Why are schools still expecting teachers to pay school trips, with cash?

The school trip – a formative time in a young person's life and education – safely travelling away from home whether it be to the next county or country - the permission slips are signed the fees are paid, the bags are packed, and the mind is ready to participate in something different - that’s the experience at least of the students!

Teachers are madly crossing off their checklists. Has everyone received the list of things to bring, are the rules and behaviour guidelines clear, are the chaperones agreed and ready to come. Is accommodation pre-booked and paid. How much cash will I need to carry.

Let's pause right there.

Depending on where the trip is going there are a large amount of expenses that can't be prepaid. Meals out, excursion entry, local transport. It's unreasonable and inconvenient in this day and age, to expect teachers and chaperones to carry cash.

We wouldn’t use cash on a family or personal trip so why are schools still expecting Teachers to carry cash? The recent pandemic saw even the most stoic vendors move to accept contactless cards as tender, meaning there are very few scenarios that would warrant cash alone.

Cash poses a significant risk to teachers and chaperones safety – clearly travelling with groups of young people presents them as vulnerable targets likely to carry cash for their charges needs.

Ending the trip on a high note is rarely possible for teachers with the raft of paperwork that comes with cash. Take our example, a leading independent school for 11–18-year pupils in Northampton where managing expenses for trips had been a major challenge. Previously when the school would go on trips they would take cash, which was difficult to manage and quite stressful, while being time consuming when filling in the expense forms at the end of the trips.

Moving to an automated prepaid expense card system takes the stress out of cash for teachers and they can focus on the learning outcomes for students, instead of the administration of the trip. School finance teams can preload the cards – with currencies at great rates for overseas trips – and expenses are easily coded with receipt photos in the app.

Additionally, there is no risk of non-compliant spending, lack of budget control, or untraceable theft – cards can be cancelled by anyone with app access on the trip or back at school.

”Our teachers were relieved to have a Caxton expense card that took the stress out of carrying large sums of money on their trip. Paying for meals for a group of 20 was a breeze”

So, spare a thought for the teachers out there who are still working through the post-trip paperwork and if you’re a teacher looking to make spending on the next trip a breeze... get in touch.