Cost of sending kids to school going up, parents believe

Seventy-six per cent of parents think that the cost of sending children to school is increasing and more than half (51%) agree that they are worried about such cost, according the ParentKind's latest survey.

The survey of  1,500 parents show that the cost of uniforms is the highest concern (46%), followed by school trips (44%) and school meals/drinks (19%).

Parents of children who are eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) are more likely to feel costs are increasing (38% strongly agree vs 31% of parents whose children are not eligible) and to be concerned about them (29% strongly agree vs 15%).

Concern over the cost of uniforms is significantly higher for parents whose children are eligible for FSM (61% vs 44%); this is also true about the cost school trips (49% vs 43%) and the cost of school extra-curricular events such as concerts and sport days which parents are asked to pay for (20% vs 13%).

38% of parents reported being asked by their child’s school for a donation to the school fund and 29% donated.

Parents of children eligible for FSM (45%) were more likely to be asked to donate than those not eligible (38%).

The most common cost-cutting solutions that parents report seeing implemented by schools were being asked to pay for school clubs which used to be free (22%) and for events such as sport days or concerts (20%).

55% of parents believe that any potential extra funding available to schools should be spent on learning resources (55%) and 43% think so of IT equipment.