Educational Visits & Workshops
Dear Parents/Carers
We are always keen to explore opportunities for the children to expand their learning outside of the classroom by way of trips, in-school workshops and other curriculum enrichment activities. When an opportunity to immerse the children further in their learning has been identified, we will look to plan and organise a trip to a destination or maybe arrange for a visitor or workshop to come to the school. Schools are not obliged to arrange off-site trips or visits or to have in-school workshops or speakers, but we see these opportunities as invaluable in allowing us to bring the children’s classroom learning to life. Some of these trips and visits to the school might be free, but where there is a cost for the event/activity, we do not have a school budget to pay for it ourselves.
This is where we need to ask you as parents to cover the cost of the trip/event via contributions. These contributions cover the cost of the trip/activity and any transport involved; the school does not make any profit from organising such events. Please be assured that we will always look to maximise any discounts or other money saving options with the venue/company that we deal with to ensure the amount of the contributions are as low as possible.
It might be that some families who are in receipt of means-tested benefits do not pay the whole amount of the requested contribution or in some cases, possibly nothing at all. In these situations the school receives additional funding for these families to ensure their children can have equality of access to the experiences other children have.
When we ask for contributions to cover the cost of trips and in-school learning activities, there is a minimum amount of families needed to pay the full amount asked for to ensure the whole cost of the event can be paid for. If this doesn’t happen then the school is not in a position to fund any shortfall of the families who do not make their contribution as there is no contingency funds in the school budget. Without having the full amount of contributions to pay for the event, the school will be left with no alternative than to cancel the trip/activity.
The last thing we want to do is cancel a trip or in-school event, but this is what will happen if we do not receive enough contributions. If there are any families who are not in receipt of means-tested benefits and who find the cost of the contribution challenging to pay, we would urge them to come and speak to the school as there may be flexibility in payment deadlines and the length of time that payments can be made over.
We will always aim to give families as much notice as possible with regards the date of a trip/in-school event and the deadline by which we need contributions to have been made. In order to make paying for an event as convenient as possible, we are able to take payments in the school office via a card reader if parents want to come in at either drop-off or pick-up time as well as online payments.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to get in touch via the school office.
Best wishes,
Mr Corke
Headteacher