£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

thatbloody I totally agree.
Dd has been offered a trip to Malaga. For 3 nights, 3 star, two meals a day for nearly 600 pounds term time of course.
I can't help thinking I could take the whole family away for not much more on a similar basis but for a week (particularly if it were termtime)
The same with the Disneyland Paris trip.
I had previously taken the four of us for longer in a better hotel with four day park entry for around the same price AT CHRISTMAS.
I'm not mean but at the same time I think it's important for our travel budget to include all of us and not just one person.
I will make an exception if it comes to stuff we wouldn't do as a family such as skiing which is not my cup of tea brrrrrrr

Our primary kept the yr 6 residential trip (Mon-Fri, IoW activity centre) affordable by running it in Nov or Dec, and the PTA supported it. Parents paid £120 which was a bargain, especially considering the fantastic activities.

I wouldn't describe uniform , lunch and music lessons, or even trips, as 'hidden' costs though. I am more about the schools, usually faith or selective in some other way, like grammar, that have very expensive uniforms, extensive kit lists and all these 'voluntary contributions' to the school maintenance fund etc. it's another layer of selection. Hidden selection, you might say.

Really interesting thread.

My dc are spread across 2 schools (3 now dss is at secondary, but I haven't seen enough to form much of an opinion yet)

Dd1 is at a very good primary, 2 class intake in the middle of an estate. Higher than average number of pupils on FSM. School's website lists expected trips and costs for a year. Lots of experience days with costs at a minimum. She gets a taxi which is provided by County because she meets the criteria. School has an enrichment week at the end of summer term for ks2, activities varied between free and a one night residential of water sports for £80. She wanted the residential, and it was a fab experience, not least because only 9 kids went, and the 3 girls on the trip travelled in the deputy heads car with the top down singing loudly! The Friends group is now very active, but keep costs down. They still manage to support the school, I cannot sing that school's praises enough.

Ds and dd2 are at the village school, 2 minutes walk away. This is a more mc area, trips have become much more over the past couple of years. This year dd2 went to a local natural history museum, cost £1 (towards maintenance/diesel of school minibus, museum is free). Last year, similar topic the school too the kids to Whipsnade! The yr4 residential last summer, for 1 night was over £120. All the extras seem to be more, by about a third.

Both ds and dd1 do swimming, each school uses a coach. For ds the cost was £40, for dd1 the cost £22.50. Similar distance, in fact further for dd1!

Uniform for both schools has optional logo'd bits. My tribe have 1/2 of the logo'd jumpers, all second hand. The rest of the uniform is supermarket. Because only the jumpers are different (royal blue vs navy) I can still hand down to dd2. Village school asks for the PE to shirt be in the child's house colour, but siblings are all in the same house. This does not have to be logo'd, and about half have the logo'd ones.

Dss is at a local academy. He has to have logo'd blazer, tank top, PE t-shirt and PE shorts. Everything else is supermarket, but the above were expensive enough. J believe there was a charge for the locker. Because he's chosen this school, ge cycles from his mum's but has to get the train from here, which is about £3 a day. We looked at passes but because he's only here half the week it would have been more expensive.

It is unlikely any of the other dc will go to that school, in my town we have 3 grammars and 6/7 others within easy reach. Ds wants to go to one in the next town, because of the zoning on the buses the pass would cost the same as the pass to the faith one on the other side of town. Dd1 has her eye on a grammar, and dd2 is too early to tell. I am contemplating selling a kidney or 2.

I have two DDs in years 3 and 6. Atm, I would say primary is just below that, but secondary will easily be above.

DD1:
Uniform £150
Year 6 residential £250
Music lessons £150
Weekly tuck shop £20
Non school uniform events £15
Photos £30
Christmas cards £10
School trip £15
Christmas / end of year gifts £20

That's about £660

Dd2 same as DD1 except no residential, instead a year of swimming lessons at £150, so she'll be £560.

However, next year when DD goes into year 7, it will easily top £800.

School uniform (including shoes, coat and bag) will be about £300. Just buying the regulation clothes (blazer, skirt, PE kit etc) comes to about £180.

School bus will either be £580 or £290 depends whether the school subsidises it.

Music lessons (no idea how much yet)

As she plays an instrument, she'll go on the music residential. No idea of cost yet.

The year 7 residential is the second week of term. I expect that will be about £200.

Food for cookery lessons I suspect will be between £100 and £200 a year.

Then, they run optional residentials like the skiing trip, the Australian sports trip (thank god she'll be too young for that one!) I'm going to limit her to one per year for that.

And the day trips, photos, non uniform days, tickets for the shows she'll be in and so on...

I fully expect the costs to easily top 1k pa, but it is quite an affluent area, so I don't think the school worries about keeping costs down much.

Better get saving .

DS is now at sixth form college as his school has no sixth form.

Cost of train fare for the year - £665.

And that's the concessionary rate

I think this about relative poverty. No no one died from not having music lessons or going on school trips, but it is reasonable that most dcs should be able to do these things.

I don't think it's quite that much here. School shoes are disproportionately expensive £45 vs £20.Bloody football boots break the bank 3X £35 X 2 a year - not essential though.Uniform is dirt cheap from supermarkets, I actually think that saves money.

School trips are quite reasonable in the order of £10 once every term or so. For me it's the investment in time and effort I resent, endless costumes to assemble and performances to attend, ferrying them about during school hours to represent the school in sporting events F!@king football again. This on top of the usual bake sales, fares etc.

This tread is quite depressing. I kind of get the feeling that having children is a bit of a burden for some people.

I dont think infant school costs us anything like that much

• lunches (currently free - but surely parents would have to provide lunch one way or another anyway)
• uniform. Currently far cheaper than normal clothes would be. Also new to you where clothing is 50p if parents want it.

-shoes - would they not be wearing shoes if not in school..?!!?

• photos - again a choice. We got yrR but havent got others, plenty of photos with a mobile phone these days!
• music lessons - again a choice, and far more expensive out of school privately/if home schooling. We will do it but it seems good value and not at all compulsory part of being at school.
• there is a yr6 residential but its the only one in 7 years so not an annual cost.

There is a pound here and there for non uniform days and I honestly think thats it. More like a fiver than over a hundred!!

Not at all Bunbaker I adore spending time with my dcs. I do not enjoy taking a days annual leave to drive upwards of 45 minutes in the freezing, driving rain so ds can run about on a muddy pitch in the schools colours. But I love him so I do it.

Kristina see what suburbanrhonda wrote
our schools have no 6th form
college is nigh on compulsory
transport is not free

Talkin - my post was just about the cost of attending school. What are the educational charities that help with enrichment?!

I've never heard of any. My area is fairly low income (although often just above the fsm amount). Do they really help with optional extras?

kristina, sixth form college is further education, not higher education, so not the same as university.

As talkinpeace said, education or training is now compulsory to age 18.

DS wants to go to uni, therefore he needs to go to sixth form college to do his A levels or equivalents, therefore we have to pay £665 per year to get him there.

HTH.

Before the children went back in September, I spent £135 on 3 pairs of school shoes (although I probably could have got them cheaper, but I like to buy quality shoes).

DS's secondary school is much more expensive. They have a list of trousers which you are allowed to wear - the cheapest are £11. His blazer was £35 Then there is the stationary, the study guides, the PE kit, the compulsory coat. Plus the bus pass which is nearly £300 a year. There are expensive subjects too - DS is doing photography and resistant materials.

Our Primary school is a little better, but mainly because we can walk there and they are more relaxed on uniform - as long as you have the jumper and the colour of the shirts/trousers are right its okay.

Kristina we don't get any free child travel here, and all the secondary schools are a bus ride away, so we need to pay!

DD's school shoes have just cost me £65. She has fairly hefty orthotic insoles, and those were the only pair we could find that met hospital requirements for fully lace-up with removable insoles, and school requirement for completely plain black leather.

The insoles fit just fine into her £15 black trainers, but we aren't allowed those at school.

Jumpers here are £26 each, logo shirts £18.50 each. So, yes, uniform can cost more than mufti.

I seem to remember a proposal a few years back that school uniform should be available from at least 3 suppliers, and I wish this happened. Our Elder DD's school uniform was only available from 1 supplier who charged £15 each per blouse, £30 for a skirt and £35 for a blazer. Then there was the pe kit and sports shoes, with separate footwear required for hockey, football and general sports.
I am sure that uniform would be cheaper if there was competition between suppliers, and I wish that schools were not allowed to get away with the underhand selection that this amounts to.

Is that private Lance? Surely they cant insist on £26 school jumpers?!

We pay something like £6 for 2 in sainsburys.

God, no, very bog-standard secondary! And frankly a relief only to have to buy overpriced jumpers after after the logo-on-everything-including-aprons nonsense at my older son's (state) school.

Ah we haven't got to secondary yet shudder.

lance DS school jumper is £26 too, and we are nt allowed any other , it must be that style with logo! And his compulsory reversible rugby shirt for games is £30! ....indoor kit is £20 for the top, never mind the two different shorts we need for them both!

Ah yes, the reversible rugby shirts...

We inherited ours from a friend's child. After two years at the school, DS mentioned in some bafflement that his was the only one that reversed to blue-and-black instead of blue-and-white. Apparently the rugby uniform had changed some years previously, but this shirt had kept on going.

DD (rather more switched one child) has just thwarted my attempts to pass it on to her as well.

'switched one'?? Gah. Switched on. Unlike her mother.

It is the purchase of iPads for school that I really object to. At a state secondary, but appears to be compulsory. The iPads are apparently "necessary" for their work but the parents have to buy them themselves.

THAT is a hidden cost. No way would I have expected to have to pay for an iPad for school, in the same way my parents would have never expected to have to pay for excercise books.

I think there's some confusion here. Tthe OP isn't entirely clear, but I think they're talking about putting a child through school costing £800 in total, not per year.

And I do think that uniform is a hidden cost, because you do not find out how much it will cost until you join the school, and it is not instead of ordinary clothes but as well as.

No, the report itself (linked in the OP) says it's an annual cost.