No charge can be made for admitting students to maintained school. Education provided during school hours must be free. This includes materials, equipment and transport provided in school hours by the LEA or the school to carry pupils between the school and an activity. ‘School hours’ are those when the school is actually in session and do not include the break in the middle of the school day. Parents and others have a right to information about school hours and this information must be included in the prospectus published by the school.

There is an exception to the rule about not charging for activities in school hours. Charges may be made for teaching either an individual student or groups of up to four to play a musical instrument, if the teaching is not an essential part of either the National Curriculum or a public examination syllabus being followed by the student.

Although schools cannot charge for school time activities, they may still invite parents and others to make voluntary contributions (in cash or kind) to make school funds go further. All requests to parents for voluntary contributions must make it quite clear that the contributions would be voluntary. Governing Bodies should also make it clear the children of parents who do not contribute will not be treated any differently. If a particular activity cannot take place without some help from parents, that should be explained to them at the planning stage. Where there are not enough voluntary contributions to make the activity possible and there is no way to make up the shortfall then it must be cancelled. The essential points is that no pupil may be left out of an activity because his or her parents cannot or will not make a contribution of any kind. The school must first decide which class or group of pupils is to benefit from the activity and then look for voluntary contributions either for that activity or by general fund-raising. This applies to school swimming lessons also.

When a non-school organisation arranges an activity to take place during school hours and parents want their children to join the activity, such organisations may charge parents. Parents must then ask the school to agree to their children being absent, just as they would if they wanted to take their children out of school for a family holiday. The Head and Governing Body must decide whether this is in the pupils’ best interests. They must also bear in mind the requirements of the Education (School and Further Education) Regulations that a pupil should not be allowed more than 2 weeks absence in any year unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Parents can only be charged for activities that happen outside school hours when these activities are not a necessary part of the National Curriculum or religious education. No charge can be made for activities that are an essential part of the syllabus for an approved examination

The LEA or governing body may not charge for anything unless it has drawn up a statement of general policy on charging. The governing body’s policy may be more or less generous than the LEA’s, as long as it meets the requirements of the law. A policy statement will take account of each type of activity that can be charged for, and explain when charges will be made. If a charge is to be made for a particular type of activity – for example ‘optional extras’ – parents need to know how the charge will be worked out and who might qualify for help with the cost (or even get it free). Parents have a right to ask for this information, and a summary must be included in the prospectus published by the school.

If a charge is made for each pupil, this should not exceed the actual cost. If further funds need to be raised, for example, to help in hardship cases, this must be by voluntary contributions or general fund-raising.

The permitted charge may include an allowance for the costs of teachers from the school who supervise the activity, but only if those teachers have been given a separate contract to provide the optional extra. A contract need not be a formal document. It could be a simple letter to a teacher asking him or her to provide a service on a particular occasion.

Sometimes an activity may happen partly during and partly outside school hours. If most of the time spent on a non-residential activity occurs during school hours, that activity counts as taking place entirely in school hours and no charge may be made. (Time spent on travel only counts as being during school hours if the travel takes place during school hours.) As an example, a long distance trip might involve much travel before and after normal school hours, but if the time spent at the destination fell mainly within school hours, the trip would count as happening in school time and be free of charge. By contrast, a trip which involved leaving school an hour or so earlier than usual in the afternoon, but then went on until quite late in the evening, would be classified as taking place outside school time. Charges would then be allowed.

Special rules apply for residential activities. A trip counts as falling within school time if the number of school sessions missed by the pupils amounts to half or more of the number of half days taken up by the activity. Each school day is normally divided into two sessions and each 24-hour period is divided into two half days beginning at noon and at midnight. On this basis, a term time trip from noon on Wednesday to 9.00 pm on Sunday would last for nine half days, including five school sessions and would count as taking place in school time. A trip from noon on Thursday to 9.00 pm on Sunday would count as seven half days, including three school sessions, and would be classified for charging as taking place outside school time. If 50% or more of a half day is spent on a residential trip, this should be treated as if the whole of that half-day was spent on the trip.

For a residential activity taking place largely during school time, or which meets the requirements of the syllabus for a public examination, or is to do with the National Curriculum or religious education, no charge may be made either for the education or for the cost of travel. In addition, children whose parents are in receipt of the following support payments will, as well as having free school lunch entitlement, also be entitled to the full remission of charges for board and lodging costs during any residential school trips. The relevant support payments are:

The DFES have advised that the usual free school meal entitlement verification procedures should be applied when considering remission of these charges.

No charges may be made for entering pupils for public examinations that are set out in regulations. The Governing body must enter a pupil for each examination in a public examination syllabus that the school has prepared the pupil for. This does not need to apply if the governing body think there are educational reasons for not entering the pupil, or if the pupil’s parents ask in writing that the pupil should not be entered. The LEA may not override the governing body’s decision on whether to enter a particular pupil for an examination.