School Trips Too Expensive for Parents: According to the results of a new survey with parents of children in primary and secondary school, carried out on behalf of NASUWT the teaching union, more than a third of parents have admitted that it is too expensive for them to send their children on educational visits and school trips. In addition, one third of the 1000 parents in the survey felt that the cost of school uniform was also too high.

School Trips Too Expensive for Parents

The parents, all of whom had children who were attending either primary or secondary schools, also felt that there should be increased regulations in terms of the amount of money which schools are allowed to charge for the services they provide to children – three quarters felt there should be stronger regulations.

On the subject of school trips being too expensive for parents, more than half of those surveyed felt that schools should cover the costs of these visits. A similar figure felt that they should not be expected to cover the costs of extra-curricular activities for their children, including things such as sport or music.

More than two thirds (70%) of parents agreed that schools should not be able to make a profit from charging parents for the services they provide to pupils.

The research follows a report from the Children’s Commission of Poverty which suggested that there are millions of families struggling with what were described as the ‘hidden’ costs of schooling. The Commission’s report suggested that parents faced an annual bill of £800 on average per pupil, and that the costs of uniform varied between state schools – from £34 to £500, with the average cost to parents being £108 for a primary school uniform. Recent research published on the VoicED blog also suggests that parents are struggling to pay for childcare.

A spokesman for the Department for Education said that no child should ever be priced out of the best education available, and that the Pupil Premium provides £1300 per annum which schools can use to put towards the price of school trips.