No snowboarding on school ski trip

Having read most of this thread, I see the father failed to see the initial form regarding the trip. If the girl is a competent boarder, then I feel bad that she won't get the chance to do her thing, but at he same time she will have fun being with her friends and quickly become competent with skis.

I live in British Columbia, so raised the kids skiing most winter weekends. DH and I are both skiers, one son boards, the other skiis. Two granchildren are now boarding. It seems quite even on the hill, with a slant towards more boarders for the younger crowd.

It's too bad the school trip cannot accomodate both, but the parent failed to read the form properly. I hope the girl has fun nonetheless.

Nice..blame mum. Poor kid

What an idiot and poor girl. Totally misses point that girl just wants to be on a trip with her friends.
Totally not understanding that it’s a group trip with all logistics and risk assessments. Staff can’t just let her go off on own to snowboard.
No wonder teachers are reluctant to give up time to go on trips.

And a lot of people don't understand how not interchangeable a family holiday and a school ski trip is. The level of supervision and acceptable level of risk is massively different. Only 6th form MIGHT if they are very good / experienced be allowed to ski with a good staff member instead of an instructor. Absolutely no "free time" on the slopes at all. As pp have said, an injury means kid off the slopes and a member of staff down to be with them. It's just not possible to chop and change. Yes a school could choose to offer it from the beginning but there are good reasons not to.

You're definitely right on the boots!! DS (140 is only a boarder, DD (12) can do both but prefers skiing and DH and I are firmly skiers so we ski as a mixed group. Possibly I'm scarred by having to tow DS across the flats and waiting for him to clip in in blizzard conditions . If you go to France I guarantee you'll notice far fewer boarders than in the early naughties and more slanted towards Brits vs locals. I think one thing is that a lot of people my (then) age started boarding in the late nineties/ early naughties because "skiing is for the olds" and now that's sort of changed because middle aged people now board, so boarding is more of a personal preference vs. a "cool thing to do" IYSWIM. I wonder if generally deteriorating snow conditions have also impacted the choice to an extent- as in, is it easier to ski bad snow than board it? Not sure.

I wouldn't automatically assume snowboarding would be available on a school ski trip, no. But if that was really important to me, I think I would ask before commiting to the trip.

If I had assumed snowboarding would be available, and it turned out it wasn't then i"d think "oh well, I probably should have checked". I wouldn't bitch and moan to other parents and I certainly wouldn't complain to the school.

How weird that her snowboarding is more important than being with her friends. Surely she would rather have the time with her mates than her dad.

He's a twat
Needs to think about the commitment of those wonderful staff that organise and execute it!

@Gentillie On this years letter it clearly stated that due to staffing no snowboarding would be offered.

Well in that case the pillock doesn't have a leg to stand on, does he ... if you'll pardon the phrase in this context. 😉

Dont understand why people are saying it would make it more expensive, or need more staff.

This school has a teacher with each group. They do not have one now who snowboards.

I kinda see this - but my god is he setting her up for a fall with that attitude. Whats going to happen when this child doesn’t achieve a full house of grade 9s at GCSE?

I personally would assume that a ski trip means both skiing and snowboarding, or a choice between the two.
Dont understand why people are saying it would make it more expensive, or need more staff.
I would also expect clear info from the school at the start as to how its going to be organised. Or better still, a discussion or a questionaire etc. to find out what is actually wanted.

That's interesting. I haven't been for a while and am going this year with the kids for the first time so it will be interesting to see if there are less boarders.

I agree that flats are harder to traverse on a board and certainly button lift are much harder to negotiate. But there are so many advantages, much more comfortable boots, easier to of piste due to the surface area and it is easier so a lot less likely to find your self on a run and out of your depth.

I respectfully disagree skiing is a better experience. When I worked a season we started with 5 boarders and 6 skiiers we ended with 9 boarders and 2 skiiers. Pre kids I started skiing with a group of 8 skiiers that is now 4 boarders, 3 skiiers and one does neither. I love snowboarding so much so I am going to sell my skis as I can't imagine I will ever go back to it.

WTAF?!

And people wonder why teachers don't want to take school trips.... It used to be part of my job to take 10 and 11 year olds to ski camp every January. Yes, it was hard work and took a lot of organising.

My DD is going on the school ski trip in Feb and she is taking her skis for the ski school and her snowboard for her down time on the slopes. The school were happy for her to bring her snowboard - no issues no drama. I just asked them
and they replied. She likes both so she was happy either way

He's BU. It's a school ski trip not a bespoke cater-to-all individuals trip. He shouldn't have signed her up to it without checking first.

We've just had similar at my DDs school and they did say they would need to check numbers and demand for snow boarding before committing to offering it.

If it's the same at your school, it's on him to have taken the gamble.

Costs have increased. Schools have less money. Trips have to be organised as cheaply as possible to give as many chikdren as possible the opportunity to go.

I'd have also assumed both would be an option over the week.

and that's from someone who used to run these school trips in France many moons ago for the ski companies!

Yeah it’s important to recognise that school ski trips are done on an absolute shoe string which means 6 days of group lessons at max ratio with same instructor and the same kids each day, one 6 days equipment hire, not to mention foam mattresses on 2 * apartments and questionable food. It’s still fun but it’s not a family ski holiday where you might throw a bit of money at it.

Teachers are giving up their spare time for free to organise this trip. Regardless of how much anyone might 'expect' or 'want' snowboarding to happen, if they've said no, then him throwing his toys out of the pram is just creating even more workload dealing with his complaints.

Teachers really don't need this shit.

Exactly. If every parent complaining was asked to draw up a risk assessment for a uni trip, let alone an under 18 trip, they might have more appreciation of factors that will
limit what can be offered.

I'd tell him that my child was really excited about going on the snowboarding trip he's presumably running for 40+ kids next year.....

And perhaps something happened on that trip so that it is no longer offered. I’ve not run a uni skiing trip but I’ve run plenty of European city study trips - and just because something was featured in the itinerary on a previous trip does not mean it will feature next time.

If it was not offered on the current trip he should not expect it.

I get the idea that a lot of people have never organised a school trip. Nevermind a school trip to a foreign country involving winter sports with a ludicrously long and involved risk assessment, which has been planned to the nth degree, keeping costs as low as possible to make it accessible for as many children as possible. And then been wholly responsible for all those children. It's not a family holiday.