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'd be interested to know if the OP is working; she may have answered this is another post but can't see it?

Our PTA gives £250 per trip which totally pays for or drastically reduces the cost of each trip whilst benefiting every child.

Who decides how much i contribute then?

Well he can go

Absolute fucking nonsense.
This is the legal DfE wording that we have to use on letters. Schools very rarely get the full cost of a trip and expect to subsidise them.
When there is a voluntary contribution we know people will pay what they can afford. I’ve known many parents to pay for an extra child (in this case £90) if they can afford it; some would round up to £50; many would pay £45; many would pay up to £30.

As a head I have had to cancel one trip in my career as we received only 30% of the cost (it was a £10 trip).

Trips can be cancelled, it happened in our school last year when not enough people paid.

For sixth form/post 16 bursary it is household income. I’m a single parent so it was just my income. But it is household total. Different settings work it out different some add UC to income for total and some just use the salary and not the UC.

Edited to add that I used the ‘we’ as in my family/household/child and I.

The trouble is that some parents will scrimp and save to provide the full cost while others will take the piss and not pay despite having more spare cash

Schools have to write voluntary contribution in the letter but it is expected that everyone pays for their child

Absolutely not true. We write voluntary contributions and that is what we mean. That’s the law.

I have been in a school where we have had to cancel a couple of trips for lack of 'contributions'. Schools don't have magical pots of money for curriculum trips ... and the parents who frequently refused to 'contribute' could afford it (you'll just have to believe me on that one; I'm not including those that genuinely couldn't) and just didn't feel they should have to ... and were also the first to be outraged when their children weren't getting school trips/special outings.

We had a voluntary contribution letter recently for a school trip. I genuinely forgot to pay, had a reminder letter I'd not paid it and asking for payment.. although I was greatful for the reminder as I had genuinely forgot, I did feel for those who maybe are struggling as at that point it definitely didn't feel voluntary

Lol ok.

It may be the law, but it's financially impossible for most schools and the government knows it. They just want schools to do their dirty work for them and get parents to pay for the trips when schools cannot.

I suspect layoffs are coming for many school support staff next year, too, and subjects/staffing of them may be cut due to the proposed pay rises that will have to be partially funded out of current school budgets. Another pass the problem onto schools ...

And then I suppose they might try to do activities or things that cost 25 quid instead

I agree with other posters, I think 45 quid is a lot of money to find for most families.

And dont get me started on school trips abroad that cost into their thousands.

When I was a single mother with 4 at school, I would break myself to find the money so they weren't left out. Until I found out that other far far more well off parents were refusing to pay as "well they say its a contribution so I am not paying".

So I emailed the school and told them what our situation was and how upset I was that me, on a v v low income, was to be subsidising those that could afford trips more than I could.

I think word had got around because my friend who was on the BoG said that they had lots of emails about it. The rules changed and all education based trips would now be paid for from school funds, but any "enrichment" trips had to be paid for and if not paid then the students couldnt go. Funnily enough, uptake didnt change on the fun trips but the richer parents were very very pissed off.

Who chooses the amount then?

Honestly OP don’t worry, just let them know in enough time they can arrange a budget to cover it. Trips only get cancelled if a lot can’t cover the cost. There are rules about children not being able to access the curriculum because of lack of funds, in addition there is a big push on culture capital, they could justify only the financially comfortable accessing that because it goes completely against it.

This is exactly how I feel. I don't work and I have 3 and the last week of term they all have different things, trips etc and I needed to find an extra £100 for it all. I did get 3 months notice thankfully so I was able to plan ahead and paid everything I owed to the school in good time and then if I found out someone paid half I would be pretty pissed off.

@Cantcatch Are you unable to work? If so are you getting government support to help?

Very and increasingly so. The poor in this country have been getting poorer relatively speaking for quite some time. An increasing number of families, even those who are working have been struggling to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads. The money just isn’t there to pay for trips at a time where the costs to schools is going up and schools have less money coming in to cover making the difference up.

Either the people who can afford to cover a bit more so their child doesn’t lose out on the opportunity or the trips get cancelled. There isn’t really another option.

I find it funny people suggesting the PTA should stump up money when there was a thread yesterday full of people saying how they can’t stand PTAs and don’t like helping out!!
A lot of PTAs have a constitution anyway that the money has to be spent on benefiting all children and can’t be singled out for specific kids so wouldn’t apply for paying for random kids. They might pay a bit towards it would then reduce the cost overall.

At the end of the day you can’t pay half and expect it to go ahead. What’s the trip - £45 suggests it’s something pretty good

Teacher. If someone can't afford a regular school trip then I ask for money from the pupil premium pot. I also fund raise with local businesses to make sure we're getting money in.

Schools don't have the funds that they used to have. We've cancelled 3 trips across the school this year due to parents not contributing. It most definitely does happen. I had to cancel a big trip as over 90% had paid, but we couldn't afford to cover the rest.
The reason costs have gone up substantially is that trips now cost far more to run. Coaches have nearly doubled in price, extras that were previously included now have to be paid for, all these costs have to be passed on.
I would suggest speaking to the school about your situation. Occasionally there may be a grant that can be applied, but these are becoming difficult to get.

Then it is benefitting everyone. Each year, each class will benefit.
So it doesn’t just benefit one child.

Yes, Op, there are people like arethereanyleftatall who will quietly slip en extra tenner or so because it’s nice for the kids and we get to feel good too.
Don’t sweat it and don’t take any “shaming” on here to heart.