NEWS: Rising costs cancel school trips

As reported by ITV X, a survey reveals that one third of families find school trips too expensive, leaving many students unable to participate in these important experiences

A survey of 1,000 parents by Zurich Municipal, reveals the average day trip away from school is now £28 per pupil, rising to £430 for an overnight residential

Atlantic Academy in Portland, Dorset holds an annual trip for their Year 6 pupils to London each July. Their highest number ever is missing this year, with one in three parents choosing not to fund the trip.

The cost has jumped from approximately doubled from £200 before 2019 more than £400 now. Factoring in spending money, the total cost for parents can near £600.

Lisa Hallett’s son Theo is one of those missing out, she told ITV News:

“It’s 600 for two nights and I genuinely couldn’t afford it.

It feels awful because I thought it’s not fair that Theo should have to miss out, he was upset because he’s not going with his friends .All of my children have been on school trips in years gone by. It’s just Theo now that hasn’t been able to go on it because of the price.”

The National Association of Head Teachers says that two thirds of schools now have to fundraise or seek grants to pay for extra curricular activities like school trips. Melissa Heppell is the Principal at Atlantic Academy and says the school tries to help parents where they can, even funding half a place for the most deprived students if one or two in a class can’t cover the full expense.

However, rising costs of transport and attraction tickets means that many are missing out on some important experiences. Melissa said:

“It’s really unfair and it’s really sad that we have to leave so many children behind.

It’s not just one or two, we’d obviously look to support that. But we can’t when a significant chunk of children are left behind.

The trips are designed to complement their learning throughout the year. They’ve learnt about conflict, so they’re visiting the Imperial War Museum. They’ve learnt different performances, so they’re visiting a theatre.

The trips are planned really well to enhance their curriculum and we’ve got children who sadly have to miss out.”

Pepe Di’Lasio, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders says the rising costs are due to a number of factors:

“When you consider that school trips involve the actual payment of getting into the venue, but perhaps more crucially the transport to get to the venue, the cost of the fuel, the cost of the buses, all of that gets added onto the potential overall cost.

Schools haven’t had the funding to subsidise that cost or support young people to make sure that perhaps those poor families can afford those opportunities that are available to them.”