How do you pay for School Trips

MSE_Martin

I did a Money Makeover this week for a TV prog I'm filming.  I was shocked.  On the side was a note of a school trip (non-private school) the cost £400 for an 11 year old.

£400 is a lot of money. Yet this is a family with debt problems.  A £400 to go on a school trip is a huge amount of money.  Whilst many schools will offer support for children from families on benefits, those trying to manage a tight budget and struggling with debts often won't quality for that help.

Yet 'depriving' a child is tough to do Yet a child begging to go on a trip so as not to be stigmatised and left out is a powerful pull.

Is the School irresponsible?
How would/do you handle this situation?

I'd be very interested to read people's thoughts.

Martin

(click reply to respond)

John_M_Business

Hi Martin

Could you give a little more detail on what the trip entailed? Activities? How long?

I guess a week in an outward-bound camp full board would make this price seem fair... or going abroad for a week. But if it was a short (i.e. long weekend) in this country, then it would seem to have probably been badly negotiated / organised.

But, yes, on the face of it, it seems over the top to expect parents to pay for. Were they offering any kind of support for this?

Cheers

John

MATH

Friends of ours recently had their 13yr old come home with a request for £3000 (non-private school) for a trip to Tanzania. Some they have to pay in cash and the rest they are expected to activly fund-raise on behalf of the school for. They are a fairy affluent family but even they balked at the cost. Their son however couldn't understand why he wasn't allowed to go.

Lillibet_2

Going back 15 years I desperately wanted to go on a school arranged ski-ing trip in Austria, total cost around £350 for 8 days accommodation/food/ski hire/ski pass & insurance. My parents agreed to it BUT it was my Christmas present that year, I didn't get anything else & was told I would need to get a saturday job to pay for snowsuit & kit etc. I
t was the best holiday I had ever had, I think in part becasue I was made to realize not only the cost but the value by raising some of the cost myself & by giving up the usual Christmas gifts.

Sarahsaver

its totally irresponsible of the school. Cheaper to pack up the whole school and send it to pontins for a week, or the costa del sol!

jellyhead

i remember being gutted not to go on the school trip to germany. i also missed the france trip. mum just couldn't afford it so none of us went. it wasn't the sort of trip everyone went on though so it's not like we were the only kids in the school to miss out.

the 'outward bound' type trips are different though, everyone's expected to go. last year there were only 3 kids who didn't go to the year 4 one, and one of those was there to begin with but got sent home for bad behaviour. the kids who don't go are stigmatised to some extent. it's less than a hundred pounds though i think, and it's half price for parents on income support. school sets up payment cards and takes weekly payments too.

filigree_2

My son's school is in a deprived area so they don't go away on school trips, not at all, ever. The only way a school can negotiate a bulk discount is if they can be positive the majority of pupils will go, it isn't practical to take a scant handful of kids because it isn't cost effective.

I used to love our "school journeys" - as our school seemed to call them! If I want my son to experience the breadth of activities involved I have to organise and pay for them seperately and it would probably cost even more than £400, because I'd have to pay for my own accommodation and expenses on top.

I recently spent £300 on myself for a long weekend, I reckon £400 for a week long holiday is a bargain. However, if I simply didn't have £400 it would be pretty harsh to keep my son back if the whole class were off enjoying themselves.

Once he starts high school there will be more opportunities for school trips so I'm starting up a fund to pay for it - no excuses for saying it was an unplanned expense (been reading my MSE book ) ! Even so, I'd save my money for truly educational activities, not trips to Euro Disney.

If he wants to go to Tanzania, he can wait till he's an adult, get a job and pay for it himself! Flipping heck, I've never had that much to spend on a holiday in my life.

MarkyMarkD

I think £400 is well OTT for a school trip - that's far more than I just paid (each) for our 2 week half board holiday.

It places huge undue pressure on less well-off parents in these circumstances, and that isn't fair.

The £3k thing is even more disgusting - and I object to schools or other charities obtaining "sponsorship" for expensive trips in any circumstances. E.g. all this "get sponsored to do a sky dive" sort of c**p. Just a rip-off for all parties concerned.

Prudent

I both work in schools (and am involved with trips) and I am a single mum with a tight budget so have experienced both sides of this situation.

Most schools give lengthy notice of the trips, including cost. Every school I have worked in has had a payment scheme allowing the parents to pay so much at a time. Often this works like a savings book, rather than being a set amount. Parents can put in money as and when they want. Also most schools will give discreet financial assistance to families who genuinely can't afford to pay.This is generally done in the case of trips on which the majority of children are going, so that one child is not excluded by their family circumstances. It is less likey to given on the trips abroad as only a minority go on these anyway.

Last spring I was given quite short notice by my daughter's school to raise £100 for a two day residential trip. We were able to pay in three installments, but they were quite close together. She also needed special clothing. She fell ill and was unable to paricipate. I did not get my money back. It was money I could have really done with for other things at the time.

In the same term I attended, as a member of staff, a four day trip organised by another school to an outdoor centre. The centre was owned by the same company as the one my daughter went to and charged the same rates. This trip only cost pupils £75 for four days. I talked to the head teacher of the school and she said she kept the cost low by getting sponorship from local companies. At the same rate a two night trip would cost only £37.50 against the £100 charged by my daughter's school. I wish the head of my daughter's school could have been so procative in keeping costs down.

Js_Other_Half

I went to 2 school trips to Europe as a teenager with my school - 2 years apart. At that point it cost well over £200 each time, and this was 1982 and 1984.

My brother went skiing with his school 2 years apart too - and his cost a bit more. Mum and Dad were hard pressed to find the money, but they did, for which I am eternally grateful. Admittedly I still failed german O level, but I did get a D However, I youth hostelled around germany for several summers in my 20s and could get by.

I think it really does depend on what it is for, but there is no way anyone I know could afford thousands of pounds for a one off trip. My brother went to the seychelles and tanzania after he graduated!;)

Fran

My kids' school has had trips over the years that are just not affordable. The primary school was sympathetic to benefits/low income but 2ndry school is not.

Trips cost too much to afford on benefits/low income even with advance notice. There is not any spare cash for school trips. The school doesn't give discount, just more time to pay. There are trips that only parents with cash up front get to go on.

My eldest used to not tell me about trips because he knew they cost too much. This meant he missed trips which he might have been able to go on if he'd told me.

Even small trips with more than one child can mess up your finances.

With the eldest child I tried writing to the school about trips but the head teacher never even replied. I should have taken it further, but there is the feeling of the parent stirring things up if you complain.