Parents Struggling To Pay For Their Child’s School Trips – And Even Breakfast

We all know that having children is an expensive business.

The average family can expect to spend over £51,000 on each child by the time they reach the age of 18, which could go towards a really nice couple of cars instead.

And £1,540 of that sum goes on school trips alone, which half of UK parents are struggling to afford.

Double that amount if you’re a parent of two and you’ve got some pretty big cheques to write. But don’t pay it, and your children miss out. It’s not a fun decision for a parent to make.  

According to a survey conducted by vouchercloud.com, families admitted to borrowing money from family members so that their children could attend school trips.

Out of the 1,788 parents polled, 74 per cent revealed that their children had been on school trips abroad, with the average parent saying that their children had visited not one but three European countries.  

Over 10 per cent of those polled admitted their children had been to the USA with their school and four per cent’s children had travelled as far as Australia. We’re getting a little jealous now…

But making their children’s school trip dreams come true does come at a cost. Just under half of the parents confessed they struggle to pay for such excursions and while 34 per cent ask for help to cover the cost from family members, 29 per cent dip into their overdraft and 24 per cent into their savings.

Only 10 per cent of parents said they had, on occasion, been unable to send their children on such trips.

But the financial strain associated with having children doesn’t stop there – some parents are even sending their little ones to school hungry because they’re struggling to afford breakfast. As well as breakfast being a really important meal, not eating before school is causing children to have difficulty concentrating, a second poll has found.

Scarily, some 38 per cent of teachers revealed that children are turning up at school hungry every day.  Out of around 900 primary and secondary school teachers polled in the Kellogg’s survey, just two per cent said the number of children arriving hungry at school had decreased.

“In one of the world’s richest nations it is disgraceful that nearly 40 per cent of teachers report having children arriving hungry at school every day,” says Jill Rutter, head of research and policy at the Family and Childcare Trust. “Missing breakfast has huge impact on children’s ability to concentrate, learn and behave, which affects their results and long-term outcomes.

“Governments in all parts of the UK now recognise that breakfast is essential, but there are too many children who still miss out.

The survey also revealed that a third of teachers have felt “compelled” to bring in food for the pupils who haven’t had breakfast. But Rutter, and Kellogg’s, are urging schools to take a different approach to tackling the issue.

‘The Family and Childcare Trust encourages schools to take up the opportunities offered by Kellogg’s and set up a breakfast club,” says Rutter. “Such a small investment can make a real difference for our children, today and in the future.”

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Do you struggle to pay for your child’s lifestyle? Let us know in the comments.