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Original poster

£1800 for a school trip

468 replies

Patchw0rk · 25/05/2023 14:55

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?

OP posts:
CrumbliestCrumble · 25/05/2023 17:25

Eldests school had ski trip offered yearly at similar price. Years 7,8,9,10,11 (£1500 plus £100 to hire kit)
Plus france year 7 and 9( £850)
Barcelona year 8 and 10 (925)
China year 9 and 10 (£1000)

The school was a public school in a fairly deprived area.

As it was covid put pay to 2 years of his. Then they changed the criteria due to exams on the final year as to what years could go.
He was going to do 1 of each. At a struggle, gutted he missed them opportunities but good for our bank balance

dontlookbackyourenotgoingthatway · 25/05/2023 17:25

@Otherland

So why not go to a ski slope in the UK?

Of all the things for a school to organise Confused

CrumbliestCrumble · 25/05/2023 17:27

And they funded those on FSM. they got approx 75% off. Which i get the fact everyone should have the opportunity but i was a LP working PT and had no help.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

General education
wistfullyfocused · 25/05/2023 17:28

A school here does a trip to Canada OP, so it's either the same place, or another UK privileged bubble.

Knowing several kids that went, I'd suggest it's not 'that' good value. It was about 200 kids this year and sounded rather disorganised. Did the kids enjoy it?Well, not all of them, no. However it's not vastly different to the cost of the European trips organised by other schools.

70sTomboy · 25/05/2023 17:29

My big school trip in 1984 was surfing in Devon, camping. Teachers and their families and 6th former kids. Brilliant fun!

Moveoverdarlin · 25/05/2023 17:29

Whilst it’s expensive it will be the trip of a lifetime. If they have good friends that are going, they’ll have a whale of a time.

Wrongsideofpennines · 25/05/2023 17:32

This is a ridiculous cost and will exclude many pupils. But doesn't seem an unreasonable cost for that kind of holiday.

I don't really see the point of these kind of school trips. If the kids are into skiing then they will likely have been with family so not a new experience. If not then the parents will spend a fortune on lessons and kit so they can participate fully and it just seems a bit pointless if it's not a hobby you're going to continue. They aren't eduction based trips so I don't feel it's something the school need to be offering.

Alicetheowl · 25/05/2023 17:33

I can understand wanting to send my child to Borneo, or Mexico, or China if I could, or a European cultural trip. But skiing?! Sliding about in what is probably a non-historic purpose built resort? Not even a useful skill unless you live in the very north of Scotland. A wildlife trip to Canada or whale watching maybe. But just sliding around-No.

ilovesushi · 25/05/2023 17:34

My DC's schools offer a range of trips. They let you know well in advance what they are and estimated costs so you can budget and make an informed decision. That ski trip would be a complete no from us, but I don't resent others going on it if they can afford it and it's their thing.

SparklyTwinkleGlitter · 25/05/2023 17:35

DS hates school trips and always ditches them, even the local class day trips, so he’s very unlikely to want to do a ski trip or long haul ‘holiday’ via school.

I’d much rather put the money towards a family holiday and as we’ve been on long haul trips to the US and Asia previously, I’m sure it would be much more fun travelling together as a family. We have family in Japan for instance, so plan to visit again when DS is in his Transition year.

ChaoticCrumble · 25/05/2023 17:35

My son has just been sold (ie an assembly where they talk about how marvellous a trip is, only revealing the cost at the end), a trip to the US for £2800. He knew we couldn't do it.

Previously he's been offered costa rica for a similar cost. They also do ski trips like this one. Normal state school in an area with plenty of social housing. I can only imagine it's the same bunch of kids going on most of them.

Crikeyalmighty · 25/05/2023 17:37

The families who can afford this kind of jolly- the children probably have lots of 'amazing opportunities' to go to interesting places as it is - the ones that can't afford it anyway are probably the ones lacking in 'amazing opportunities' and I'm not sure if I'm honest that asking people for sponsorship for a skiing holiday is really in the spirit of what sponsorship is intended for. No wonder we end up with a load of very expectant teens and young adults who expect parents to fund gap years, travelling etc.

whumpthereitis · 25/05/2023 17:37

Needmorelego · 25/05/2023 17:14

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.

I’m sure many if not most would choose a ski trip to Canada over a trip to the midlands. I’m not sure why it’s unacceptable to go abroad if you haven’t traipsed the length and breath of the UK first 🥴

£1800 for a ski trip to Canada (Whistler?) is very reasonable tbh.

Hooploop · 25/05/2023 17:39

Nothing changes. My (state) school put on a few trips like this, and that was 15+ years ago! It's not on, it creates a lot of embarrassment and sadness for kids who can't afford to go.

There was an annual ski trip which all the same (rich) kids went on every year. And various sports tournaments in Europe. My PE teacher told me I was letting the netball team down by being the only one not joining them for a tournament abroad. I was absolutely mortified. And subsequently I got bumped from the A team!

There was also a trip to Costa Rica costing £3k, plus buying all the equipment you'd need to take for hiking through the rainforest, and vaccinations etc. Loads of kids went though, including my best friend whose mum was absolutely skint and had like 3 jobs. I guess she got some sort of financial help? My family were poor, but not breadline, so never qualified for subsidies.

strawberryurchin · 25/05/2023 17:40

surely these schools should offer something more moderately priced that everyone can access rather than wildly expensive ones for the privileged few.

For example, if they could get the price down by 50% and go somewhere much closer e.g. Europe or something that would be so much fairer, to all, and therefore more beneficial for most pupils.

Why it needs to be a far flung destination I don't know. Plenty of places a bit closer to home that are significantly cheaper that would mean many more could enjoy it.

Maybe the pricing is strategic in a way. Maybe they want fewer pupils to go so it is easier to manage!

Peony15 · 25/05/2023 17:40

No child needs a skiing trip to Canada as we have European ski resorts on door step. Not that they are cheap.
Nor do
you need a ski or other school
trip costing 4 figure sums that many parents may not be able to afford, let alone for multiple siblings.
I bet teacher's expenses will be covered in that cost so
half wondering if they fancied skiing in Canada ?
I feel for pupils and parents who can't afford this , being left behind. Sad

Hooploop · 25/05/2023 17:44

Also I can see the point in paying for an experience trip like hiking and turtle conservation in Costa Rica. But a skiing holiday at a resort? Dull.

strawberryurchin · 25/05/2023 17:45

OP I seriously suggest you approach the school with a complaint about this. If no-one challenges these kind of decisions they will keep doing them. I realise it's good for some kids to have the opportunity but they are missing the point big style here. By being so expensive they are being exclusionary and divisive.

It should be called out.

DataColour · 25/05/2023 17:48

MargaretThursday · 25/05/2023 15:57

I don't see anything wrong.

We couldn't have afforded it, but nor could a lot, so there would only be a few going so the dc wouldn't have felt left out.

I very much doubt it's for the benefit of the teachers. How much actual skiing for themselves do you think they'll get? And no relaxing in the evenings either.

According to my DH is very much for the benefit of the teachers! He's taught in lots of schools and teachers love going away on skiing trips, for free! I agree that I can't see the appeal myself with a bunch of school kids, but apparently it's a very popular trip with the teachers.
I just agreed to pay £900 for my DS to go on a Geography trip to Iceland for 3 nights. DH was vehemently opposed to it, but as he's really into Geography and all his friends are going, seems mean to say no I felt.

ToddlerMama27 · 25/05/2023 17:49

I’m going to have a very disappointed child in the future if that’s how much school trips are going to cost… 😩

poorbuthappy · 25/05/2023 17:52

The next school trip is £1800 for skiing. I have twins. 🙄. They aren't going.

Showerroomlove · 25/05/2023 17:52

DP's school, in a deprived area, had expensive trips like this (maybe not for Y9 but certainly for Y10&11) but the expectation was that the kids would raise the money by fundraising/selling things etc with the support of the school. Perhaps this is something that could be suggested for the school?

From memory, the kids could have a loan of a small amount of money to buy stock or materials which would be repaid as they raised the money. One enterprising lad made Easter Bunny shaped stands out of balsa wood in the school workshop. They had a space for a creme egg in the tummy and he sold hundreds of them at Easter. The whole group had a couple of bag packing sessions at the supermarket and made several hundred pounds that was used to pay for group activities when they got wherever they were going.

Some of the things they did were quite amazing and may have been the only opportunity those kids will ever have to experience a trip abroad. He once told me about a young kid on a 5 mile sponsored walk they did every year that he had never been that far from home and it was the best day of his life. Perhaps it was hyperbolic but some kids really don't have much going for them.

spirit20 · 25/05/2023 17:55

School trips have become insanely expensive to organise now. We tried to organise a trip to Spain recently, and could not find a quote that wasn't almost £1,000. That, combined with the fact that we couldn't actually find enough teachers who were willing to give up their time to accompany the trip, meant we ended up cancelling it before advertising it to kids. A shame, as it was a great chance for the kids to practice Spanish and the first time abroad for many pupils.

newyorkbreakfast · 25/05/2023 17:55

As a teacher trying to organise a trip right now, it's extremely difficult to keep it under £800 and that's just 3 nights. Once you factor in flights, food, accommodation- even in a hostel, activities, an excursion, insurance, teachers ' costs and a contingency fund, you soon see how it comes to that. Food prices have gone up a lot as have travel expenses.

Ketzele · 25/05/2023 17:56

Haven't read the whole thread yet, but just have to offload that these trips boil my piss. My kids (state) school does them too. One example - over a thousand quid for theatre studies to go to New York to see a show on Broadway. We are in London!

Seems to me that the kids who benefit are those whose parents are probably giving them enriching travel experiences anyway. And the others don't just miss out, they also suffer because the stretched teacher resource is depleted. It's not like the school offers a menu of options to suit everybody, is it? There's only so many teachers, and usually not enough of them.