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

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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.

Remember outside of London buses are not free for kids and public transport can be patchy - infrequent and doesn’t go directly to where you want to go. It’s a 15 minute walk plus 55 minute (assuming no traffic) into the nearest city from our local secondary school then a 10-30 minute walk the other end to the free city museums which mostly have stuffed animals, random rocks and various bits of old infrastructure depending on which one you visit - the actually interesting one is £20 to visit. Taking a school group on public transport plus long walks is a nightmare from a paperwork perspective plus lots of send kids. They took a coach and went to a theme park that had £15 school tickets

Maybe they don't want their kids mixing on a residential with the offspring of the type of arses who can afford the full cost of the trip but whinge if the PTA supports those who can't afford it!

I'm always shocked by the tightwad types who want exactly equal support from the PTA even though they don't need it. I don't spend time with people like that in real life so I forget they exist! But there were definitely some like that at primary, they made their bitterness known.

Some people won't say outright they can't afford things, because it's still judged.

So if I fancy a Ferrari, but due to my income can only pay half of it, that's ok then? Exactly the same principle.

Its no where near the same principle!

That comparison is a false equivalency. A school trip is a basic educational experience for a child, whereas a Ferrari is an extreme adult luxury. The adult choosing not to buy a supercar is not the same as punishing a child for their family's financial situation.

Also the scale is entirely different; the parent is offering £20, leaving a deficit of £25 which potentialy won't break the trip budget.
Society and schools actively provide safety nets and subsidies for children to ensure equal access to education, but we do not have public funds to help adults buy luxury sports cars

It’s actually really annoying for Londoners to suggest their schools are in some way better because they take kids on cheap / free trips. Some of us would love to have that option as well but in most of the country we have to pay our kids transport costs!

OP, pay what you can and tell the school. They’re probably calling because they don’t know you’re in financial hardship and think you’ve just forgotten.

Expensive trips really aggravate me, and I do understand that coach prices are absolutely astronomical.

There is a new type of company emerging that I see on social media that 'brings the trip to you ' for example inflatables the school field. The royal navy do team building sessions for free at your site too. I think this should be the model going forward.

At my kids school the rewards trip was nearly forty quid, not much of a reward if I have to pay it!

Yes, would you only pay for half of your shopping bill, or example, but still expect to get all of it?

At least have a conversation with them to explain the situation and perhaps agree a payment plan or similar.

YANBU - you pay what you can and explain why.

My youngest's school trip this year was 95 quid, plus money for mcdonalds on the way home. We had 3 weeks notice (it's his last year - they normally go on a residential but for reasons I won't go into, it was just a day trip this year). He didn't want to go on it anyway (travel sickness, plus just not that interested in it) and they tried to persuade me to send him on the trip with a book!

I'm not bloody paying 95 quid for him to be on a coach for 2 hours each way and read a book.

I can see some parallels between school trips and the future for the BBC funding model - which is being reported on today on their own news website - where they're saying that 'licence payments have dropped to 80% of the population' and are trying to find a way that they can keep getting enough money in to provide the same service and content.

I think it's easy - and maybe even a little bit arrogant - to go from the assumption that everybody really wants whatever is being offered/provided, and then agonise over why a lot are struggling or refusing to pay; but sometimes, it's just the case that people see what the product is and what the price is, and they simply decide either that it isn't worth that to them, or indeed that they wouldn't want it at any price.

And do parents ever get a breakdown of costs ?
Money in, money out, leftover money to PTA
Or nothing at all ? No parent knows the costs involved. Nothing monitored ever.

£95 is a huge amount for one day!

How long have you known about the trip? Is the issue that you've let everything build up rather than speaking to the school straight away to come up with some solution to the issue?

It does seem a little like this is what you are banking on...that enough people will pay the correct cost and as such your underpayment will just float by them.

well exactly - and I'd actually already been to this place with my kids before, which is why mine knew he wasn't interested. And they publish school trip costs on their website - it was 59pp - so the coach was 36quid (maybe we were covering teachers tickets?)

maybe it'd be in the PTA accounts.

I don't mind paying for trips. I don't mind paying a bit more for people that can't afford it. This one just seemed a bit too cheeky (they were trying to make up for the lack of residential by doing a 'big trip' but actually, due to the travel time, it was a small trip at great inconvenience and cost)

But if we accept the cost is what it is then the only other option is not to provide trips at all for kids in schools in poorer areas (outside of London).

Surely it depends what the trip is as to whether £45 is expensive ? Coach to a free museum in the next town - expensive , 2+ hour drive to a big theme park - fairly reasonable . Schools do cancel trips if not enough people pay , they are not a bottomless pit .

Given they are public servants ( teachers), I think everything to do with money collected from parents should be open and transparent.
What was collected in ( no names)
What the costs were
Where any leftovers went.

To ask parents for what collectively will be a large amount of money, not just this trip but others, some protocols around transparency back to parents I think is long overdue.

Quite right OP. I think some people don't realise how expensive coach hire is. Usually, depending on distance a 50 seater coach costs start at £600 and there aren't discounts for school use. For travelling into London from the Midlands that cost could reach £800. The transport can be as much as a third of the cost of the trip, maybe more.

I wouldn't put more than I can afford in the basket. Trips don't have that flexibility.

If your child is on PP, they can use some of that.

If there are not enough funds to cover the trip then the school can and will cancel it. This has happened at 2 schools I have worked in. Schools are facing a deficit budget as costs have sky rocketed. There is often no spare money to cover the cost of school trips if the majority don’t pay the contribution however you may be able to access support through PTA fundraising. Definitely talk to the school and see what they can do.

A year in dd's old school had to cancel last year, there just weren't the funds and hardly anyone paid. It will sadly become more common as schools struggle to keep picking up the pieces.

Here's a screenshot of the government guidance.

God imagine begrudging children to be included on a school trip through no fault of their own , sucks to be you .
And that comes from a very privileged upbringing and never missing out on anything , as was fortunate enough to have no money issues either growing up or as an adult .

It doesn't depend on what the trip is regardless if they are going to the moon vs to a free museum its still 45.00.

School trips have become increasingly expensive due in no considerable part to the cost of transport. DD is a teacher, says they can pay hundreds of pounds for a bus for the day for a trip that probably is no more than 20 miles away. The larger picture is the chronic underfunding in schools caused by pay rises that aren’t fully funded