Worst school trip experiences

[crimesagainstwine]

What was your or your DC's worst school trip/foreign exchange/day-out?

For me it was Year 6 (though think we were then "first years" at secondary school) - week long trip to France (Brittany).

I was known to be a reasonable and strong swimmer and when other kids swam out and got in difficulty (nothing too serious thankfully) was told by teachers (the mid-eighties here) to "go and get them as you can swim".

Said teachers stood on shore whilst this 11 year old swam out in fairly choppy seas to tell other kids to come back to shore! The tide was treacherous and I was absolutely terrified the whole time. Thankfully we all got back ashore safely but no thanks from teachers - instead told that I had "taken my time" WTF??

DD1 went on exchange trip to city (foreign exchange) and at the last minute the original host company had collapsed. So new city and hosts chosen. They had a week with the "host" family in their house with her three mates.

It was so obvious hosts were in it for the money and had no interest in the students (aged 13) - two had a bed and two were on the floor.

They were given same food each day (cheese sandwich for lunch and cheap pizza for dinner) - no breakfast and then locked (literally with key) in room from 6pm til 8am each day. She was "lucky" in that only one out of the 4 who could speak the language - the others were absolutely terrified.

They were told to hand in mobiles each night and if wanted to use the loo had to knock on the door. Still makes me absolutely frigging furious this one!

I went on a day trip to France in my first year of secondary school, in the 80's. All the boys bought flick knives (!) from street sellers and were messing about with them on the bus, then the weather was so rough on the ferry back that everyone was sick all over the place, on the seats, floors,everywhere!

Sellafield visitors centre. So utterly boring that when my friend felt sick from eating too many strawberry chewits I tried to persuade her to vomit on the grey carpet to liven things up.

She went outside, and spewed magenta sick everywhere. Absolute wimp!

@buckleten - we must have been to the same school as I remember the flick knife "craze" too!!

I went on a trip to a Scottish island when I was in first year of secondary school, we were there for about a week I think. I was sick the whole way there and the whole way back on the ferry and got really badly sunburnt on the first day, my ears were so badly burnt that I had huge blisters on the tops of them that kept bursting and weeping for the rest of the week, it was horrible.

I grew up in an outdoorsy/sporty country. School trips included things like leaving us in the bush in the dark for god knows what reason (bravery)??, climbing mountains, sleeping in the woods in a tent after a day of walking and then kayaking back in the morning, abseiling - the list goes on. It was tough shit if you hated the outdoors basically.

School trip to France in the 80’s, stayed in the old SS headquarters with blood all over the shower, got flashed at and everyone was sick, lovely

As what would now be a year 5, Butlins in Barry island. Allowed free roam early evening and locked in chalets (no loos) , just children , until morning

My primary school had a 1 week trip for the Y6 leavers in their last spring at the school. Everyone knew for years that their turn was coming and we were super excited. When it was our turn it snowed and the trip was cancelled the day before we were due to depart. Not rescheduled, not replaced with something else - just cancelled. We had to go to school and have normal lessons that week. Gutted doesn’t even come close. As an adult I think it’s shocking they didn’t arrange an alternative.

School camp age 12. Day 1 told we needed to canoe ourselves to the camp site on a large island, and had to squish anything we wanted in our sleeping bags- which were driven to the site.

Canoe trip was fine, but at the bank at the other end, the mud was so sticky, I fell back first into it- covering myself head to toe in thick, sticky mud.

Put tents up, and then told we were all going on a short walk to see rock formations. We were all in shorts/t-shirts as left in the day time. It took 2hrs to get to the rock formations, by which time it was dark and freezing, no one had a torch, so we headed back. Everyone was bitten by mosquitoes.

En-route back, we were allowed to visit the 1 and only toilet on the entire island. I was having my 5th period of my life, and had a crash course is trying to use tampons before leaving home. The toilet was a single, outside shed toilet with no lighting at all! We all stood outside in a long queue and in ear shot of each other. I had the most dreadful, sudden diarrhoea. I recall feeling around the walls of this metal shed trying to feel for any form of toilet paper. Luckily I had a single tissue in my pocket! I was convinced the entire camp that I'd get TSS!!! It was absolutely dreadful.

First year seniors (as it used to be known) we had a day trip to France. I spent most of the coach journey to Dover (from Liverpool) sat next to a teacher vomiting into a carrier bag. That poor but kind teacher. I continued to be ill on the ferry. When we arrived in France we were given free time. I had stopped vomiting at this point but I remember my friends sitting on a grassy hill chatting and I was laying down sprawled next to then exhausted and weak from the vomiting. Other than that, I remember nothing else of that trip. We returned to school the following day and my mum still remembers (37 years later!) how I staggered off the coach carrying my "souvenirs" - a French stick and a 4 pack of Orangina!! Me and dh went to Paris for our honeymoon and that was a MUCH nicer experience of France!

Went on a skiing trip in Italy on a coach from the North East, we were on the coach for hours and hours, it broke down somewhere in rural France after the driver put the wrong sort of fuel in it! We had already slept on the coach over one night but then had to spend another night sleeping on the coach whilst a replacement coach was sent.

When we did get there the teachers got pissed everynight, a male teacher through a female teacher in the swimming pool whilst she was fully dressed, they had a huge falling out and couldn't be in the same room after that.
Our instructor spoke no English, he spoke Italian, none of us spoke Italian he spoke a little German I spoke German at a year 8 level and I had to try to explain to him that one of our party had hurtled through the flimsy orange netting and plummeted down the side of a mountain. Then I got told off by the teachers for letting her do so!

Dd was on french trip. She started messaging me after Dover,sickness made its way down the coach. They got on the ferry and ran to the loos and threw up across the channel. Kids ok, but lead teacher had gastro-enteritis for the week. He had to go to hospital for fluids, leaving another two women in charge. They had to send the coach driver in to supervise the boys.
Me and another teacher last minute taking small group to Amsterdam. Booked through a company, arrived at hostel, where they put teachers on top floor and kids on two other floors. We spent the night running up and down stairs, preventing teens from escaping to parties with Spanish boys.
And then the ski trips...

My Y10 GCSE IT class (8 of us) went in the minibus to Tesco (about a mile away) to see how the computer system worked. It was even more dull than it sounds.

On a school ski trip as a young teenager and two men somehow got into our apartment, I was sleeping and they pulled my covers off my bed which woke me up. The three other girls and I managed to lock ourselves in a bedroom and I climbed from our balcony to the next one and asked the people there for help. I can’t remember what happened next, to be honest the whole thing is a bit vague but I do remember having to try and point the men out to the teachers in the breakfast hall the next morning. No adults took it very seriously and I’m not sure that they really believed us.

Another one with a school trip to France, PGL.

Teachers were basically pissed all week, I remember stopping at the supermarket for the wine and cheese?

Madness.

The food at the campsite was awful, lots of iceberg lettuce and baguette.

I do remember my brother going to London for three nights with thee Scouts when he was 8. Apparently they had free time in London?!

He called my mum from a services to say hello and she yelled at him to get back on the coach!

Fond memories of adventure training in France as a group of 14-18 year olds. Teachers drove us to the shops a few times to restock on cheap French wine! This was late 90s / early 00s!

A trip to the local “zoo”.

Bus broke down before we left the playground. Somehow a new bus was commandeered but it was a khaki green ex army thing. It had 80% seats but the remaining 20% was filled with oil drums. Being the older of the primary group I was sent to the back.

Spent the entire journey balanced precariously on an oil drum. Got to the “zoo” and it was more of a crap wildlife park, the highlight of which was an incredibly angry emu.
It had taken so long to get there we essentially met the emu, ate our sandwiches, visited the awful gift shop and went back to school, still balanced on drums.

The 1970’s were a different world.

@dipdye - OMG you have reminded me of school trip to London and yes we had a heck of a of free-time too.

I'm sure the teachers treated it as a massive jolly - we (pupils) were given two-days free time to get souvenirs or go shopping.

We ran havoc in Harrods and all glam girls went for free make-overs at beauty counters.

Our only "educational" trip was to go on Cutty Sark (?)) and drink diluted rum to see what life was like as a sailor

1993 PGL trip to Tregoyd house in Wales when I was 13. Would have been fantastic had my evil chemistry teacher not been on the trip.

Without fail, she'd hunt all the girls down who were messing about and find a way to pin it on me, even when I was reading in my bunk. Even though other girls protested and said it had nothing to do with me.

One point I'd gone inside from an outdoor activity to get my ventolin inhaler and she realised I was missing, demanded to know where I was, and when the camp leader told her, declared that "stroke is a failure now and she'll be a failure the rest of her life". The camp leaders were appalled and told another teacher what she'd said. My friends who were there then told my parents when I got back because I was so upset. I wouldn't let my parents complain to the school but I think my mum did without me knowing.

On the flip side I'm far from a failure in every aspect of my life so glad she didn't crush my spirit. Bitch.

I went on a German exchange - we arrived on the Friday, were doled out to families and waved goodbye to our teachers, then on the Saturday a group of the German friends met up to take their English guests by tram into the nearest shopping centre for the afternoon. Unfortunately as we walked to the tram stop, a Rottweiler burst out of an ice-cream hut and attacked me, ripping my clothing quite badly (but amazingly not injuring me - luckily I was wearing a voluminous maxi skirt which filled its mouth). I had to travel on the tram and walk through an unknown town centre holding my clothes onto myself in a bunch, then spend my entire stock of German money for the week on some shorts and a tshirt in H&M to get home in. On Monday my teachers applauded my stiff upper lip but refused to speak to my parents and arrange for me to get any more money so I spent the whole trip sitting around in the copious "free time" on our day trips watching other people eat chips and ice-cream and buy souvenirs.

@Ishouldreallybeonanisland

I grew up in an outdoorsy/sporty country. School trips included things like leaving us in the bush in the dark for god knows what reason (bravery)??, climbing mountains, sleeping in the woods in a tent after a day of walking and then kayaking back in the morning, abseiling - the list goes on. It was tough shit if you hated the outdoors basically.

Oh god. Are we from the same country?! I grew up in New Zealand and I'm not the least bit outdoorsy. I also can't stand rugby. I definitely don't belong!

@bottleofbeer

Sellafield visitors centre. So utterly boring that when my friend felt sick from eating too many strawberry chewits I tried to persuade her to vomit on the grey carpet to liven things up.

She went outside, and spewed magenta sick everywhere. Absolute wimp!

Love it!

Guide camp when I was 10, had never been away from home before, the tents were awful. I was really homesick, parents were able to visit at the weekend & I never stopped crying all the time my parents were there & begged them to take me home. The guide leader refused to allow them to take me home, said I was attention seeking & was just a mardy child. I had an awful time & just wanted to go home, the weather was awful, it never stopped raining, everything including our sleeping bags was wet through, it was cold during the day & even colder at night. I have never been camping since & would never go again. I packed guides in as soon as we came back.

We went to a big city for a day trip around age 15...
For lunch break, we visited a botanical garden. It would have been acceptable, but it was pissing down with rain, there was very limited shelter and we all got soaked.

The growing glory was, that the teachers were sheltering in the bus with the driver while we had to eat rain soaked sandwiches. We weren't allowed in as it was the drivers break time. That was early 90's.