Kids excluded from free trip

You’re going to cringe if you actually go into school complaining about disadvantaged kids getting a trip ! 🙈

I would assume the children who went were selected because they wouldn't ordinarily have the opportunity to attend an activity weekend like that for some reason.

And therefore would not begrudge any aspect of it including the contribution already made for the classroom equipment.

If you can afford to donate £50 willy-nilly then presumably you can also afford to take your children on holiday. Some people can’t. I’m sure the ones that went weren’t picked at random out of a hat.

When I was around 14 I was selected with a few others from my year for a wonderful opportunity, a week away from home I got to try sailing, canoeing, lots of activities, was amazing. It’s now 34 years later and I still remember that break and the opportunities I had.

It was funded by the rotary club as I got older I realised me and the others picked as classed as a mix of carers and equivalent of PP. I naively thought no one could tell I was the poor kid (with my handed down blazer 11 year old wearing age 16)

You don’t know the why, and please don’t make a thing about so your children pick up on it.

When the school asked for contributions towards classroom equipment, you gave fifty quid? Fifty?

That seems like a huge amount! Do all parents do this at the school?

Our school would never do this. Throughout the year, they hold raffles and cake sales and mufti days. They would never expect a parent to donate £50.

At our daughter's primary school there were a couple of these types of trip a year.
They just selected different children each time. Basically all of the children ended up going to similar things but at different times. The school raised funds to buy 2 small mini busses but that meant they could only take around 30 children at a time. Even a coach wouldn't be enough for a whole year group + staff for most schools.

Were these kids in your child's class or other.

In my kids school.

They are always having trips.

Somwtimes one class gets to go on a trip then another. Certain competitions only certain kids are picked.

They also do stuff like young voices and other activities. Generally the kids get asked if they want to do it. Then letters sent home to the ones that wanted to do it.

Other times there are after school clubs.

A certain percentage of the kids are offered a place. So maybe 10. Then after that cycle of after school is ended the next 10 are offered.

At the school I feel all the kids are offered different activities at different times. I wouldnt be bothered if I saw kids from my kids class on a trip or outing. Because I know it'll be offered to all of then at some time in the future.

It isn't free, presumably the OP and/or her kids' father pay taxes.

The main issue with this sort of thing is that you have the people just above the boundary who lose out (sadly a fact of life, a line has to be drawn somewhere).

But given that maybe it's not the best thing to make a sing and dance about it in the school newsletter, rubbing peoples noses in it who aren't considered poor but might still not be able to afford that sort of opportunity.

if it's young carers that is different but I would have thought the school would have said that (eg this was for our children who help their families at home) or something similar.

I think you need to gather more information- it could be pupil premium funding that paid for it for those children in receipt of it. Or could be for children with SEN.

Won’t just be some random children excluding yours.

Then you can decide what you think.

You can see why they wouldn’t have published in the newsletter if it’s for children in receipt of pp or SEN funding.

Yes YABU. The children who went on this trip weren’t selected at random. There would have been a very precise reason why each and every one was included.

This. if they can't talk about criteria for who went then they should keep quiet about the trip and not splash it everywhere.

The problem with being transparent is it may end up being used against the kids.

Parents demand to know why
School says its for families on very low income/benefits / kids with echp / behaviour etc etc
Parents tell their kids
Their kids repeat it or even worse use it to bully the children who went on the trip

The mistake the school made here imo was publicising it. They should never have posted photos.

Might it help you to reframe this and consider that rather than your children being excluded from this particular activity, it’s likely that a group of children who often feel socially excluded from things (eg not being able to afford the same activities, meals out, take aways even, access to sports and drama clubs, having the experience of being taken on foreign holidays, museum visits or theatre trips by their families as their friends do) have been given an opportunity here that might even out their life experience a tiny little bit? If, as many posters have suggested , this was funded by the pupil premium it is extra funding that schools get specifically for children who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. It won’t have any impact whatsoever on what the school spends on your children as it is ring fenced funding - although sometimes schools do use it to pay for experiences in schools which all students can benefit from. Pupil premium funding is probably the best thing about school budgets in these very straightened times!

Yes, you are being unreasonable. Two things:

Firstly, school funding isn't one massive pot that everything comes out of. It comes from different sources and can be ring fenced for specific pupils or activities. As PP have said, this one almost certainly came from a source designated for disadvantaged pupils.

Secondly, not every trip is avaliable to every pupil and that's life. My DS is going on a school football trip at Easter. Only boys who are at a certain playing level were invited because that is the level of the games they will be playing on the trip.

Personally, I don't begrudge kids in difficult home circumstances a free trip. I am also happy to contribute to school funds in other unrelated areas that are lacking.

You are not being unreasonable to question it.

You are being unreasonable to be so put out about it without finding out the facts about which children were selected and why. As others have said - SEN, young carers, children who are from disadvantaged backgrounds may have all been offered the opportunity.

It may also be behaviour based. DD has been on free school trips as a reward for being in the top 10% of children in terms of behaviour points.

You are being very very unreasonable for using the word 'spaffing' in relation to money donated to your child's school

How could you begrudge these kids a break like this?I’ve worked with kids in the past who have never been out of their own city. Hardly ever been to the city centre. There’s likely to be a really tight criteria on who can go as many PPs have said. I think it’s quite mean-spirited to object to this. Each child is likely to have challenges in their background and what those challenges are isn’t really any business of the other parents.

Given it was free for the kids, I suspect that the funds used were funds that HAD to be used on that group of kids. I imagine that either the school had some LA funding that had to be used on a specific group of kids (e.g. pupil premium, young carers, EHCP) or the organisation funding the trip, whether a government one or a private one, specified that the school had to spend the money on a trip for those kids. I'm not sure that telling students or parents that a free trip they don't qualify for will happen serves any purpose.

Never heard of pupil premium, no?

How terrible for the oiks to get the perks!!

🙄

1.What were the criteria for selecting children to go on the "free" trip? and how were the parts of the trip not "free" funded?
2 What are donations to the school spent on specifically?
I don think your'e being unreasonable to ask the above questions .
Without answers to those questions it's difficult to know if you are being unreasonable.

Schools target funding and extracurricular experiences at the students they deem most likely to benefit. If the student is DA in some way it is highly likely that they will not have access to extracurricular experiences that your children benefit from routinely.

Also no trip is ever free. There is always a cost. This is not always passed on to the parents directly. It is to be hoped that your charitable, no strings attached gift might go to support some child less fortunate than yours. It is not an investment for which you should expect payback.

I’m glad your child got to go

The governors and local authority will be delighted that disadvantaged kids got such a lovely opportunity that might not otherwise had had, these kids will be in poverty or have send or be in foster care or all of the above

Are they children from disadvantaged backgrounds perhaps ?
you could enquire politely from the school

Yes my child has been picked for a trip like this - as a young carer who wouldn't have opportunity to have a break away otherwise.
My child wouldn't want everyone knowing why they were picked...but are very grateful that they were.