To Be P***** Off at yet another expensive school trip

[meah]

Hi, my ds has is now starting yr 9 & dd yr 8, in yr 7 a school trip was offered but cost was in the £300s (i forget exactly how much) being so expensive i couldn't afford it and it left both kids gutted when well over half of the kids in their yr got to go. ive just recieved another school trip email (not sure which yr not that it matters) offering a ski holiday trip, abroad for 6 nights for £680. which would be fantastic if i where loaded!! Why cant schools offer school trips that are affordable to all like they're supposed to instead of making those whos parents cant afford it feel left out!!!

Of course - like the children who don't like games at school, cross country, or hockey.....they still have to do it.

Portifino
"No the point is IF THE TRIP IS OFFERED BY THE SCHOOL everyone should have the opportunity to go. You can do what you like in your private life. The SCHOOL should not offer trips that are not accessible to all."

ARGH nothing is accessible to everyone!!!! OMG it isn't just cash that's a problem it is time, inclination, priorities and needs. A child who is their mum's full time career will not be able to go on ANY trip abroad. So schools should stop doing cheap foreign exchanges then???

I live in Belgium. I said up thread. 1 week class de mer in year 3. 2 week class de neige in year 6. It is not ALL about skiing, they do educational things most of the day with some skiing lessons thrown in. But NOONE is excluded. And I have mixed feelings about it still after the bus crash this year. But EVERYONE goes - that is the important point.

How much do the supervising teachers pay meah ?

Whols - that would be very sad. That is NOT the point of this thread though which is talking about MONEY.

How can everyone go on that Portofino?? A child in a wheelchair won't find it easy to go on, for example.

Why does it seem to be such a big deal to some posters that children have equal opportunity at school and that nothing be different for them because of their parents?

You are living in cuckoo land and dreaming of utopia if you think that parents don't influence what goes on in schools. Like I said already, parental influence affects children in schools from the day they start in reception. It is useless to try and pretend otherwise.

This thread contains some of the most ignorant comments I have ever seen in my entire life on Mumsnet.

The purpose of schools should not be to prepare pupils for the disappointments of life (i.e. to perpetuate social inequality). They should strive to eliminate social inequality, by providing all children with the opportunity to succeed based on their individual merit, regardless of their social / cultural / financial background.

ALL children should have EQUAL ACCESS to ALL opportunities within school. Schools should take active measures to ensure that those children whose backgrounds impede their ability to make use of opportunities, are given additional help to succeed in achieving their full potential.

The notion that if people 'just work harder' they can pull themselves out of the trap of social, cultural and financial poverty shows a gross misunderstanding of the way that society is organised to keep the poor down and keep the rich at the top. The idea that 'we all have access to the same education' is utter, utter crap. Two children can sit in the same classroom and have educational experiences that are poles apart. Child A, comes from an educationally motivated family, his parents supervise homework, take him to museums, read books to him from early childhood, go to parents evenings, are able to provide nutritious food and a home environment that is safe, warm, and suitable for quiet study, and child B, whose family lives in poverty, in overcrowded, unhealthy accommodation, with inadequate nutrition, cultural deprivation etc etc etc. These two children do NOT have access to the same education.

The idea that it is acceptable for schools to offer wonderful opportunities to all it's children, but in the full knowledge that these opportunities will only be accessible to those whose parents are lucky enough to afford them is utterly repellent to me.

Offering school trips to a child based on a parents ability to pay is the equivalent to offering trips on the basis of gender or colour.

Oh dear, this sounded as if I wrote it. I have 14, 11 and 7 years old. When my oldest was in grade 5 we were offered ski trip and had to pay $350 Canadian (3 days of skiing no accommodation). We were in a bit of a struggle then (and we are not farther away now) and thinking that it is too expensive and most of the kids will not go anyway said No. It turned out that 99% of the kids did go. It has been 4 years now and I still feel guilty as hell for not sending him. However, this triggered chain of events, because we did not send the older one then, we decided not to send the middle one when she was grade 5 which made me feel double guilty. I mean we could have borrowed money and sent them both, we have tons of debt, would not even feel this ?little? extra, but it made me feel really pissed at school. Most of us are working class families. School trips should be cheap and affordable to all, if they cannot find something like that they should not even try to organize anything, by doing this they put us parents on a very bad spot with our kids. None of my kids was angry or anything, I guess they figured that the money was tight, but I could feel their disappointment since most of their classmates did go.

But there are trips like that in this country too, ok maybe not skiing but I used to work at an activity centre that did week long trips for year 6 pupils, activities and parts of the curriculum.

The fact that this sort of trip exists doesn't mean the other sort shouldn't

Whols - that child would still get to go though. They might not ski, but could do the rest of the stuff.

AbsolutelyPortofino - the point of a school trip is so children experience things in a different context. Seeing their classmates without their normal friends and family, seeing teachers in a different way,seeing school as being something other than just a place for exams or assessment.

Doesn't matter where this happens so I think it is entirely reasonable to have cheaper trips rather than ones that are £100's.

I also don't know why they are so expensive considering the accommodation is usually basic and the flights/coach cheapest available. I think i should organise them

Offering school trips to a child based on a parents ability to pay is the equivalent to offering trips on the basis of gender or colour

No, it isn't. That's a ridiculous thing to say which completely belittles all the people who have ever suffered at the hand of sexists or racists.

And you seem to be forgetting that the majority of parents do have some ability to pay. In the trip in the OP, over half the children went!

Do you think that child A in your scenario should be penalised for having good parents then? That his needs don't deserve to be met as much? Because that's what you are basically saying when you say that no children should be offered anything extra because if the few that can't afford it.

SoSweetAndSoCold Hear Hear.

Brilliant post SoSweet

Maybe it is not a fair analogy - but you are still excluding children based on a criteria.

Ok I have to go now, but I see I am fundamentally at a different viewpoint to lots of people with regards to what opportunities are good and what aren't.

You know, this is what I love about the British education system ...

they all have to wear school uniform so they are all equal and you don't get problems that some kids have nicer clothes than others (except on the many non-uniform days that is ...) but then they make school trips utterly unaffordable to a large section of parents.

I have no concerns about rich kids, they get plenty of opportunities. School is supposed to be a place of learning, personally I don't see a need for expensive holidays (it is not supposed to be a holiday camp anyway). I think that the charge should actually be higher than the actual cost so that the richer families can subsidise the poorer families. Otherwise, don't offer it at all.

I really dislike this side of British society.

whols - I might have listened harder to your argument if you hadn't pointed out how very HARD you work -like the rest of -us don't

Why are people on this thread so determined to insist that the only, or main reason we have uniform is so that everyone looks the same. There are plenty of reasons for school uniform, the idea that you can't tell the rich from the poor kids is only one of them.

Ooh - epic strikeout fail!

It's exactly the same as racialism or sexism. you can't help being a colour or sex or a child of poor parents.
Children loose out because they have no choice. They can't make their parents have well paying jobs or save money fora trip rather than a new sofa can they.
But they can still learn life is shit because that will teach them more than a once in a lifetime school trip?

I don't recall that being discussed here Outraged.....

Porto, you asked when Whois made those comments, she was responding to you!