School trips

[theblackradiator]

How come some schools seem to go on many more school trips than others is it all down to funding?

It is one of our priorities and our PFA support this by subsidising many of them. It is up to different schools what they prioritise.

A lot of schools no longer do them because they can't subsidise them. They also don't want to ask for parental contributions as many parents can't afford it. If the school has a limited budget, the money has to go on the basics not the extras. This is a real shame as the children are missing out.

There are 2 high schools near us both academy schools of a similar size one school offers loads of trips, zoos, a theme park, theatre trips etc. The other school not a single thing. my dc attends the school with no trips whilst their friend goes to the lots of trips school. poor dc is always complaining that their school never do anything with them. I'd be happy to pay for trips the full amount but I do understand that some parents would struggle to pay. was just wondering how their can be such a difference between schools in the same area and assumed they'd receive a similar amount of funding for such things.

Because teachers have to want to run them. Some schools have teachers who want to and others don’t. Trips take hours and hours of organisation and paperwork and there is no extra pay for doing it, it is all done on good will.

I think all you need to do is take a look at the threads on here. There's currently one where someone is complaining about the wording the PTA used on a flyer advertising a fete. Same thing happens with trips. Does the school think I'm made of money? They're asking for parent volunteers again? Threatening the trip may not run? All of this is constantly thrown at schools. I'm certainly not surprised less are doing trips.
There is no set pot for trips either. It'll be up to each school to organise their money. It's likely the school with lots of trips has a good PTA, parents who are willing and teachers who are not yet completely defeated.

They happen because individual teachers to above and beyond to organise them, and they manage to convince a few colleagues to give up their own time to accompany too. Kids at these teachers' schools are lucky.

Don't take trips for granted, and be extremely grateful for any your DC get. Morale is so low in the sector. Anyone going that far above and beyond these days is a saint.

Hours and hours and hours of organisation for even the smallest most local trip.

And then someone’s mum writes a snotty email for the most nonsense reason and you think FUCK YOU TAKE YOURSELF TO THE THEATRE NEXT TIME and that’s it.

It can be down to staffing too.
Some schools prioritise trips and therefore make it compulsory for each dept to put on a trip.

Have you raised it with the school? They should offer something, usually years 7-9.

There can be quite a few factors around school trips- for example:

-If a lot of students get busses in to school, then getting back for the busses has to be a consideration, and this can make trips very limited/stressful.

-Cost, as others have said, if schools can't afford to subsidise the trip, they need to know a minimum number of students will pay in order to make it viable. Schools get funding per pupil, it's not ring fenced for "trips" or "extra-curricular"- so your school may choose to spend their funding in a different way e.g. on nicer facilities or more resources in school. Or they may have higher running costs, etc.

-Staffing. Staff in state schools don't get paid extra to go on trips, even if they are very late back or staying overnight. In some schools you get a staff culture where people want to go on trips and see them as an enjoyable/important thing. In others people see it as a massive imposition, and therefore it's very hard to run these trips!

Another point around staffing is that if staff are out of school all day on a trip, someone has to cover their classes. If the school is already short staffed, this can mean SLT are reluctant to authorise trips. You need a higher ratio of staff to students, as well- taking one year group on a trip will involve at least double or triple the number normally needed to supervise them in school.

And yes, organising a trip is a huge amount of work- especially from scratch!

I do think it's shame for your daughter. Are there any local groups (youth groups etc?) she can join which would give her the chance to go on trips with people her own age?

Agree that cover is an issue.

I think some schools are happier to ask for money than others. Ten years ago we had many more trips. We now simply can't afford it. You can't ask parents as if they don't pay, you can't not take the child and we can't afford to pay for them.

We have to limit numbers for trips (there are 300 children in a year group). Parents can not (will not) understand that we can not have everyone go on the trip and have to limit numbers. We operate a lottery system. My God the complaints we get! We run lots of trips and make sure kids get on at least one a year but still the parental backlash is astonishing. We also had a trip where a parent complained they weren't supplied with comms during the trip from the trip leader. The kids were 15. And had their phones. And staff were busy ... looking after your children!

@themidimit I once went on a Year 6 5 day residential. Thankfully I didn't get any complaints but it was the most exhausting week of my life. I didn't sleep a wink. I would never ever do it again. I didn't even get a single thank you card which I know isn't even the done thing but I felt like I deserved it 😂 My DDs school does lots of residential trips and she's been fortunate to go on a few. I always, always give cards to the staff and a wine basket on their return from a residential. They also had an end of year trip to Thorpe Park and 5 coaches full of kids. I was in absolute awe of the staff. Sent emails and have a thank you card with a small Amazon voucher to DDs group leader.
I think until you've done it, it's really hard to imagine quite how stressful and exhausting it is and how far a thank you card goes. I cannot fathom coming back from that Y6 residential to complaints. I think I'd cry in front of them.

I have led many trips, including residential. One I remember so well was a particularly challenging residential. There has been several children ill, very little sleep on top of months of preparation (enormous risk assessments due to being deemed adventurous sports, parent meetings, several letters, dealing with payments, liaising with the centre many times, booking buses etc). Not to mention the 24/7 responsibility for 27 little lives and no time off in lieu for any of it. Anyway we got back. The kids were buzzing to see their parents. I didn't get a single thank you - not one. I did however have a fuming parent who was furious that their child was missing a sock and that I'd taken away some of his snacks (they contained meat and there was no fridge so I took them off him on day 2 as they'd been unrefrigerated for too long by that point).

I have to be honest I would have still done trips and residentials afterwards but I can see why others don't want to.

Absolutely hear you on the lack of thanks. I once organised a theme park trip and warned the pupils all the way home that their rubbish must be put in the many bin bags I had dotted around the coach. When we arrived home the coach was in a state so I said that no one would be allowed off until it was tidy. This only took around 5 minutes and all the pupils helped without complaint. Not one parent thanked me, but a couple complained that I kept them back for 5 minutes and that the teachers should have cleaned the coach. By this point it was after midnight and I had been wake for more than 24 hours. I was not best pleased as you can imagine!

dd in year 4 has never been on a school trip.

No PTA at all at the school (the school hold no events as when they did, the police had to be kept being called due to scumbag parents - I live in a shithole).

My youngest son goes on his first school trip in a few weeks. He is in year 1

Ours went to the same zoo every year, and did a trip to a local monument (we paid £20 for a half day, another school did a whole day and paid £5, as the other school has more available funding to bridge the gap).

I think it's because of the cost of living and not wanting to put financially pressure on parents. Also I think covid changed people's expectations to do school trips.