Trips and experiences

All parents are asked to make a financial contribution to the cost of trips. We subsidise the cost so that families do not pay the full amount. Parents of pupils on Free School Meals pay a much smaller contribution.

The payment deadline for every child is 25th November 2024.

This can be paid by iPay or in person by card at either office on the Younger Years Site or Older Years Site. The details of how much is to be paid are outlined below.

Where possible, it is helpful for school financial planning if parents pay the total cost by 25th November. However, we understand that for some families, it would be helpful to spread the cost over three smaller payments. We have created the option for you to do this on iPay with the second and third instalments due on Monday 20th January and Monday 17th March.

We never want money to be the reason a child misses a trip, but we do need your support in providing these transformational experiences.

At King Solomon Academy we passionately believe in the power of purposeful academic and extracurricular trips and visits. If we are to achieve our mission of providing a ‘rigorous and transformational education’ we need to look beyond the walls of this building for amazing opportunities in the real world that really broaden your children’s horizons and raise their aspirations.  

What do we offer?

We plan and execute a very healthy number of trips and visits every year. Examples of the types of trips we run are shown below. 

Day trips are an important part of the primary learning experience. We commit to taking all primary pupils on at least one day trip or bringing in one engaging externally provided workshop per term. These trips or visits will vary from year group to year group to ensure pupils experience a wide range of ‘out of classroom’ learning opportunities during their journey through primary. We will be sending more information about the specific day trips each primary class will be going on when we return to school after the summer holidays in September. Trips and workshops in the past have included the V&A Museum, the Science Museum, the London Zoo, Hyde Park Learning Centre, Tower of London, an Owl Experience Workshop, a T-Rex Workshop etc.

In Year 5 and Year 6, we keep the cost of these trips lower as we ask all parents to contribute to the residential trip that we expect every pupil to go on too. 

Wherever possible we aim to find government sponsored, grant based or free day trips in secondary because we recognise the cost of their big end of year residential trips and want to prioritise these. Pupils in secondary go on fewer day trips because it is important that they are learning consistently and making very strong progress towards exams in school. There are occasionally some day trips that do incur a cost because they involve subject specialist expertise or travel further afield. 

As students get closer to the point where they leave us, it continues to be important for them to have experiences, both educationally and pastorally formative, outside of our four walls. Sixth form is also the time when we ramp up their exposure to and experience of university and employment opportunities. Students will visit a range of different places, some of which will attract a small cost in entrance fees or travel. These include;

• London-based subject trips (lectures, museums, talks, professional pathways events etc)
• Reward trips at the end of term - likely to have a small charge for entry fees
• Career-related trips, particularly in term 3 where we do workplace visits
• University related visits - often for specific courses or university insights e.g Oxbridge visits, medicine and dentistry access information

We are asking for a centralised parent contribution for year 12 and 13, to ensure we can plan these events well ahead. This charge will be on Parent Pay in line with the rest of the school (except for the Y12 Sussex University day trip that happens very early on).  

All trips are meticulously planned, and safety is always our number one priority.  We continue to respond to all advice from the government with regards to any measures needed to mitigate against all risks associated with trips away from the school grounds. The timing of trips is thought about carefully by the leadership team and they also consider the overall impact on the academy, the cost to the school and parents, the impact on the delivery planned curriculum lessons amongst other things. We aim to get the balance right. 

Whilst we appreciate it is hard to let your children out of your sight for even just one night, we strongly believe in the value of taking your children to new places both near and far. This, amongst other things, helps raise their aspirations from an early age and defuses some fears they may have about ‘the big world’. The trips in bold and italics below are ‘Whole Year Group’ residential trips; we expect all pupils to attend these trips as they build a strong sense of community and are the biggest form of reward for hard work and positive behaviour throughout the year.

The other trips are ‘opt in’ they are often subject specialist trips or an opportunity for pupils to develop a sense of independence and create strong experiences to refer to in their university personal statements 

* (Make sure your child’s passport has at least 6 months validity remaining and apply for a GHIC health insurance card online for free) 

We recognise that budgets are tight for all families and we work hard to ensure we are keeping costs to a minimum whilst receiving the best value for money. The trips we organise are meticulously planned with the aim of providing transformational and unforgettable experiences for all students.

For families eligible for Free School Meals, the school commits to paying approximately 60% of what it could cost per child for all trips they go on. We ask parents to cover the remaining 40% - this is the Extended Learning Fund. (In primary and Y12 this includes day trips).

For families not eligible for Free School Meals we ask parents to contribute 70% of the cost of these trips.

On average a residential trip will cost the school between £190 to £230 per child (depending on the length, distance away from school, the types of activities undertaken and the final total numbers of pupils who attend). After heavy investment in our camping equipment last year we are now able to reduce the total cost of this trip for year 9. A breakdown of trip costs year on year can be seen below.

Optional Residential Trips - Secondary 

The residential trips table above shows that we offer an additional range of trips which we encourage students to consider as part of their journey exploring their development as open minded and inquisitive young adults looking to the future. These trips, such as DofE, the Y13 International Residential and the Upper School Orchestra Tour, allow students to develop independence, leadership, resilience and specific skills (subject related or otherwise) that enhance their schooling experience and help prepare them for university and beyond.

These trips are often more expensive than the regular whole year group trips as they can involve travel abroad, specialist external providers or external accreditation. We subsidise as much as we can but with the opt in nature, we do ask that parents of pupils who chose to sign up cover more of the cost. A rough guide of these costs is below to help you plan. Some are year group specific and others run across different year groups.

Optional trips will often have separate payment deadlines to be communicate once student sign up has been confirmed.

We ask that all extended learning parent contributions are completed by Monday 25th November 2024 so that we can secure the relevant accommodations, travel providers and focus on the planning of content. Trip payments must be done online using the IPayimpact website http://www.ipayimpact.co.uk

A payment item will appear on your parent pay account from September 4th as ‘Extended Learning and Trips Fund 2024-25’. We will send a reminder in November. If your child is unable to attend any residential or day trip for whatever the reason, in most cases we will not be able to provide a refund. Refunds will only be possible in the following scenarios;

• Your child is not invited to attend their whole year group residential because they did not earn the trip on payslip (KSA£100 average secondary) or through persistently poor behaviour (primary)
• The school cancels the trip for any reason
• Partial refunds may be possible if your child has to pull out through serious illness last minute, but only on the amount that is recoverable by the school from any external providers 

The residential trips table above shows that we offer an additional range of trips which we encourage students to consider as part of their journey exploring their development as open minded and inquisitive young adults looking to the future. These trips, such as DofE, the Y13 International Residential and the Upper School Orchestra Tour, allow students to develop independence, leadership, resilience and specific skills (subject related or otherwise) that enhance their schooling experience and help prepare them for university and beyond.

These trips are often more expensive than the regular whole year group trips as they can involve travel abroad, specialist external providers or external accreditation. We subsidise as much as we can but with the opt in nature, we do ask that parents of pupils who chose to sign up cover more of the cost. A rough guide of these costs is below to help you plan. Some are year group specific and others run across different year groups.

Optional trips will often have separate payment deadlines to be communicate once student sign up has been confirmed.