£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

I'm not sure about the uniform. Most schools have uniform and I think it is naive of parents to not expect to pay for uniform. Most primary schools tend to be happy with generic jumpers/trousers/skirts etc. At DD's high school the only non generic items are blazers and ties, plus PE kit. I can buy shirts trousers and skirts from anywhere provided they meet the uniform criteria.

I think the expectation of parents to pay for iPads is outrageous though.

Well non generic at dd's secondary are shirts, jumpers, kilts, pe kits. All logoed and expensive.

Other secondaries round here similar. Those that have generic trousers and skirts have fancy blazers (£60-80).

It all adds up and it is a retrograde step from when I went to school locally and all items barring blazer and tie were generic. And even with the blazer, you could buy a badge to sew onto a generic one!

Recovering
YES, yes, yes
there are lots of charities all over the country that support needy families for things like school trips and music lessons and sports memberships
once you are willing to ask and start to look they are out there

PM me the first four digits of your postcode and I'll find one local to you.

I've just started adding up what it costs to send my 2 children to their state school .
If I don't add the "voluntary extras" like music lessons , or a computer (a good 75% of my children's homework is computer based) Then I am paying nearly £2k per year , per child .

I haven't included any school trips or clubs in this figure .
This is purely (branded) uniform , bus fares , lunches , school equipment (the cost of equipment the school has requested the children have - ie art supplies , scientific calculators etc) , photocopying fee per term , "voluntary" contribution (which is actually aggressively pursued every year) .

We are on a very low income as a family .
Husband earns £18k , works 6 days per week .
I have cancer and can't work .
But we are not entitled to any benefits apart from tax credits .

This is not a poor me moan .
This is just a post to say this is how it is for a lot of families .
We ARE the working poor .

I hadn't thought about the computer costs, but yes, they are expected to do pretty much everything on the computer (often online, in fact), and as there are three of them competing for it in the evenings, that means in practice that we need more than one computer. Plus printer paper for the inevitable 'do a mood board on....' -- we seem to go through a lot of that.

I can believe £800 is reasonable. School dinners are £2 a day, so £390 a year.
Logoed PE kit, polo top, blazer, school tie comes to about £60, plus generic shirts etc.
School trips are at least £200 a year, more this year with DD in Y6, an extra £250 for the Year 6 residential.
That's easily £800 before the non-uniform days, school fair, PTA fundraisers, school discos, presents for teachers...

And don't forget the printer ink - I can't believe how much we have gone through since DS started Secondary - the dreaded "Mood Boards" and ICT homework have taken their toll!

Oh actually yes I forgot all about the printer ink manky that's £800 on it's own i think.

Yep. I think it's probably cheaper to buy a new printer each time.

At the moment, we only have a working black and white laser printer. Suddenly DS has 'discovered' that in fact it's possible to email work to school and print it there. Hmm...

Our kids are at one of the top state schools in the county

All the uniform is generic except the tie and a badge which can be sewn onto a generic blazer .

There are Logo PE shirts and PE hoodies but they are not compulsory .

All expensive trips have been optional and only a small minority of children go on them. There is a day out at the end of term and there are always very low cost options eg £10.

Music tuition is free if the pupil is taking music as an option .

We've had to buy about one extra item per year eg apron for HE, scientific calculator , French dictionary , so about £10 pa.

Any fundraising events are about £5 per ticket and are for charity , not the school eg Christmas carol concert for Mary's meals, daffodil event for Macmillan . Again they are optional

The only donations requested have been for non uniform days, so £1 , three times per year. Again it's for charity . No one checks if the kids have paid the " fine" for not wearing uniform. The school raises enough, so I assume those who can afford it send a fiver

I am shocked to hear about the extortionate costs some parents are having to find. It's unreasonable and unfair. If our schools can do it, why can't others ?

I don't see how most of these costs contribute to the children's education anyway. They don't perform better in expensive kit or learn more on expensive trips. It's discriminatory IM not very HO

I have no objection to the trips. DS1 has been to the Menin Gate this year and is off to Berlin next year. Not holiday destinations for the Sparkling family, but good for his GCSEs in History/German.

My eldest son has just started state grammar year 8 (n Ireland)
So far we have spent
School fees "voluntary" - £400
Pe kit - £150
Uniform £120
class "bonding"school trip £70
Just short of £750 and we are only 8 weeks in
Cannot bring myself to add in lunches

But it's not cheaper at the more junior level

Twin daughters at state nursery school compulsory school dinner every day and weekly snack money

£1200 for the school year!!

I was shocked by the £220 uniform bill for secondary - that was just for the compulsory bits (trousers shirts shoes etc on top). Most if it for various parts of the PE kit. Ds2 is now year 8 & there are still unworn bits in there

We qualify for free school meals and a clothing grant, the clothing grant doesn't even cover shoes unless we buy them from a supermarket, also with one starting nursery in January and one in year 2, I only get the grant for one child per year. Not to mention, we have to buy the jumpers, polo shirts and PE polo shirts with the school badge on. I also object to being pressured to buy cakes for cake sales when I can't afford to feed us all.

TalkinPeace: Don't know how to PM from my phone but I'm in South Fulham.

And yes to needing a decent computer/laptop with office suite or suitable equivalent on - we already had this but others I know had to buy when their children went to high school. The amount of research and work done on computers now was an eye opener!

And before anyone shouts "use the Library", our was closed due to cuts.

Ditto manky

Such a lot of DD's homework is set online that a laptop is essential. An iPad isn't compatible with the school's VLE.

Or a you have VLE that is comparable with iPads because that's what school uses, but not cheaper tablets.

Ours just drives me mad because it won't work with FireFox and I always forget to switch to horrible IE.

An iPad is still not that practical for loads of typing though.

Does MyMaths work with iPads?

We live in a postcode that has received extra funding from the EU because of poverty/social issues. We are okay, not crying poor mouth, but just giving context.

When DS went into Reception I counted up all the 'asks'. So, not including uniform, lunches etc but just stuff like photos, sponsorship, Christmas Cards, Reindeer poo, contributions to the Christmas Hamper, raffle tickets for said hamper, non uniform days, trips etc came to just over £150. And I am a serious tight wad and certainly didn't go overboard. I know one mother on FSM and some serious issues who had twins in Reception and other children in the older classes.

The school are pretty good about uniform, but insist it is new from eg supermarkets. Not including shoes, ds wasn't so bad. However by the time you add on uniform, shoes, fancy dress, gin for mother to get them both through homework etc I am quite comfortable it is more than a few hundred a year at primary school. I believe ds is likely to be in the catchment for the local academy and the costs I have heard about that have made my hair curl.

Bathsheba
You have mail .....

For the reference of anybody wondering what trick I'm using to find these charities ....
apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/AdvancedSearch.aspx
put in your area in the keyword, tick name, objects, activities
does = education
helps = young people
operates = grants to individuals

and then skim through the trust deeds of all those who come up to find the one or two who might be right

Happy Halloween
TiP

Some of these things are just the cost of having a child though surely -food, music lessons, odd days out, toys their friends have. All the well trained teachers, buildings, equipment, books, sports grounds and general education (plus childcare) are free which is pretty good. I don't think we can expect the government to start paying for 'in trend toys', cake sales and extra tuition lessons and it would be a shame if we had to ban all these things. I know it must be hard though for families who are really struggling, and for the children to be excluded. Different schools/schemes do try to help those with no spare cash but I'm sure they don't reach everyone.

I expect to have to pay for lunch, as they would have that at home. It's the extras that add up. Next year my twins will be in year 6, school week away costs over £300 per child. Same year my youngest, year 4, has 2 night residential, another £170. Anyone have £770 just laying around I could have, coz I don't! Uniforms pee me off. I bought my eldest a brand new blazer to start year 7, sole supplier £40, the buttons and rear stitching didn't even make it past the first term . Sole suppliers and strange uniform colours should be illegal. I f they must wear uniform put it out to the wider market, if it's good enough to create "competition" in our essential services why can we not have it when it comes to clothing that our schools make compulsory. The wrong tie gets you sent home or put in isolation, the price is of no importance to school rules but it is of great importance if you are on minimum wage!

The wrong tie gets you sent home or put in isolation

I think that's shocking. At our local high school they just give you one from the lost property

The wrong tie gets you sent home or put in isolation

This is an illustration of where schools get their priorities crazily wrong. Children attend school to be educated, not to participate in a fancy dress parade...