Cost of living a 'serious threat' to school trips - English Heritage

English Heritage says it is important to keep offering free school trips

The cost of living is posing a "serious threat" to school trips, English Heritage says.

The charity, which provides free school visits, says trips to its sites have dropped by 28% compared to numbers before the Covid pandemic.

It said the cost of these trips had increased by 63% in three years.

"For many children, a school outing is the only chance they get to discover the very places where history was made," a spokesperson said.

Dr Dominique Bouchard - the charity's head of learning and interpretation - added: "It is becoming increasingly difficult for the charity to absorb these costs.

"Learning about the Battle of Hastings in a classroom can never offer the same depth of understanding as visiting the actual battlefield, seeing the landscape and even recreating the fight."

The charity said visiting sites was the "best way to bring the subject to life"

The charity believes the reduction in visits is down to cost of living problems, rather than the effects of the pandemic.

It said the cost of a trip per pupil had gone from £2.25 to £3.66, with this projected to rise to £3.89 over the next year.

English Heritage is now fundraising to help it offer more free visits.

The charity - which has its headquarters in Swindon - has also released figures showing regional differences in how many school trips are happening.

For example, the organisation's sites in the south-east of England are the most visited, with an average of almost eight times the number of schoolchildren compared to those in the north-west of the country.

Around 83% of visits to the charity's sites are free for schools, with the rest of trips costing schools £100-£200.