school trip costs ......RIP OFF

emmaBZ

:mad: my ds bought a letter home saying they going on a trip to ST FAGANS MUSEUM in wales in a few weeks time cost £11 ? since found out the ST FAGANS place in wales is free entry !!! and says so on the web site...... so by my callculations ( they usually take 2 classes at the same time ) so a total of aprox 50+ kids at £11 each thats £550 and a coach will only cost aprox £100 each way and of course they will get some kind of discounts as its a school trip so want to know where the money goes ....dd got a trip the week after costing £9 !!!! :eek:

phill79

Are you sure the coach will only cost £100? Prices have rocketed this last year and are becoming very expensive.
(I do agree though, £11 is a bit steep)

barjam_2

if kids at the school where my yougers kids go to came out with a letter like that no-one would go:rotfl: we get letters asking for a contribution towards the trip,then they give a figure they never ask for an outright wanted price

go4it

There are a number of reasons for the cost. If they are travelling by coach, the new seat regulations mean that they have to ensure the coach they use conforms to the law. This might mean hiring a coach from further away as usual.

If the trip is for the full day the coach will not cost £100. If the driver has to stop there, that will increase the cost as the coach is not available for any bookings. If the trip is from 8am to 3pm, the school will be paying for 7 hours coach hire.

The place may be free but it is possible that the school are booking extras for the day, maybe an informative guide to take them around, or maybe they have booked the use of an educational room. The children need somewhere to eat their lunch, health and safety will state that they cannot eat it in the cafe so maybe the school have had to book a separate room to eat lunch.

Other costs maybe extra support costs. In the instance that the school does make a slight profit, all money goes to the school. As a teacher myself I can tell you that it doesn't go to the staff party, every penny goes on educating your kids.

Unfortunately Tesco and Primark don't sell school trips yet, so you can't get them at rock bottom prices. Support your school.

Raksha

Coach trips are expensive - there may be more to pay for than just the foc entrance - education packs for example, is entrance free to children, or adults as well? If not, all accompaning adults will have to have their admission paid for, and ratios of children/adults have to be maintained. The teachers may have had to do a pre visit reccee visit to asses the suitability of the site etc.

chirpy007

I think all the trips are really dear, l dread them coming home with letters about foreign trips. I asked at the school once and was told it was all to do with staying at places that were fully insured to take children. I still think the schools should do better.

Addicted_to_Saving_Money

My daughter has recently brought home two letters about school trips. One is for May 2007 to a local activity centre where they stay for 2 nights. They go on Wednesday lunchtime and return Friday afternoon. The cost of this is £56. The location of it is approx. 30 minutes away from the school!

The next trip is for October 2007 (the next academic year, but it is to be paid for this year!!!) This is to another activity centre which is approx. 100 miles away. The cost of this is £136!!. So £192 worth of school trips to be paid for! Again, this is for 2.5 days.

I appreciate that they are not compulsary but as neither of them will directly benefit her education why can the school not just arrange day trips where the cost is substantially less than this?! :mad:

lisa76

i can confirm that st fagans is free entry to everyone - i go there regularly as it's on my doorstep

car parking has gone up to £4 mind you - but i agree that £11 per child is very steep, especially if you are providing a packed lunch, and they don't do tour guides as far as i know

your child will have a fab day though, it's a really good day out

aimee21j

To my recollection, the coach for the school trip i organised cost about £250 and would have been more if the coach would have had to stay there for the day. Then i had to factor in the insurance cost. Some of the above posters are right about even though a place may be free to enter, coach parking can cost a lot.

It took me 8 weeks of solid planning around lessons to organise a trip. Before and whilst on the trip is constant worry. Please support your schools teachers as i know many many teachers who won't even go on a trip due to the risks involved.

KathrynPenguin

Remember the school can't afford to run the trip at a loss, if some parents don't pay (because its a "voluntary contribution") then all the other parents end up paying for these kids. The school may well have tried to factor it in when they did the costings. Also if the teachers going should be teaching other classes (and there are strict ratios of teachers to pupils which must be adhered to so it may be that teachers from other classes do need to go too) then supply teachers must be brought in to cover these classess - at a cost of around £150 per day, which will also be factored into the trip cost.

Its lucky really that the school/teachers are willing to put in the extra work to arrange the trip and spend the day with over excited youngsters on the trip. The teachers won't get any extra pay but will end up doing a lot of extra work, its a lot easier to teach children in the confines of your classroom than constantly count heads, look for those who have wandered off, check that everyone is behaving, deal with travel sickness, boredom on the journey, kids out of their seats on the coach, someone getting upset cos they fell out with their friend, kids who have lost something, and all the other things that can go wrong on a trip!

emmaBZ

still think its a rip off it would only take me 30/45 mins to drop him there myself !!!! and as far as i know the coach doesnt stay all day