desirable destination then some may see it as a free holiday (not sure PGL would ring anybody's bells on that score though)

Hahahahaha no they aren’t and no they don’t! (Obviously)

Hate PGL, paid about £450 for my boy to go after sats with his school. He was very poorly the day they left so i didnt let him go. Long and short of it still waiting for a refund, cant apply directly has to go through his disinterested teacher. He's now left that school and I am still waiting. Theft it is. Only £50 was non refundable

The school residential business is a form of coercion to make parents pay for something that is an integral part of state education. That’s bad enough, but what is far worse is that the private sector providers of such activities are exceedingly profitable. I disagree entirely with the politics of this model and will not be coerced into lining the pockets of private equity investors.

gramaticus Staff are not paid for trips in holidays, they do it purely out of goodwill. And considering it a 'free holiday'? I would think wrangling a group of teenagers abroad or at an activity holiday would he high stress and exhausting and nothing like a holiday!

Haha to the idea that the staff get paid extra if trips are in holidays. No, they are giving up their time, often paying to put their own kids in childcare, but then some parents like to moan and say the prices give them a free holiday - yes, like being responsible for X children 24/7 is exactly what most people consider a holiday.

However, clearly people are willing to do it and they do it because they think it's valuable for the children. They will do the hours and hours of paperwork (still needed when an external provider is involved) and put up with the moaning from parents or the senior management about the cover it creates because it feels worth it. Many however are not willing to run things without an external provider now because the personal risk and responsibility especially that involved with activities is just too great. And already lots of schools are cutting down on trips because staff don't want to run them because of the increasing workload associated with them in terms of risk assessments, individualised risk assessments for children with medical or Sen needs and the risk of being blamed for anything which might happen whilst away, plus the difficulties in filling places, people dropping out, people complaining etc etc. With increasing workloads due to funding cuts and low morale, it won't be surprising when the no.s willing to put in the extra hours fall even further......and then the complaints won't be about the cost of trips, but the lack of them and 'remember the good old days when all schools ran a residential...'

I have twins and we've been on several residentials. In year six we paid two lots of 400.

It was difficult to budget but their friends were going and we had to find the money.

I'm not sure, but do schools ever think about families of multiples? I'm not sure most people would, but imagine having to find double!

We just had a Paris trip for 545 plus spends and a passport. On the tail of that another geography trip was announced at over 700 to Italy...to the same year group.

I think in the scheme of things its not too bad a cost when weighed up on holiday costs but I do know for e,g, Paris will be youth hostel type bunk rooms so accom should be as cheap as chips

I don't really see why families with twins should be treated differently from families with children in adjacent years. Trips are an optional fact of school life. Isn't it 'just' a point of budgeting/planning ahead a bit more than other families? (I realise that may be simpler than it sounds, but over time the costs are the same.)

Forgot username - your kind of issue which arises after every trip is another couple of hours work for the teacher organising the trip. That teacher has not kept your money and fleeced you, but is probably working to get the money, but it simply takes time or there are strict conditions attached to refunds, especially on the day - do you know what those terms were? Perhaps those teachers were then organising g the end of year school play, writing reports and doing other stuff for the children too.

Okay your child didn't get to go, which was a shame, but I wonder if you thanked the school for all the work they had put into organising it to make it happen or have you only moaned about the delay in getting your money back, from a trip which happened perhaps 6-8 weeks ago. If the terms and conditions promised you could have all the money back if Ill esso happened and you met any necessary requirements regarding medical note from doctor etc, then email the Head (politely) and ask how long you should expect to wait for your refund.

And to those who don't like the suppliers of school activities such as PGL, what do you suggest as an alternative, given many schools are now unable to run trips without the use of an external provider due to insurance and expertise provision - local authorities and academies just aren't willing to bear the burden of the risk of a big lawsuit which can arise from an accident or other complaint.

And in reality, if we remove all the optional trips or ones which a rent intended for who,e year groups, how many are you actually left with across a school career? I'd imagine that for many it's one or two primary residentials and one or two secondary residentials - not thinking about ski trips and all that kind of thing.

I went on a school trip to Paris in 1982, when I was in Year 11. Two years before that I went on a school trip to Cologne. In the year in between we went camping. All three trips were pretty dire! I loved my week’s trip to Umbria in Year 12, however - because it wasn’t with my class but with an opt in group.

Could you get the cost of the coach down by travelling at a different time of the day? Our local operators all have school run contracts. If you hire a coach for e.g. a 10 am start it is significantly cheaper than a 9am start as the operator can do the contracted school run first (assuming driver will still be within hours). Same if you can be back before 2.30 pm.

Would you get a higher uptake for a lower price if you ran the two trips Mon-Wed and Wed to Friday? You'd probably get more staff able to volunteer for 2 nights rather than 4.

Make sure you send out the information in good time, with the option of paying in instalments. Charge a high-enough non-refundable deposit to cover the cost of the coach as it has to run anyway and costs the same whether it is full or has 2 empty seats.

Try to time sending out information in the Autumn term, but with the closing date being after Christmas - lots of children here are "given" the trip for Christmas by their grandparents (we even had a gift certificate available from the school office so there was something to open on the day).

How sad. Children getting a school trip for Christmas? What’s the world coming to.

user I don't think that's sad. If for some families the only way to afford a trip that a child really wants to go on, is to give it as their present, isn't that 'better' than e.g. a new phone for Christmas?

There is a limit to what to buy for a child who has "everything"; far better that money is given towards a trip than spent on more electronics or plastic tat. Much of what children will remember of their childhoods is about experiences rather than objects.

For twins no there aren’t discounts because the centres charge two places.

Yes I have considered Mon-Wed and Wed-Fri. The thing is that they would arrive Monday lunchtime and have an activity then dinner then a full second day and then they’d be packing the following morning so I’m not sure it would be worth it.

I think “experiences” are fabulous presents. Just not a school trip!

I would happily give a theatre trip or a family weekend away to a place of interest as a Christmas present. We buy our children countless quality experiences.

Honesty, we could have gone on a family holiday with some of the school costs my parents paid.

My son is only two but we've just forked out FORTY FIVE POUNDS for a farm trip - lunch not included. I refused to pay for sheer principle, I find it exploitative but pushover DH trotted down to nursery cash in hand so DS wouldn't miss out.

Cauliflowersqueeze - my DD did a one night trip away with her German teacher before Christmas - one night away is fine as there is so little in the way of packing/unpacking - the DC just took a backpack with one change of clothing and some PJs.

But YOU might not consider giving a school trip as a gift, because YOU can afford countless other experiences and quality outings already, so presumably you can afford the school trips too. However, are you lacking awareness that some people can't provide their children with lots of outside school trips and that finding the cost of the trip is a real stretch - for many, it will be a present OR the trip, not both and often several family memebers might chip in - and we are probably not talking about a curriculum based trip to a museum here (although we might be) but more likely a residential trip that the child is desperate to go on and will gladly give up another Christmas present for, especially if they don't usually get to do that stuff - so to suggest a school trip can't be a present or is inappropriate just seems to show a lack of awareness of the situation of many people sadly.

People gift all kinds of things that others might consider their right or not 'gift' type items at all - pants and socks in Christmas stockings, stationery, toiletries, batteries - and they can all be gladly received, along with a card telling them they are going on the PGL trip with school or on the French Exchange. It's a bit sad if parents or children would consider such a thing not a gift but their right.

How sad. Children getting a school trip for Christmas? What’s the world coming to.

PMSL! We don't all live in your world. Mine don't get the trips at all. Break out the violins! We can't afford them on top of family hols and we consider those more important. I didn't have residential school trips growing up, nor did DH. Our families couldn't afford them as well as family hols for everyone. It's hardly going round with an empty belly and rags on your back.

As it is the fucking trips would never be a Christmas gift for any of mine because we don't have a £400 budget for each child.

Well, user, how about donating some of all these surplus funds you can splash about so that other children can enjoy all these quality experiences you think they can't do without.

Those residentials are a total rip off - that’s the main thing I have against them. Parents could do so much more with their children for the money. What’s sad is how people have got sucked in to thinking they’re a good idea/value for money. They aren’t.