£800 'hidden cost' of sending a child to a state school - your experiences?

[TheLateKateMumsnet]

According to the Children's Commission on Poverty, many families in the UK are struggling to meet the 'hidden costs' of sending a child to school. They estimate that families need to find roughly £800 per child to pay for things such as school uniforms, lunches, and extra-curricular trips and activities - often more, once their child reaches secondary school.

What's your experience? Does this figure sound about right, when you add up all the extras - and are your family finances suffering because of it? Do let us know in the thread below.

P.S If you're looking for ways to manage school costs, take a look at our tips here

May I add peer pressure additional costs such as toys and gizmos which your child wants in order to be the same as their friends? I know these are not mandatory but there can be an element of exclusion if these things are not available to your child.

Agree that school dinners, fetes and fund raisers, school logo sweatshirts and uniform, shoes, school trips (days out rather than residential trips), winter clothes, winter boots all add up.

At primary I think this is a bit misleading. School lunches are obviously a large outlay so a packed lunch would seem to cut this at a stroke. After all you would be providing this at the same cost as a lunch at home. Seriously, £200 a year on state school uniform? We are lucky in my area, the only logo'd items are sweatshirts at £10 each. Apart from shoes the rest from a supermarket would be well under £50 and then would be handed down. Shoes would be worn anyway. The only unexpected costs are trips which rise as the child gets older! I feel for anyone who has to fork out £800 a year for a child to go to school.

Secondary uniform is a large outlay and I think it should be the law that the school provide some sort of 2nd hand uniform outlet if they are expecting parents to cough up £££££ for new school-specific items.

Sounds entirely plausible to me. ds's uniform for new secondary was hideously expensive, even though we bought some stuff (eg blazer) in second hand sale. Needing three different pairs of shoes ie school shoes/trainers/football boots, different football and rugby shorts/shirts etc. etc. probably set us back £250-300 - too scared to tot it up between me and dh but we were ruddy short of cash in September. Special socks for football and other PE, ffs (or was it rugby, I dunno). Stuff for art, particular calculator for science. And uniform is all logo'd, you can't get anything other than shirts and trousers from non-specialist suppliers. And he doesn't even have anywhere to hang up his ruddy coat!

School lunches are expensive, we had to pay £20 for a locker, FFS, an extra fee to get text messages about lunch money running out and other payments etc. and trips are a nightmare - ds's school put in a new 'bushcraft' bonding trip in September that cost over £200 and everyone was going, of course, and there was no time to save up as there would have been if it was at the end of the year.

Then there's days out and special events and charity stuff... they seem to think we are made of money. Secondary heads on £60-£100k or more seem to forget the average full-time wage is £27k and they are running state schools, not Eton, FFS.

For Ds1 (at secondary) it probably comes to about £1000 a year, but that includes transport costs that we wouldn't have if he'd stayed at the school at the end of our road. Before that it was probably about £800 a year mostly on school dinners and uniform.

For Ds2 it's much, much less. The are trips and stuff to spend money in all the time, which is hard to keep track of but we have no transport costs, he gets FSM (because he's in Y1), the uniform is cheap and lasts more than a year (even if his shoes don't), and they provide all equipment.

I'm not sure that school dinners is that reasonable a thing to include. You'd have to feed them anyway. It kind of detracts from the argument about the need for parents to find money for uniform, equipment and trips just so they can send them to supposedly 'free' state schools. And takes away from the fact that schools can set uniform rules that make it much harder for some people to afford to send their children to that school than others.

The uniform at DS1's old school was unnecessarily logoed and expensive, but you had to buy it all (including logoed school coats, two different sets of logoed PE kit, an even a logoed apron for cooking). I'm sure it put some parents off, especially if it was combined with the train or bus fare.

but school dinners are expensive. The costs are not kept down - they are inflated far above what it would cost to feed a child at home.

Can't see how they arrive at those figures. Unless they are including optional trips abroad.

It's more like Starbucks prices at ds's school, for instance. And quite often he tells me the vegetables ran out, so he only gets, say, meatballs and rice when it should include veg as well!

Uniform has been an enormous cost for dd's start at secondary school. Not just the clothes, but the kit as well.

A kilt costs £38. Realistically, need 2 at least, because also cannot be tumble dried and is heavy weight, so not quick to dry.

Shirts are £22 for 2. Cannot be tumble dried.

Jumpers are £30. Cannot be tumble dried.

Logoed pe kit was £42.

When you add in regulation trainers, school shoes, coat (didn't happen to have a black coat with no logos or decoration hanging around for her) and black backpack, as well as kit bag, butchers apron and science overall it all adds up. Though will hopefully not have to buy another apron or overall again as they're enormous.

The saving grace of the kilts is that they are width adjustable. Not length alas, and she's growing so quickly that I am concerned that below the knee will soon become above the knee.

Then there's the stuff - stationery, memory stick, maths kit, calculator and so on. Expensive language trip next year.

At primary is much cheaper - have excellent relaxed uniform of basic colour jumper, trousers and shirts, none of which have to have logo.

No second hand uniform sale, either, unlike at primary school.

Vivienne - read the thread. There are plenty of posters saying this sounds about what they are paying for secondary. Try buying my ds's uniform inc. the three specified pairs of shoes and three variations of PE kit, and the art equipment, and the locker, and all the other things you don't initially think of...

Personally I think that sounds like good value, LO doesn't attend state school but it you remove the fees the extras are considerably more than £800. I think we have it quite good here (school uniform costs aside), when I lived abroad state school children were expected to also buy all of their school books and material.

I still think £850 is not usual. Unless it's extra lessons like music. But I suppose if you counted school lunches it would add up but I wouldn't count those. But agree ingredients can be expensive. So it it could come to a lot more than you would think. Seems as if schools will put upon parents as much as they can get away with as extras.

When we were on Free School Meals, we were offered quite a lot of 'extras' to help the girls feel more included, including the entire cost of the year 6 residential trip (£320 each), a week of Summer School (should have been about £80 each), group music tuition, and subscription fees for sports clubs. Additionally we were offered money towards school uniform and PE kit. I found it rather embarrassing actually as were only on FSM due to a weird technicality of the rules about benefits, and I'd only applied for them after a parent governor asked me to do so, as the pupil premium awarded to the school per FSM child was well worth having. As a matter of fact we could afford all these things, and it was only the fact that the money had been sent and was sitting in the school account and couldn't be used for anything else that persuaded me to accept it. I made up for it by buying a whole load of stuff for the school to the same value via the PTA!

This was a few years ago now, and we no longer either claim FSMs or are entitled to do so (although I gather the rule that enabled my family to receive them still exists).

What annoyed me then and still annoys me now is that I know there were other families who were on lower actual incomes than me who were not entitled to claim FSMs and therefore weren't offered access to this sort of funding who needed it far more than we did.

The secondary school dtds attend now does have a Discretionary Fund which the headteacher can access to help with financial hardship, but that involves writing to the Head asking for help and explaining why, which I'm sure some of the most needy families would find a hurdle in itself.

And what is with secondary heads and their obsession with logo'd, hard-to-wash uniform? Only available from a single supplier? And the PE kit is about to be changed for the third time in ten years, so all the stuff that was sensibly saved up from eldest children to be passed on to younger siblings is useless! And I hear they're planning to change the main uniform again too, so the immaculate blazer I've stashed ready for my 10 year old nephew when he starts next September is likely to be redundant as well.

I'm not sure school lunches are that expensive. I'd spend more than £9.50 a week making a packed lunch (I certainly did back in DS1's packed lunch days, and food was cheaper then). And I would spend more than £1.90 when making lunch for at home.

Even if school dinners are more expensive than eating at home (or having a packed lunch), then it's only the difference in cost that would matter. And then only if school dinners were compulsory. Uniform and such like are compulsory costs that make school not free. What you have for lunch is less of a clear-cut case.

In plenty of countries parents are expected to purchase school books and stationery - in France this typically runs to EUR 200 or more in September with add ons throughout the year.

It's nothing like that much at my DDs primary school which has a mixed catchment. I can imagine it might be more like that at the more mc schools... (which are faith schools in my area) The RC primary has introduced blazers this year and they charge parents for the whole class instrument learning, which is funded by the county. I'd say I pay £70 for shoes. Uniform lasts more than a year so averages out to appx. £50 a year. Trips/visiting theatre groups/charity donations, maybe £20 a term. Most clubs are free except art and cooking, which hardly many children do. Music tuition is £120 a year. Instruments can be borrowed. I don't think lunches should be counted either.

This is interesting. I teach in a secondary school that runs a lot of trips. In the last few years uptake for trips has fallen because of the cost but when we decided not to run two of them there was uproar with parents complaining - we can't win!
Uniform is expensive but I don't think you can count meals in this, surely children would eat lunch if they were at him all day??

£900 for school bus pass (6th form). And that's Before trips, equipment, books, revision guides, charity events, photos, house badge (£10).....

We easily pay that for our primary ds, not including residential trips.

Uniform will be in addition to, not instead of "normal" clothes that children have. Just logoed jumpers/pe jumpers are nearly £100 per year, as we need two of each. Shorts for summer, long trousers for winter, a couple of each, logoed polo shirt for summer, long sleeve for winter. Logoed swimming cap.

It cant be just any pe track suit bottoms, or any swimming trunks, they need to meet exact specification, and what child wants to wear school style tight fitting swimming trunks for their leisurely trip to the pool?

£11 per week for lunhces, ie £44 per month, easily 300 per year. (I have moved to packed lunch) I think £800 is on the low side.

£50 per year "voluntary contribution" to the maintenance fund. Fund raising, like baking and donating cakes, wine, new toys/gifts/books for tombolas and fair stalls. Bake sales 3 times per year in addition to Christmas fair and Summer fair? Thats two lots of wine, two lots of new gifts/toys/books per year!

£40 fee for swimming. (to pay for the coach etc)

Each extra curricular or lunch time activity is £50-£60 per term.

£10 each for various trips and museums.

I estimate that the cost is more like £1000-£1200.

This does not include the Y5 and Y6 residential trips which are several hundred.

Dont get me started on the annual rip off that are school photos which children feel pressurized to do.

And the childrens artwork put on mugs, teatowels, Christmas cards, etc that children are encouraged to get, and that the schools, like the photos, take a cut on!

Sixth form is dreadful, they still have uniform and ties (all different to Y11), £450 for the bus, about £30 for bits and bobs in the first week, £150 for textbooks and we certainly haven't finished, that bottomless pit. Then art stuff.

Fortunately DD did art last year and as a hobby all her life, so that doesn't land all at once.

Oh and £20 for concert tickets plus petrol to rehearsals and far flung venue. (Singing lessons are another £330 a year, but they are private).

Petrol and the assumption everyone has a car (and parent available to drive it) is the one that really winds me up.

In Y11 they had endless after school revision classes, many DCs rely totally on 3.30 school bus. We are far from the only people 3 miles from any public bus route.

Quint, is that a state school?
I am utterly gobsmacked. How come my dcs' schools manage to do all this so much more cheaply?

To some extent though, I think parents have to start saying no. Schools that are charging £50-60 for lunchtime activities are simply taking the piss, given that my dcs' previous and current school manages to provide an excellent range of activities for free. And as for the pressure to buy mugs, photos, Christmas cards etc, just don't. I've never bought this stuff other than the occasional photo.

I've just remembered, I worked out DD2's starting secondary uniform bill.
For a whole year, with summer polo shirts and PE kit it came in at about £250. Very ordinary state school, no blazers.

However, I guess if DDs didn't wear uniform they'd want another pair of jeans, another hoodie and smarter summer stuff than they normally wear. But for Y7's who can still get into H&M children's sizes, that wouldn't cost anywhere near what uniform does.

Tunip, it is a faith school in a rather mc area, many parents cdm easily afford this, which makes it harder for those who can't. The school is actively selling the clubs - I should think They take a cut, like they do from sales of photos and visiting book fairs etc, like the pta take a cut from uniform sales. The second hand uniform sales also benefit the pta.