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!!!

And not even THEIR money, their parents. They just get because their parents did. Great.

Feel free - as long as you ain't accusing me of being the fatty bum bum

Yep, nothing like a good debate to pass the time nicely.

That's true LaQueen but it's easier to accept that 'it's life' if you're in the position to afford the trips. I don't agree that kids should have everything they ask for but it's a lot easier to say no because you're trying to teach them a life lesson than saying no because you have no choice.

A lot of people work very hard and do long hours, it doesn't always make them well off. People suggesting that those who can't afford £1000 (or whatever) for a school trip just haven't budgeted properly are living on another planet.

There is less social mobility than ever in this country.

So the let's deprive them as motivation isn't working.

Why is it that people think the rich will get demotivated if you tax them and take their money away, but the poor will get motivated if you give them less?

Why?

I totally agree with Hully

I do think schools should do more fundraising for trips so it is a school thing rather than parents responsibility I agree with that although I think I would still say no to some trips because of DD2s rubbish travelling but she is old enough to understand that,

Hully, spot on!

LETS MAKE EVERY ITEM/TRIP/EVENT IN THE WORLD JUST £1

That would be fair.

Or, how 'bout you all shut up and get over it? Why should someone else have to subsidise stuff you can't afford that isn't necessary?

If your DC was the only child not going, I see the issue, if not then yes, YABU.

Shut up and know their place at the bottom of the shit heap?

What a lovely kind caring idea! Why not suggest it to Bono?

Children from better off homes get more opportunities in life all round, generally speaking. School should be a place where everyone is treated equally fairly - nowt to do with money.

My parents chose to send me to the local comp rather than the v. good grammar school I'd won a place at because by saving the £10 a week bus fare they could afford to send me on extra curricular trips.

I went abroad for the first time with school so I don't think it's true that those who go on these trips are those who would go somewhere anyway. I got opportunities to try sports on those trips that I would never have got anywhere else, I'm grateful to the teachers who took us outside of term time and my parents for making the decisions they did so it was something they could afford.

I am just loving the attitude that having your nose rubbed in it is character building.

whois it's not about students going on expensive trips in the school holidays. I never went though my school offered them and I'm not sure we could afford for DS to go either. Saying that, I wouldn't begrudge anyone else's kids going.

I think it's a shame that DSs school offer nothing in the way of school trips apart from once, when they are 15 to a local museum that any of them could go to whenever they like.

To spare the feelings of some they have taken away the chance for all.
Its that 'if I can't have it then why should you' mentality.

Just to stress. I'm not talking about mega expensive trips abroad, just a day trip to Derbyshire or something!

I don't think anyone suggested anything as utterly stupid as every trip being a pound.

However it is going to cause a divide in a standard state school if trips cost in excess of £500 for example, especially if you are, like a lot of people, unable to finance such a huge expense.

And it tends to teach our children, you can work hard, every day,like a lot of provide for your family, go on holiday as a family if you can but it's a waste of time because you cannot manage to fund school trips.

People with more than one child at the school, working parents, earning enough to have a decent standard of living still cannot afford to finance a lot of these trips.

Absolutely Tantrums.

You can work your arse off, but if you only earn enough to live on, like MOST people, there simply isn't any extra.

Port - I dont think that missing out on a trip that half the kids arent going to anyway is rubbing your nose in it - It's not as if the teacher makes the kid come to the front of the class and publicly humiliates them. There will always be something that we can't afford to do (unless you are Simon Cowell).

My FIL grew up very very poor - in his words the council house kids looked down on us (disclaimer - this is a quote not a council house bashing) - he grew up very driven, very determined to make a better life and he managed to and giving his values to his kids along the way.

I suppose it can be sink or swim, some people will grow up to be determined to make a better life and then there will be some who drift along, not really trying but getting a bit upset when they cant have everything they want.

Perhaps you need to manage your children's expectations more realistically so that they aren't gutted that they are not able to go on expensive trips.
I was brought up in a very poor mining community and never expected to go on this type of trip. However, in my final year my parents let me go on a ski iing trip. Unknown to me they had saved over the previous 5 years so that I could go on the last school trip that was available to me.
My son is fortunate that I have done quite well for myself and could have afforded to send him on all of the school trips, BUT he hardly ever asked to go
on the trips abroad as he said they were 'too expensive for what they are'.

Doesn't really build character does it?

Betty and LaQueen

NEWSFLASH

You each had a father/FIL who worked their way out.

1. It is much harder now.

1. YOU CANNOT EXTRAPOLATE FROM THAT ONE PERSON EACH THAT EVERYONE COULD DO THE SAME.

I think I had better take a seat on the stinky bench

DH runs his own business and takes very little leave. Should we cancel the leave of all the people who work in the public sector and get 6 weeks+ bank holidays because it isn't fair on our DSs to have less time off with their Dad?

And how the hell do you know what it's like, private-school and all?