Opinions on the cost of THIS school trip, please!

[WendyWeber]

An afternoon at Warburtons Bakery (Food Tech trip). It's 25 miles away. 13 students, plus a couple of staff presumably. The bakery tour is free AFAIK, they are travelling by coach.

£14.

They could go in taxis for less than that!

Hmm... That really does sound a lot. Could the school not use a minibus and a car or something?

We generally reckon around £400 for a coach and driver for a day (more if long distance), which works out at about £7-£8 per child on a big coach.

I suppose if they've got a driver and fuel to pay for, the cost will be similar even for a smaller coach ... they might not even be covering their costs!

But I agree it's not worth it for that trip, and the school should find another way of doing it.

It will be the cost of the coach. Probably can't get a small seater coach, so having to pay cost of full seater. It is because there are only 13 of them, and coaches are usually minimum of about 30 seats (I think, organise some school trips, but have no brain at the moment)

HOWEVER, I think the food teachers at our school would be very interested in a trip to Warburtons!! Where is it? I know it is somewhere North like Lancashire or Yorkshire, so near me

You should have had a breakdown of the costs on your trip letter. This should show what the money is for.

I am assuming they must have a coach rather than a smaller minibus. Coach is very expensive.

But school minibus not always available. We have 2, both of which were out of action for 6 months, as there was no one who could drive them

Not all schools have a minibus of their own.

No school minibus, and no breakdown of costs - in fact no mention of the cost at all, it's just stated, if there were an explanation/justification I wouldn't mind so much!

It's in Bolton, fizzbuzz.

Ask for a breakdwn of costs. When I sorted out trips I had to put a breakdown on the letter that went out to parents.

I hate to say this... Each member of staff that is out of school costs about £140 a day. You might find that it is one member of staff and possibly an admin staff member or teaching assistant. Whenever trips are organised, we have to factor in the cost of cover for a teacher for being out of school for the day. There may also be administrative costs. That, plus the coach for the day will probably then meet the cost. Hope that helps a bit.

Oooh, forgot about cover for staff, that does cost, you are right.

Theatre trips with staff, including tickets, haven't cost as much as this

They should break it down, shouldn't they? Staff costs, transport costs, any other costs = total, divided by number of kids on trip.

There is more than one food tech group, DS2 burbled something about this group being the smallest but what he was saying didn't actually make a lot of sense (I find this with him a lot!)