£1800 for a school trip

[Patchw0rk]

Is it just me, or what are the school thinking?!

DC desperately wants to go of course- all their friends are, of course 🙄and we could possibly afford it with a lot of hard work (on my part, overtime!) but we could take the whole family away for that.

DC is 13 so old enough to understand about money really but so wants to go. It's a week skiing in Canada. I want them to have brilliant life experiences but it's just so much money.

I just think school have lost the plot. Could they really not have come up with something more reasonable for a y9 trip?

https://www.sunweb.co.uk/ski/austria/zell-am-see-kaprun/zell-am-see/sporthotel-lebzelter2?Participants%5B0%5D%5B0%5D=1988-09-04&Participants%5B0%5D%5B1%5D=1988-09-04&Duration%5B0%5D=5&DurationsRanges=5-5&Mealplan=HP&Month=2023-12-01&TransportType=SelfDrive

Ooh, that's given me hope, thank you. Fingers crossed for my son. He's been wishing I could take him skiing for a couple of years.

@Otherland

It's skiing.

Sliding down a hill.

How is that an amazing opportunity?

I'm not getting this. If they were going to Rome or Auschwitz or somewhere genuinely educational, but what is so educational about skiing?

How is skiing "life changing"?

That's because at Private schools the school pays for teachers tickets in state schools the pupils have to pay.

There are indoors ski slopes in the UK.

This is wierd

They do have funds for certain things though, and others here have been saying some trips are subsidised.

At 13? Absurd!

International ski trips used to be an adult privilege, a reward for hard work and responsibility.

What do kids have to look forward to if they are being handed the adult lifestyle before they've barely hit puberty?

It is expensive but would be an amazing opportunity. Could your DC contribute towards the trip, sell things they no longer use or have money instead of Xmas / Birthday presents.

I'll agree with that I'm not convinced that kids should be encouraged to fund raise for a holiday either.
Beyond Granny digging deep and cutting neighbours grass I actually doubt kids could raise that sort of cash. He's not really a charity.

My son might choose it as his career.

Obviously he might not. But it would be fun. And school trips should be fun, not just educational.

It's an amazing opportunity because imo, skiing is something best started as a child/youth. I feel totally past it at my age, and could never afford it when I was younger. If I can manage to get DS started at 14/15, I will. And because I'm old and past it, it's not the type of holiday I think I could manage for him, even if I could afford for him and his sister and myself to go together, so it's an opportunity for him for his childhood that he otherwise won't get.

My kids are doing that trip next month… same cost EACH! Absolutely awful but as we’re not having a family holiday this year we’ve succumbed as quite frankly they’ve worn us down. It’s their final year and it will be an amazing trip so we are hoping it’s worth it.

£1800 for skiing though in year 9 is a little absurd, but if you can afford it then you should prob do it.

Not sure a kid could earn £800 in a couple of years doing these things, plus would people really want to pay for a child's skiing trip?
I despise sponsored crappy events with a passion.

My dd is going next year to Italy for 1 week, 5 full days ski school. We will need to buy the clothes but the ski equipment is hired. £1200 all food and evening activities included.

Her school has trips to Rome, France, Germany, Iceland, Sicily and outward bound centres in the UK. It’s a state school with a mixed demographic. I’m on a low income so I’m paying half and half is coming from her savings (been saving since she was a baby).

She is very excited and I think it is a brilliant opportunity for her personal development and independence. Having missed so many trips in her last two years of primary due to covid I’m not going to say no to this one.

I actually don't have an issue with expensive ski trips ... not that I'm paying for any of mine to go on one! It's not a 'curriculum' trip, it's completely optional, and an experience many otherwise wouldn't have an opportunity to have. So for those who can save/afford it and want to go (because otherwise they don't have families who ski/opportunities to ski/etc), power to them.

If it was a 'curriculum' trip, it should be more affordable and inclusive.

This. It is absurd. I wouldn’t be paying

Staff used to queue up to get their names down for it, so it didn't put them off. A weeks skiing for 400 is pretty good value if you are into that. I'm not so never ever volunteered.

Don't do it then! It isn't being forced is it? It is called an option. Some kids are real entrepreneurs and this kind of thing can be the beginning of small business ideas in some kids but others who need their backsides wiping and whinge about costs without doing anything.

Gish I remember at primary school being offered a trip at an outdoor activity centre for 5 days at £600! We couldn't afford it. There were so few takers actually, the trip was withdrawn. That was six years ago.

When my daughter was at primary school (in South London) I remember showing some of the children some postcards of a village near where I grew up (Midlands). They didn't believe me that the thatched cottages were real and people actually live in them.
It's all very well saying skiing is an "amazing life experience" when so many teens have never even experienced different places in their own country.

Outrageous - and happening in my dn school too.
I guess it is a valuable life lesson the school are teaching:
Those that can afford it get more opportunities in life.
Just to be clear I'm being sarcastic.
As pp said they should be putting on a trip that everyone can go on if they want that is a much cheaper price ie. Camping in the school field and learning to be independent.
I really can't understand school thinking in this. It just separates the kids and points out who can and cannot afford it.

My DS’s ski trip to Austria was £1100 10 years ago and they went by coach, I don’t think the OP’s one is bad value. We found only one or two DC did the ski trip from each class so it’s not a biggie if you don’t book it.

I went on a school trip to Vietnam for 10 days when I was 16 (state school). It cost my parents £1300. It was 10 years ago now but I still think it is a huge amount of money.

However it is still to this day one of the most amazing trips I've ever been on, I had never been to Asia before so it was so different to anything I'd ever experienced. I will treasure the memories I have forever - from the culture, to the food, the people, the country, everything was so eye opening for me and I can genuinely say that I learnt and gained so much from the experience. The friendship group I was close to didn't go, so I also made loads of new friends.

Having said that I'm torn on my opinion of this. Skiing in Canada and a trip to Vietnam are obviously very different. DC would have an awesome time and probably have life long memories of it, however I wonder how much they would actually gain or learn from skiing (and I say this as someone that has skiied before and loved it). I mean, it's a good price for a skiing holiday but is it worth you working overtime? How does that affect the rest of the family?

As they're only year 9 will there be many other (possibly 'better') opportunities in the future?

Sponsored event - walk, run, marathon etc.

These are meant for charities or community clubs not for holiday jollies or personal gain!

I have declined sponsoring children who are going on expensive poverty tourism trips before. I'd send them away with a flea in their ear if they asked me to sponsor them for a jolly skiiing in Canada!!!

It is ridiculous. Schools never used to organise these insanely expensive holidays, I don't know when they started coming doing it, but I don't see it as a positive development.

Fortunately both my DDs recognised it was too much money for one of them to go on holiday, so never asked. They knew our family holidays were on a shoestring but we always had one and had great fun. They knew that spending thousands on one holiday for one family member would be unfair.

Don't feel under pressure to find this money - it is the opposite of necessary for any child and will not blight their school years to miss an expensive holiday. Put it towards your family holiday - they are the treasured memories in the end.

Not inclusive at all. I think these trips are for the teachers really. Yes they do have responsibility but they also get their trip paid for by the parents.