Information for Newport School Visits
Since Christmas 2010 there has been a great amount of uncertainty over Newport City's continued support for the outdoor service. NEWPORT School bookings to this September (2011) remain unaffected but bookings for the school year 2011-2012 will have their subsidy cut by around 50% The new prices are found below:
So for September 2011 until 31 August 2012 charges for school children will be:
Primary School 5 day visit £212 Secondary £227
Primary School 2.5 day visit £106 Secondary £114
With Free School Meal pupils being £132 & £66 respectfully
Primary School Day visits will be £22 and £14 for Free School Meals
Secondary School Day visits will be £30 and £14 for Free School Meals
There are now proposals to cut the funding by a further £8000 for 2012/13 instead of the original plans to cut funding by £62,000 (on top of the £72,000 cut in 2011/12). So there is some good news BUT this is still only a proposal with consultation ending on February 3rd 2012. So please give this proposal your feedback by contacting:
http://www.newport.gov.uk/_dc/index.cfm?fuseaction=finance.homepage&contentid=cont633087
or e mail public.relations@newport.gov.uk
or write to:
Newport City Council
Civic Centre
Newport
NP20 4UR
There are no plans to close any centres or cut services. The support from the other three authorities remains unchanged. We hope Newport schools will continue to come to the Gwent Centres as we have a lot of friends from these schools and to lose these contacts would be a great shame for us all.
Savings Scheme
We appreciate that there are many issues associated with organizing a trip away. It may help if schools consider setting up a savings scheme for pupils and parents to help budget for the residential. This could be offered to parents 12 to 18 months before the planned visit, perhaps in school year 4 or 5. This gives a strong indication of the likely interest and make up of the group. A visit is likely to be much more successful if parents have as much advance notice as possible
We ask for final party numbers and a deposit 10 weeks before the visit so parents and children would need to make a decisive final commitment at that stage.
This helps us make the necessary arrangements such as organizing staff, ordering food and arranging equipment & bus hire.
If it helps, you can find a savings plan template below. I'm sure you all know better than us how to run a scheme but if this template helps please feel free to use it.
Downloadable excel spreadsheet with formulas in place to start running a savings scheme
