The children missing out on school trips... because they cost £2,000
TENS of thousands of children are missing out amid the rise of state school trips costing £2,000 and upwards, it has been claimed.
Many families are struggling to afford growing numbers of excursions to farflung places including South Africa, Barbados, Australia and Singapore.
The NASUWT teaching union has criticised the trend, saying that children’s access to educational opportunities should not be ‘based on ability to pay’.
In the latest case, pupils at Woodcote High School in Coulsdon, Surrey, are being invited on a £1,850 ten-day trip to South Africa next Easter. Single mother Louise Worrell, 32, said her daughter Nevaeh, 13, is upset because she is unable to go due to the cost – but her friends will be going.
‘We were only told about the trip last month and they want the money by February,’ Miss Worrell, of Croydon, South London, told the Mirror. ‘If I had longer to pay, I think I could have scraped the cash together – it is really unfair.
‘I know other parents are struggling to pay and some are putting it on credit cards. This is not a private school, it is a state school with a catchment area that includes a lot of children from poor or struggling families.
‘It is divisive and excludes children from lower-income families – and only the privileged will go.’
Deputy headmaster Peter Mak defended the trip, saying pupils fund-raise to help meet costs. Parents can receive their share of funds raised in the form of a partial refund or can donate the cash to a charity for disadvantaged pupils in Cape Town.
He said: ‘We consciously target disadvantaged students for free residential activities and day trips using our Pupil Premium Grant.
‘As we remind parents about the trip when they join, many parents save up over several years and also make the choice for their son/ daughter to forgo other trips and family holidays in preference for this one.’
The NASUWT believes tens of thousands of children are missing out on residential trips amid spiralling charges. Of almost 4,000 parents surveyed by the union, 26 per cent said that their child could not take part in residential, foreign or end-of-term excursions because of the cost.
One parent wrote: ‘Ski trip was £600. French trip £450. They are beyond my funds.’
Another said their children had been embarrassed by teachers after they chose not to pay, adding: ‘Both my younger children have come home in tears because of this which then forced us to pay ‘It’s divisive’: Parent Louise Worrell has criticsed a £1,850 school trip to Cape Town, left to save them from the trauma.’ In 2015 parents of pupils at Horsforth School in Leeds branded a £1,650 sports trip to Barbados ‘disgraceful’ and ‘appalling’.
Parents across the country have previously reported charges including £3,000 for a biology trip to South Africa; £1,800 to the US; £1,000 for skiing in Austria; £4,500 for a hockey and netball tour of Australia; and £2,050 for a Singapore/Malaysia sports tour.
NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates said: ‘Schools should ensure the activities they offer are inclusive. Clearly trips to expensive and exotic locations will exclude large numbers of pupils. Access to educational opportunities should not be based on parents’ ability to pay.’
The Department for Education said: ‘It is matter for school leaders to set the price of trips but we expect them to be mindful of costs and make sure they are as affordable as possible for all parents.’