Cost to Parents of GCSE's

[mummyflood]

Having just sent DS1 on his way to school with £31.50 in his sticky pocket, not including dinner money, was wondering if any of you had added up the true cost of 'hidden extras' during the 2 GCSE years??!

I posted recently about £25 forthcoming request for a private gym for his P.E. GCSE, which I still have to speak to the teacher about. This morning's money is £25 for a hoodie and combat trousers for one of his options - I have to pay £8 separately for a polo shirt (which, thankfully, can be worn in the summer as part of the general uniform!) the other £6.50 is for a Biology revision guide - physics and chemistry are apparently another £6.50 each. OK so these are optional, but he is very keen to have them because they are recommended by the school, so who am I to deny his enthusiasm!!

He is doing Geography - expecting requests for field trip costs to start coming when the weather improves. There is £50 in April for an Army outreach trip. He is also doing Food Tech - £3-£5 per week on ingredients. Then there is the general maintenance which we all have of course of uniform, bag, shoes, etc - growing at about 6 inches a week at the mo, so he needs 3 pairs of new kecks after Christmas

Perhaps he has chosen an unfortunate set of options, or perhaps he needs to divorce us and marry some richer parents??

I think that it is really quite normal to have to pay a little from time to time towards one's children's education .

i know, i'm trying to save £800 for a ny trip next year!! (business studies)

i think it's probably optional if they go or not

SSA -= where is the £800 trip to?

my niece went to Ghana for GCSE & New York for A'level - but my sister put her foot down and refused to let her go on the art trip to India to see fabric being produced.

dd's school sets out all the costs that will crop up before you pick the options,but I do think at gcse level there is some sort of help you can get it you can't afford certain things.

Obviously trips that cost £800 are entirely optional.

Not so easy at A level though,some trips are demmed practically essential especially for subjects like geograph , but students are warned about this when choosing the subject.Still hard on the pocket though.

So far this yr,dd has been asked by the head of sixth form if she'd change her mind and go on a trip costing £3000 ! Needless to sya we didn't even consider it.

My niece went on a £1000 Drama trip to New York when in Y10. To be fair, for the 2 years leading up to the trip all her birthday and christmas presents from all the family were contributions towards the trip.
Now my newphew has the option of going on a trip to Russia for History. That is £1000 as well. His parents don't want to say no as they allowed niece to go to NY, so once again, all presents are contributions towards the trip.

I am very worried once my ds gets to secondary. We just don't have that sort of money (even taking into account presents of contributions from family)

Sounds mostly normal to me. I'm surprised about the cost of the Army outreach thing though - that's usually heavily subsidised, & why can't they wear their own old clothes instead of a new hoodie & combat trousers? The Food tech & revision guides are fair enough, PE was a bit cheeky (I think they could have provided an in-school alternative) but not totally unreasonable, Geography field trips seem par for the course. Outlining the extra costs for various courses before you sign up though sounds like a good idea to me.

You don't have to buy the revision guides via school. Most of them are available on Amazon.

Or second hand (freecycle even) as long as the syllabus hasn't changed. Or the library.

Flipping heck. Sounds like we are getting off quite lightly so far! Mind you, it is early days, forgot that he has also mentioned an end-of-course trip to NY to see how their uniformed services operate, circa £400-£500 not including food (he is in Yr10 now) AIBU to be asking for a contribution from him from his paper round for NY do you think??

Once I find out exactly which revision guides they are, I will look up alterntive ways of getting them - thanks for suggestions.

I think I would be less peeved if we had had some sort of communication prior to picking the options regarding the financial outlay. For the Uniformed Services course, we were supposed to be having an info. meeting "to outline the commitment involved" (presumably including financial!!) but it fell through twice and has now been cancelled.

My DS had a History trip to Flanders and a Geography trip to Iceland during his GCSE years.

We haven't really noticed much else. Science revision books are only about £3 each.

He didn't do any resits, but if he had, that would have cost a bit.

He has had the same games kit since joining the school, although did have to add in 1st XV rugby socks at £7.

Apart from trips, one of the biggest expenses was his failure to return all his textbooks.

Work experience was pretty expensive - train fares at peak times.

LOL at syllabus not changing, snorkle.

amerryscot - did't know there was a cost involved in resits - what does that cover??

The army outreach is a week a week away in the Lake District, so bearing in mind what I have paid out in the past for similar events with Scouts, that's probably actually not too bad at £50. Just a bit of a shock to see the figure along with £25, £8, £5 and £6.50 all in the same week

He has now brought home the revision guide, and there are actually 2 books marked up at £4.99 each, so again, £6.50 for the two is a saving - have looked on Amazon, can't get any cheaper & nothing on ebay.

However, he is deffo paying for his own Christmas cards for his friends & paper round customers and his own Santa Hat to wear on his round/at school Might wrap his school trousers up as a present, got to make savings somewhere in times of recession