A primary school's assistant headteacher has warned that dwindling budgets could lead to subsidising school trips becoming 'less and less viable', as pupils have come up with an innovative way to make raise some cash.
Rob Davies, assistant headteacher at Clare Community Primary School, said a group of entrepreneurial year six children have designed a series of collectible 'Doggy Cards' which can be traded and battled with, in a bid to raise funds.
The students have created 10 different 'Doggy Cards' packs, including 'Donut Dog', 'Robo Dog' and the popular 'Super Dog', raising more than £600 to go towards trips along with a donation to a local animal rescue charity.
This comes as rising costs have meant that subsidising the voluntary cost of school trips is becoming more and more difficult.
Mr Davies said: "As well as enjoying creating the fun collectibles, the children, who are in their last year of primary school, wanted to help families to pay for the cost of hiring coaches for school trips, because even visiting venues which are free entry has become difficult due to the cost of travel."
He said, in the wake of Covid, many children have had very little exposure to arts and cultural experiences during their lifetime making trips even more important.
He continued: "This situation has been exacerbated by the rising cost of living, which means that as parents, we are all having to budget our available resources to meet our families' essential needs.
"Payment for school trips is a voluntary contribution, and for those parents who cannot afford it, the cost is almost always subsidised in part or in full by the school.
"With dwindling budgets for education settings, though, this is becoming less and less viable for schools to afford, and without sufficient funds, school trips cannot go ahead."
The Ofsted inspection handbook makes it clear that school curriculums are expected to go beyond academic, but a spokesperson said the way a school does this is up to them.
An Ofsted spokesperson said: "It’s important that the school curriculum extends beyond the academic or technical to enhance pupils’ broader spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.
"We expect all schools to provide children with a wide range of opportunities to develop their talents and interests, but how they choose to do this is down to them."
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