school trip costs ......RIP OFF

Poppy9

Are you sure there is only one coach. All children have to be seated and have a seatbelt and no doubt the school will be taking along extra adult helpers which might mean they don't all fit on one coach.

Also is lunch or a snack provided. When I've been on school trips as a parent helper sometimes lunch or an icecream has been included in the cost.

Entry to St Fagans is totally free for adults and children. They do have guides and maybe a specially dedicated school guide which schools pay for. It's well worth it IMO as they can tell you from which part of Wales the house came from, who lived there, why rooms and furniture have certain features.

emmaBZ

Poppy9 wrote:

Are you sure there is only one coach. All children have to be seated and have a seatbelt and no doubt the school will be taking along extra adult helpers which might mean they don't all fit on one coach.

Also is lunch or a snack provided. When I've been on school trips as a parent helper sometimes lunch or an icecream has been included in the cost.

Entry to St Fagans is totally free for adults and children. They do have guides and maybe a specially dedicated school guide which schools pay for. It's well worth it IMO as they can tell you from which part of Wales the house came from, who lived there, why rooms and furniture have certain features.

it does sound lovely but no lunch is included and they allowed £3 to take to spend so ?

georgiasmum

I understand your concerns about the cost but I must echo other posters sentiments about the cost of coaches, insurance and supply cover. In my school as a teacher my faculty is charged £30 per lesson if I am out on a trip even if I have a non contact lesson (dubiously known as a free!) during that day. Liability is an enormous issue for schools as we are constantly threatened with legalese if things go wrong. Schools rarely, if ever in my experience make a profit on these things and a well rounded education is important for our children. If the money is going to cause you hardship schools have funds for this or will accept alternative methods of payment - weekly instalments etc. Encourage you kids to do these things with youe blessing and enjoy a different experience!

nickyhutch

Why don't you ask the school for a breakdown of the costs?

LondonDiva

nickyhutch wrote:

Why don't you ask the school for a breakdown of the costs?

Or better yet, volunteer to help with the day, thereby saving the costs of a teacher/helper being out of school.

I suppose at the end of the day, if you don't think the trip is worth the price, you can refuse to let your child go.

nickyhutch

LondonDiva wrote:

Or better yet, volunteer to help with the day

Even better! I used to love going on my DS's trips with him.

kawanakya

Besides the cost of the coach, I wonder if the trip is insured. If that makes sense. Just like when you go on holiday, but obviously, when you're dealing with other people's kids, you can't be too careful. Just a guess, but I bet that it would cost a lot more than £550 to insure a bunch of 50 kids on a school trip.

Last thing you need is little Joseph jumping off a bridge or sticking his arm out the coach window, and money-grabbing parents suing the school because they never taught their kid not to be so damn stupid...

firespire

emmaBZ wrote:

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 doesn't stay all day

From your other posts, I think you are located some where in Gloucestershire.
Say you are 40 miles away I think it might take an hour each way to drive.

At 80 miles x 10p a mile in petrol I think you might pay £8 by car, double if you travel home and pick up at the end of the day and £4 parking if you stay.

Frell

I suspect the coach company even offered a discount in price for it being as school trip. And if more than 52 people are going then 2 coachs would have to be provded as coachs are 52 seaters. And with Desil being around 92p a litre as well it all adds up. And is 11 quid really a lot for your childs education. When I was at school (going back a few years now) most trips cost around 8-9 quid and back then so it hasnt gone up that much.

[Deleted User]

Well it's a good museum and they do the most amazing scones in the cafe...