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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to think all classes should have a school trip, or none...

15 replies

biddysmama · 12/07/2010 12:56

at ds's school some classes go on trips and some dont, we saw another class get off the coach from the sealife centre the other day, aibu or is it not fair on the other classes?

or is it just cos my ds has never been on a school trip (hes in year 3)

OP posts:

AMumInScotland · 12/07/2010 13:22

I think it would be more unfair for trips to be vetoed for the whole school just because one teacher didn't want to arrange any. Why not ask his teacher whether there are any trips planned for the coming year, and offer to help if there are? That may nudge them into thinking of planning one.

Deliaskis · 12/07/2010 13:26

I don't think it should be an all or none thing, each class will be doing completely different things and it's irrelevant to one class what another is doing.

We had a trip every year at primary school, but one of the other schools in the village only did them in the last year of infants and the last year of juniors. Another school did them every other year.

HappyMummyOfOne · 12/07/2010 13:54

Ours all go at different times too, the trips are usually planned in line with the class topic so each room will be different.

Hulababy · 12/07/2010 13:59

I think thast all children in one year group ougt to be doing similar work and therefore the same trips.

We have just taken all our Y1 (90 children, 3 classes) on a school trip. We took 45 eac day as the place we visited couldn't have 90 at once.

It would be very difficult for all classes in a school to go away around the same time at once generally though.

Mind you DD's school - very small, approx 90-100 in school - did take the whole school to the zoo last week and they had a fab time.

And remember when I was teaching in 2000, the secondary aschool i worked at took the whole school (about 1100 pupils!) to the Millenium Dome for the day - was a lot of coaches!

Original poster

biddysmama · 12/07/2010 14:31

i didnt mean they should all go to the same place, i meant they should all get to go on a school trip... ds has never been on a school trip, yet other classes go on them...

OP posts:

ChippingIn · 12/07/2010 16:52

Well, do as AMumInScotland suggested and ask what is planned and offer to help - with the planning as well as on the day.

However, I think YABU in thinking that all the classes should have a trip or none of them should - it's a good enough time to start learning that different people have/do different things and life isn't fair or 'equal'....

Honestly, parents worry about this crap much more than the kids do - stop worrying about things that aren't important... save it for the big stuff...

Hulababy · 12/07/2010 16:56

biddysmama - are there other classes in his year group who go on trips but not his year group?

Have any of the years below him been on school trips, but his year was missed out?

Do you have any child/ren in the class which make school trips less possible? AFAIK schools are not allowed to exclude indidivual children from trips so sometimes having a particular child int he class can mea the class miss out. This is only in extreme situations IME though.

Greensleeves · 12/07/2010 17:01

Hula I don't think that's true about not excluding individual children btw, our school recently excluded a boy from a school trip for stealing (it was either that or exclude him from school for a period)

he came into school as normal for the day and was given work to do

PixieOnaLeaf · 12/07/2010 18:14

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Hulababy · 12/07/2010 18:17

Yes, I was talking more about SEN, either diagnosed or otherwise. I am thinking of a specific example TBH where this has been the case and it took a lot of sorting out to enable the trip to go ahead.

ChangeofNameNeeded · 12/07/2010 18:29

(Have namechanged for this)
We had a problem one year that a year group of 90 children had 2 children in wheelchairs in it. There was a trip that we did every year in that year group which was wheelchair accessible. The coach, however, wasn't. To have a wheelchair accessible coach would have trebled the cost of the trip for every child. The parents were furious that we were not getting a wheelchair accessible coach, and refused to drive the chidren down separately as 'being on the coach with the others was part of the fun of the trip'.

We could not justify trebling the cost for 88 children so that 2 could go. The trip was cancelled. The parents even took it further - to the LA who basically told them they were being unreasonable. But by then it was too late for the trip.

Galena · 13/07/2010 08:09

I think it's hard now with such a no-win-no-fee culture. Teachers don't like to take children on trips often as it takes a lot of organising, it's very stressful on the day making sure everyone stays safe and then you always get parents who complain after every trip because something happened to little Tarquin that he failed to tell anyone about and how dare we 'not read his mind and sort out the issue, and maybe we'll sue'.

It's strange though that OP's DS's class has NEVER been on a trip.

gagamama · 13/07/2010 10:12

Maybe they simply don't have enough adults willing to accompany them on a trip? It might be worth registering your interest to help supervise if necessary.

I can fully see why schools might be reluctant to take children on trips TBH, I'm not sure I'd be happy to take on that responsibility if I were a teacher. So many things could go wrong and so many people who are quick to point the finger.

Snobear4000 · 13/07/2010 11:08

I reckon there are bigger things to worry about than this.

dorie · 13/07/2010 12:11

Our primary School take children on educational trips - linked to topics that a particular class may be studying. In which case only the class concerned will go.

The whole school is given opportunity to go on a summer trip (not educational). Usually the Infant children go to the seaside, zoo or petting farm. The Juniors go to Alton Towers or Drayton Manor.

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