school trips again

fsdss

Spendless wrote: »

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

my friend has 2 children and so far (since september) and up to july next year the amount for school

£100 each (swimming lessons at school for 2 terms) = £200
£400 educational trip to spain =£400
£120 educational trip to peak district = £120
£25 (x2) for panto trip with school = £50
day trips x 4 various locations £15 each =£60

thats what she knows of at the moment - so far total = £830
this is without the cost of spending money, getting a passport (doesn't have a passport as they do caravan holidays in uk)

this excludes the endless appeals for money in various forms (raffles / contributions for raffles)- christmas / harvest festival donations and surprise box donations for orphanage in east europe

i have pointed out that these are all voluntary contributions (except spain trip), but she feels deeply guilty if she were not to contribute.
her income is £11+k, her husbands income is £19+k but as i said earlier, will be losing his job at the end of the month - they have a mortgage of £80k, will not have a car (as he will lose it).

lauren_1

I would not send my dd away overnight, not even if the head teacher begged on her knees saying pretty pretty please with a cherry on top.

I am quite appauled by the amount your friend has forked out!

DD's school have capped trips to £3 per child but do raise funds by having a non uniform day every half term, swimming is free and panto's are put on at the school which cost £2.50 pp but even then it's not compulosory to pay.

jackieb

When my son went to Holland with the school he didn't need to get a passport. I can't remember how they did it but he didn't need one because he was going with the school.

I can't believe the amount your friend has had to fork out either. There must be other parents in the same boat, who really can't afford all that.
There's no way i'd let a 7yo of mine go away overnight either. I'm pretty sure there must be a few bedwetters amongst that age group too. How embarrassing for them if they're away with their class and they have an accident.

Spendless

fsdss wrote: »

my friend has 2 children and so far (since september) and up to july next year the amount for school

£100 each (swimming lessons at school for 2 terms) = £200
£400 educational trip to spain =£400
£120 educational trip to peak district = £120
£25 (x2) for panto trip with school = £50
day trips x 4 various locations £15 each =£60

thats what she knows of at the moment - so far total = £830
this is without the cost of spending money, getting a passport (doesn't have a passport as they do caravan holidays in uk)

this excludes the endless appeals for money in various forms (raffles / contributions for raffles)- christmas / harvest festival donations and surprise box donations for orphanage in east europe

i have pointed out that these are all voluntary contributions (except spain trip), but she feels deeply guilty if she were not to contribute.
her income is £11+k, her husbands income is £19+k but as i said earlier, will be losing his job at the end of the month - they have a mortgage of £80k, will not have a car (as he will lose it).

Soz, I meant is it usual in your area for yr 3 children to be on o/night trips? In my area because children are in yr6+ before they do a residential trip, I *think* a lot of parents would refuse on the grounds that they feel their kids are too young to be away from home for a few days.

What age/year is your friends other child in? I'm used to the raffles/discos/non-uniform days etc but here kids do swimming lessons for 1 year and AFAIK it's free, ds starts after Easter, mine usually have 1 day school trip that costs around £10, ds had 3 last year but they were all local, so each only cost a couple of £'s and the schools tend to use the money they get in from raffles etc to get a theatre company to come to the school.

Oldernotwiser

The age doesn't seem a difficulty to me. Didn't people here go away at that age to Brownie/Cub camp? I know I did.

galvanizersbaby

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

The age doesn't seem a difficulty to me. Didn't people here go away at that age to Brownie/Cub camp? I know I did.

Think I went on my first trip away with school camp at age 9/10.
Year 3 sounds a bit young to me to be going away for this length of time.

I am not sure that the school is allowed to say the trip is mandatory either

Oldernotwiser

galvanizersbaby wrote: »

Think I went on my first trip away with school camp at age 9/10.
Year 3 sounds a bit young to me to be going away for this length of time.

I am not sure that the school is allowed to say the trip is mandatory either

I remember going on 3 annual camps and you go up to guides at 10/11.

pippinpuss

My child & her Yr 3 class were to go on a day trip. The cost was £7.50. That does not sound a lot now but most trips were only £3 in the early 90's.Most parents thought that was far too much for what was, technically, an educational visit. So we complained to the school that we weren't going to pay the full amount.End of the story was that the trip was cancelled due to parent power. So it is worth complaining to the school about costs. But surely 7/8 yr olds are far too young to go away for 3 days. The Peak Disctrict is pretty but I don't think in years to come they will remember much.

fsdss

Spendless wrote: »

What age/year is your friends other child in?

the eldest will be 9 next year - the youngest will be 8 next year

galvanizersbaby

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

I remember going on 3 annual camps and you go up to guides at 10/11.

I'm not sure what the protocol is for brownies and guides nowdays but my friends hubbie takes the scouts away on 2 day camps but they are all children of 10+
Scouts is made up of girls and boys now which can be a bit awkward for camping trips away with the teenage ones!
Apparently they are not allowed to discriminate between girls and boys in the scouts so you have a girl scout and a boy scout.
In my day it was girl guides and boy scouts - all very confusing!