School trip

[PawsPaws]

Has anyone else’s school cut back massively on the end of year trips? My son is in year 6 and for the end of year trip they are going to the local park, a park we visit most weekends and they’ve been to several times on school trips. The year before that my other son went to the beach with the school as the end of year trip and 2 years before that my daughter was taken to a theme park. I guess it’s a money issue. Just wondering what other schools doing for the year 6 children?

Cubs will usually go at the weekend which is a cheaper rate.
Also Cub leaders are volunteers so don't need to be paid.
School has to take more staff than would usually look after the class so they probably have to pay for cover at school as well.

My son is in secondary and just went on a school trip on a coach last week and the cost was £10

That sounds more like it, a trip to a playground they go to often and we live next to does seem rubbish in comparison.

I think it's because schools can't win with trips.
Parents don't want to pay or want their children to go which then makes planning the day and staffing difficult (on the AIBU board there was a post with a parent of SEN child who they didn't want to go on a trip but school then said couldn't stay in school, and from that discussion it sounds like schools should allow children to refuse and find alternatives, so it's probably easier to scrap the trip and keep everyone in school than trying to make arrangements for individual children/small groups who don't want to go).

For whatever reason, you chose not to pay/he chose not to go. The school will be mindful of cost for families as other posters have said. And also the huge time and pressures of planning that goes into a big day out. My husband is a primary head and believe me, any trip is a huge headache. Staffing them when they go even slightly outside of normal hours is a nightmare. He tries to make the last couple of weeks fun and memorable with special year 6 events, the pta put on a fun day etc. Is your school going anything like that instead perhaps. The big theme park days aren’t usually the thing kids remember anyway.

The school will have subbed that which some can afford but most can't. Perhaps the PTA raised funds for example or the pupil premium places were funded by PP funding.

Also just checked and the last beach trip was also £10 bit different to hundreds of pounds? And those children had a residential and an end of year trip it’s not one or the other. From the comments though it seems not many schools have cut back so drastically.

No particular order, and obviously some of this may not apply to your school:

Not educationally necessary - it's a 'celebration' not a formal learning goal
No funds - first 1% of pay rise this year must come from school budget
Staffing - trips generally need extra supervision/staff
Overburden of risk assessment - admin disproportionate to small activities
Paid-entry places have become very expensive - local park is free!
Behaviour of a minority of students has become a lot worse - supervision
Parent's non-essential special requests - 'he/she won't eat this or that'
Some parents won't pay - either no money, or won't subsidise others
Fewer staff willing to go the extra mile - had enough already!
Fewer parents willing to volunteer to help for a range of reasons

etc etc...

Thing is, OP, an 'end of year' trip is a relatively new thing over the last decade or two. We didn't have them in the past. Yes, of course we had mid-term, 'paid-for' trips, which were for learning - but we didn't have 'celebrations'.

Unfortunately school trips, although a lovely luxury for some, will always exclude poorer kids, or those with additional needs - unless, as a PP has said, there are some reasonable cheap options made available, too.

A fairer solution would be for the school to fund-raise for the trip throughout the year...but if it's anything like our local schools there is already lots of fund-raising for essentials like books! So no money for luxuries.

I do wish there was a fair way that richer parents could be incentivised to pay a little bit more, though ...Perhaps we need an SUV charge at school pick-up 😂

In our area all us parents whom aren’t on benefits have to pay a higher fee for the residential trips to subsidise the parents who are on benefits- we dont get a choice

Yes! I feel so sorry for my kids to be honest, the school trips they have are, to be quite frank, absolutely rubbish compared to the trips I did at school 30 odd years ago!

I live in Northern Ireland so my primary school days were in the tail end of the troubles, when we had so much less than we do now. Even in my final year in primary school, we did a residential to England to Scarborough and York, and did Flamingo Land, Eden Camp etc. I’m on the PTA at my children’s school and the principal actually laughed in my face when I suggested similar.

That's interesting, I'm sure it divides opinions. What benefit do they use as a discriminator - free school meals, or do they ask parents to provide evidence?

I remember my sons first school trip was to Sainsbury's 😂

Thing is, it sounds funny, but I think a supermarket trip is perfect for any age group - from just 'being around' people and learning how to behave in public, through basic money/budgeting, health promotion, right through to learning about food distribution and animal welfare for the older kids.

My daughters in year 6 and they’re doing an activity day with year 5 in school which consists of a climbing wall and archery and a cinema and McDonald’s trip. Previous years have been residential trips so we’re feeling pretty disheartened for our leavers.

Do sad. We went to the Isle of Wight for a week in year 6.

That was in the late 70s.

@ExpressCheckout I was born in 1971 and in the late 70s / early 80s we had an end of year trio every year. I'm in the NE of England so it was mostly places like Bamburgh / Craster or Lindisfarne. Whole day out with a bit of local history and a couple of hours on the beach. I didn't realise it was a relatively new thing elsewhere.

At my DDs new school we have enrichment week this week. Today was out and about in the local community doing litter picking for half the day. Tomorrow is a full day trip to Whitby which is a voluntary payment of £12 and Friday is a big Beach Fest at Tynemouth beach.

My DD isn't doing any of it, due to ND / Sensory issues, but the school always provide alternative learning for those student not partaking. Quality learning along with a bit of down time / reading time which my DD loves, not just being shoved in another class. Her previous school used to get the kids not doing trips to help out with the younger classes assuming it wasn't a whole school trip. If it was a whole school trip, she's invariably end up sitting in the school office.

Bamburgh / Craster or Lindisfarne sounds like the perfect school trip, I'm jealous of a trip you made in the late 1970s 😂

Your new school sounds great with your DD. I just don't think some schools are able to think outside the box when it comes to adjustments for ND kids.

Plus, she'll get to eat her lunch without needing to avoid the greedy seagulls at Whitby 😂

They can't win can they ?

You are complaining that school aren't putting on an expensive trip somewhere at the end of the year, whilst also admitting when they went to the trouble to organise a Residential for the same group of dc, you wouldn't pay the cost of it.

I’d wonder why the teachers were reluctant to organise a more interesting trip this year. Is it a year group that have been particularly difficult with behaviour or something? Maybe the person who usually does most of the organising has a personal reason for not being able to dedicate as much of their own time to it as they usually do. Maybe they have reason to believe they wouldn’t get enough contributions to cover the cost of a trip that wasn’t free and the school couldn’t afford to subsidise it.

Planning trips to the beach or other attractions is time consuming and thankless, but teachers usually do it because they know children will benefit and enjoy it. There will be a valid reason why it’s not happening.

My dc school do a residential every 2 years for year 5 and 6 so my year 6 son went on that last year. He went to the park on the Friday after sats and to the local church last week. The whole school will have a disco, 2 year groups at a time begore the end of term. They have their leavers service and that's it. They used to do a leavers barbeque and either a play, a concert or a talent show but they stopped all that during lockdown and never started it up again.

A residential and a beach trip are hardly the same thing but ok 🤣 ones £10 the other was £400 really the same thing isnt it

No mentions of behaviour however we do have a new head teacher and she has stopped / changed a lot of things so could be that

Also my complaint was the same trip the year before to the SAME place was £200 and I never complained to the school I just didn’t send him.

Reading this makes me feel that DS is fortunate.
His year 6 have had a day trip to the Globe (subsidised as it was for the curriculum but I forget the cost), a trip to the local museum, a trip to the local park and a 5 day residential in Yorkshire which cost £250 (not subsidised).

He’s got a school play, a disco and a trip to the local lido to come,

Schools aren’t allowed to do that! See bottom of p5 of this

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5af99c8ae5274a25e78bbe30/Charging_for_school_activities.pdf