No such thing as a free education

Sending a child to primary school costs parents nearly £700 a year and rising, a government survey shows.
Although state school education is supposed to be free, parents stumped up an average of £683.79 for a child at primary school in 2007.
Uniform, PE kit, and school trips were the most expensive items. Nearly every school required children to wear a uniform and this cost on average £163 in primary schools. One in six parents said the whole of their child’s uniform and PE kit had to be bought from a particular shop, and four out of five had to buy items of clothing with a logo on.
Less than one in twenty parents got financial help with buying school uniform.
Nine out of ten parents had been asked to pay for a school trip. The average cost of a day trip for primary school pupils was £9.47, and for a residential trip it was £153.14.) Less than half the parents were offered the chance to pay for day trips in instalments.
Other expenses were swimming lessons (nearly £70 on average), and requests by the school for contributions to the school fund. More than one in four primary parents was asked to make a contribution to the school fund of £27 on average.
School lunches and travel to and from school, school photographs, and contributions to charity on behalf of their child also added to the expense of sending a child to school.
But most parents (nearly three quarters) said they were quite happy or very happy with the costs of sending their child to school. Those with low incomes were the least happy.
Cost of schooling 2007. DCSF 2009