Would it be wrong to only pay half of DS school trip cost?

[Shirtbuttons26]

DS is going on a school trip. Its costing 45.00. Would it be wrong if I only paid 20.00 /25.00? I am on a low income and I'm juggling things a bit at the moment. I have another child at the school as well so I have been paying out for 2 children.

The school rang me saying i need to pay by tomorrow.

It does say contribution but I feel wrong for even thinking about it.

I would call the school and have a chat with them. I'm amazed that a school trip of £45 per person has been allowed. Usually for that kind of price the trip has to be completely optional and not everyone will attend.

My old school (in a deprived area) had a mandatory cap of £10 per head for school trips, we were not allowed as staff to book anything that cost more than that. The only exception was residential and for that month's (in the case of the yr 6 residential parents were informed of the cost to go in June of year 5) of notice had to be given and installment payment options given to parents.

The school I worked at did cancel trips if we didn't get enough payments in. We were in a deprived area and did not have an active PTA. We did get some deprivation funding/ grants but a lot of this was ring fenced for whole school events (pantomimes/ whole school education visits) or FSM children. There was one year group where there were 2 consecutive years where the trip was canceled due to non payment and it was decided to not offer them paid trips again so the only trips they had were to free museums/ parks where they could travel on public transport for free (London). It was rather sad for some of the siblings whose older siblings had done trips to the zoo/ sealife/ London dungeons ect and their trip was picnic in Hyde park/ round a section of the free museum/

Please don't pay more than you can afford. Ring or email the school and tell them the maximum you can contribute without putting yourself under financial strain.

Schools either need to choose cheaper trips that don't put parents under as much pressure, or they need to subsidise places for families that can't afford the cost.

Of course our tax pay for it. What a ridiculous comment. That is why we pay tax.

Schools cannot charge for trips during school hours by law.

Yes and if the OP wants the tax to
cover it whilst the rest of us pay tax and for our kids, the least she can do is be polite and let the school know.

Schools are chronically under funded and under staffed so if she’s not going to pay, the least she can do is let them
know or some school office staff are going to waste time calling/emailing and balancing budgets to see if the trip can go ahead.

Politeness costs nothing.

It’s clearly not the same principle at all. A school trip that says contribution is most likely part of the curriculum and therefore an entitlement. In an economy where pretty much everyone from the trip providers, the coach companies and schools to families esp the bottom deciles have been struggling for years and years this is an increasing problem. If what the OP is doing isn’t an acceptable option then the only other option is that schools stop doing trips and meet the learning objectives some other way. You can’t just get rid of Ferraris because not everyone can afford one.

@Shirtbuttons26 is they are going by coach the costs of these have absolutely rocketed over the last 7-10 years. That will quite likely make up a huge portion of the cost and won’t be reduced by you not sending him if you genuinely can’t afford it. They’d just be short all of your part of the coach cost.

Call them, explain the situation and if it’s an option for you offer installments of the last half if they are willing.

How do I know that parents pay for school trips? Is that a serious question?

Don't you think it's quite sad, though, that a school trip should be considered in the same vein as an extremely expensive and totally unnecessarily fancy car that probably fewer than 5% of people could ever hope to afford?

Schools usually send out emails and spread the word to the kids with the basic assumption that the students will go. Granted they don't usually make the same assumptions with the £1,000+ jolly trips abroad; but they often tie the 'ordinary' trips in with the teaching schedule, so kids really do feel like they've missed out if they can't go.

Sometimes, the only alternatives to going on the trips are deliberately boring/unpleasant lessons based around punishing the repeatedly naughty kids who weren't allowed to go; but the well-behaved-but-poor kids end up treated the same.

My point is if you can choose to pay only half why should everyone else pay the full cost!

My DC school had to stop all trips that weren’t free and in walking distance as not enough people were contributing. Such a shame they missed out for years. Not sure how common this is.

Where did I say i wasn't going to talk to the school. The letter also say contribution. School trips have gone up alot. So has everything else my income has not.

Get away with it? Where's that come from? If i wanted to get away with it I just wouldn't pay. But thats not the case.

Ds school trip was cancelled as not enough parents paid the full amount. We paid the £25 but due to lack of funding it was cancelled. There isn’t always a slush fund now.

Pay the half that you can afford and send in
an email to say that you have contributed what you can towards the trips without putting yourself into financial hardship.
There will be parents that don’t pay anything at all, funds added for pupil
premium children, pta’s sometimes help and then some people overpay, if your school has that option set up.
If the trip gets cancelled because of lack of funds it will give the school an indication that their expectations during a cost of living crisis is too high.
I have family members working in schools and day trips have been scaled right back, alternative cheaper residential trips offered and the PTA have allotted money for certain trips that they really don’t want the kids to miss out on.

@Shirtbuttons26I’m sorry some people have given you a hard time. Of course it’s fine to call the school and let them know you can only afford half. I’m sure you won’t be the only one.
£45 is a for a day trip. Our secondary is on an area where there are some real pockets of deprivation. I don’t think they’ve put on any day trips that cost more than a tenner. Most are free (London so free transport and lots of free museums etc).

But outside of London we don’t get free transport (so even a trip to our nearest city is going to cost) and there aren’t loads of free, high quality places to visit. Coaches cost a lot these days. The school isn’t making money from the £45!

A trip was cancelled at my DD’s school due to lack of parents paying - the PTA will help out if it can, but if it does it too often then it encourages non-payment (from those who can afford it).

You don't have to pay any of it. Just tell the school that is the maximum that you can contribute. Take it or leave it.

I don't think you should need to pay such a high amount. Trips can be more local, or PTA funds used.

Well that's what happens when trips are too expensive.
Families shouldn't feel pressured to pay high trip costs.

Those with more cash could choose to pay a little more if they feel they'd like to help.

@concertinacornflake but where do you think PTA funds come from?

I contribute to PTA because I want the school to benefit from improving shared facilities for the kids. I don’t want “my money” spent on funding parents who can’t afford trips.

I think if PTA pays for stuff like this for benefit of one child not all, It should be paid from a separate fund that is fund-raised transparently eg “this raffle will raise funds for our PTA Hardship fund which is used to help kids who can’t afford school trips etc”.

I think it’s sly for PTA to siphon off funds to individual children, when most parents expect PTA to only pay for things that have a shared benefit

This sort of thinking just doesn't occur to me.

I'm lucky, I don't need the help. Therefore I'm happy for the help to go to others.

I was brought up not to begrudge other people getting a tenner more than me.

I didn’t say they were making money. I’m also aware that we’re lucky to have free /low cost options here. But it still remains the case that £45 is a lot for a day trip and will be out of reach for many families right now. It’s fine saying coaches are expensive etc, but that isn’t going to change the fact that some parents cannot afford to absorb the cost.

I do the admin side of school trips and the main issue at the moment is the cost of actually getting there. We're travelling from the East Mids to London shortly and the coach is £950, so already for a class of 30 children it's £35 each - it isn't going to cost this as we have received a subsidy but it shows how much transport costs.

OP, from my understanding schools are only allowed to ask for a contribution towards the trip and cannot exclude children from attending if parents don't pay. I urge you to speak with class teacher and explain your situation, they won't stop your child going.

Most trips are managed through something called 'school fund', this is a separate account away from the budget to manage trips etc, money from school fairs etc should go in here to keep it separate from everyday expenses. I've had to cancel a trip before because half the parents didn't pay for the trip (this was £12 and already subsidised by PTA), if there's not enough money in the school fund to cover a shortfall then trips can't go ahead.

I’ve always assumed that some PTA money is used for this type of situation and am fine with that. I’d glad I’m the one who’s able to contribute rather than the one who needs the support.

I agree with this and with others who have said that it is the cost of the coaches that has caused the massive inflation in trip prices (not more extravagant destinations). Our PTA (small rural school) stepped forward to pay £1900 towards next year's residential trip. The trip happens every two years and is a real rite of passage which all children in years 5 and 6 attend. PTA usually covers £1000. Around 10 of the cohort don't want to go next year which is highly unusual and anecdotally less to do with parental funds and more to do with anxious children. The school couldn't ask for an extra £100 per child going to cover the costs so the PTA paid up. This wont happen again.

Yes you said everyone else pays. Im asking how do you know what others pay ? Maybe i misunderstood though.

I don’t know how schools do the finances on this. Do parents get to see what the trip cost and some sort of ‘receipt’ for want of a better word ?
ie Monies collected ( not names), costs were etc etc. …..balance to PTA.
Or do parents just give money and are none the wiser what happens to it and what the overall costs ever were ?