school trips again

fsdss

on behalf of a friend..........who has worked out that she will have paid out almost £1k by summer next year for her 2 children.

(not private school)

they have received a letter home from school, educational tour to the peak district for 3 days for 7-8 year olds.in march.

on letter......all children must attend, cost should not be an issue (£120) can be paid by installments......any person not wishing child to attend must see head teacher, no excuses accepted.

reasonable? i would just like your opinions?

amandada

Taking the cash issue out of it, and bearing in mind I'm all for children learning to be independent, I think 7/8 is too young to be away overnight

...and if it's compulsory, should parents have to be paying?

moggylover

Nope, I don't think that is reasonable at all - and I might be tempted to tell the head teacher a thing or two!

TBH - mine seem to be on school trips all the time these days. DS2 had one on Monday, (only £7 but still a trip) and has another one in a weeks time (letter only came home today!) :eek: And that is at Primary school!

I seriously do not think they really need to go away as much as they do, and the ones I get most annoyed about are the really expensive ski-ing trips and so forth at Senior School! I could take two of us on a ski hol for the price of the one through the school, and that would be flying not coach! Needless to say he isn't going! I simply do not have £640 plus £200 spending money:eek: .

As to them being mandatory - if they are a mandatory part of the curriculum then it should be up to the LEA to pay for the trip: or alternatively find some other way (more locally/cheaper) of teaching them whatever the trip is supposed to teach!

milliebear00001

If the trip is in school time then the school can only ask for a donation. They cannot legally say you have to pay, nor can they disbar your child from the trip if you don't pay. Most schools don't make this clear on their letters for obvious reasons...

gairlochgal

Our school makes it clear that you don't have to pay and they also offer a rate for low earners. I'm a governor and the head always reports that he builds an assumption into the budget for all trips about how many people will pay and at which level.

Your friend might want to track down a parent governor or go through the PTA and ask what can be done about improving the advice on payment.

morganb

All contributions, up to a reasonable level, should be 'voluntary' but obviously a trip cannot run if not enough parents pay. Schools are not in a position to pay for these extra trips. The costings often need to cover the cost of staffing as well as many venues don't offer sufficient free adult places.

liney

fsdss wrote: »

they have received a letter home from school, educational tour to the peak district for 3 days for 7-8 year olds.in march.

on letter......all children must attend, cost should not be an issue (£120) can be paid by installments......any person not wishing child to attend must see head teacher, no excuses accepted.

How far in advance is this trip to make 'cost not be an issue'?

I actually think i would be sending a letter back informing the school that I would be the one to decide whether my child was going to be away from home over night at aged 7 years, and if the head teacher wants to discuss it s/he can contact me, the parent.

Aside the cost, which isn't actually that bad for a 3 day trip, that letter would rub me up the wrong way.

mspig

i'll have to have a look around for the legislation, but a teacher friend tells me that by the law that governs schools the schools are not allowed to say any school trip is compulsary. They can say its £*** as its an overnoght trip not a day trip which they can only ask for donations for.

My son went to high school this year and up to know ive had 5 different trip letters - all 3-7 nights long, we had france 3 days £200, switzerland skiing for 7 days £945, scarborough 3 days £95, holland 5 days £780, and Germany 4 days £870. so a total cost of £2890 if he went on all plus spending money for each, which the letters states around £50.00 would be the right amount needed.

I told him he could choose one, makes me laugh though that there all between march and july 09, yet the schools doesn't allow holidays in school time.
I told him that the amount for all the trips would around the same amount i would pay for our family holiday, and that if he went on all his brothers would miss out on a holiday next year.

Becles

I was under the impression that if the trip is compulsary, they cannot force parents to pay for it and only ask for voluntary contributions.

I wouldn't be able to pay it if it was my child, and I'd be going in and telling the head that cost is an issue as sadly we don't have a headmasters salary coming in!

fsdss

liney wrote: »

How far in advance is this trip to make 'cost not be an issue'?


Aside the cost, which isn't actually that bad for a 3 day trip, that letter would rub me up the wrong way.

theres 6 months to pay

that was my consensus and what i said to my pal - it couldn't have come at a worse time for her either as her husband has been notified that the firm he works for is going bust and he will be paid (?) up til the end of the month!

Spendless

7 and 8 years old, so yr 3? I didn't know they took children of this age on o/night trips. Our area only takes them on residential trips from yr 6, which is the same as when I was at school (70's-80's). The school mine attend only started doing residential trips for yr6 last year, prior to that you wouldn't go until you were in secondary school.

Is this usual for your area, if it isn't you might find some people reluctant to send their 7-8 yo?