to think that expensive school trips should be banned

[Nicola10]

Year 8 pupils have, today, left for a school trip to France. Very exciting for them, yes, considering that they will be going to a theme park, as well as educational stuff. But, for the rest of the kids, whose parents could not afford it, including my twins, they have to do normal lessons.

The cost for each child is £400 each!

For Kenya? Yeah, we paid the deposit because she hadnt got the paper round then, but then again, the amount of stuff she's bought herself as a result of having it, we're probably still in credit!

Thing is at secondary school, nobody goes on all the trips as they all go on the year 6 residential. But it's nice to offer them.

Well said Belle

Maybe some of you never learnt that 5 days with your mates in a tent in Norfolk can be as much fun as a week in Val D'Isere. I think school trips can teach you that School trips shouldn't be about exotic locations - they're about priceless memories thar stay with you a lifetime. Lots of time for exotic holidays later.

And I hate to say this but many arent that educational. Ofsted have a requirement for enrichment and often the feedback is judged on what parents and kids thought if the trip. They are more likely to say 'it was brilliant' and thus make the school look better if it was abroad/flashy/fun. Actually look at how much is educationally relevant before you get guilt tripped into paying a lot for a trip which might just have lots of expensive bells and whistles tagged on to improve the feedback...

My DDs school offered a £1200 trip for a week in India. It was a whistlestop tour of three major tourist sites, crammed in to October half term. it was so obvious that the teacher leading the trip just wanted another freebie holiday.
We didnt let her go.

Hear, hear, Maria

I truly do take the point about people who can't go, but in my experience at least, the only trip where it would have been obvious if someone didn't go was the year 6 residential, and school made it abundantly clear that they didn't want to leave anyone behind and please do speak to the office in confidence etc etc

At secondary there is so much going on and so many children that nobody notices who goes where, except that it's unusual if someone goes on everything.

And I am very grateful to the school for organising the Kenya trip and I think it's been amazing for dd and very very good for her to earn the money to do it!

That's great that your school offered the option of funding for those who couldn't afford it....but sadly, that's not standard practice across the UK

MarriedinwhiteagainYour - child goes to a school in PB ?

I agree as well. I was fortunate enough to have fairly wealthy parents which allowed me to go to France and Spain on school trips. They were fun, but just holidays really. PGL in the UK would have been just as educational.

I also have twins, we don't have a very high income and I am already dreading the costs of these trips . We might find that DSS can go on trips because he has three parents funding them, the twins we can't afford, but then we have DS3 who we potentially can afford to go.

I know that's very specific to our situation, plus the twins are only 4, but it still stresses me out!

It's a shame OPs DC's school isn't running a week of fun activities for those children not going on the residential. They did this at DC's primary school and some children actually chose the week of activities because they had never, for example, been to a theme park. The cost was under £50 and could be paid for over a year. So no one really felt they were missing out.

I don't know if they meant they'd pick up the tab or could arrange much longer term payments, to be completely honest. But every year, everyone went.

My mum stopped smoking so she could send me on a skiing trip. ( why are there so many anti skiers here?). It was over £400 in 1983!

Yes some people can't afford it, but there are also a lot of people that are "poor" but have the full sky package, a nearly new car, and have a foreign holiday ( not that I am saying the OP is in this position)

I don't think that school trips should be banned. It is a fact of life that you can't always afford what you want. And the point of view that it is not fair on those that can't afford it can be opposed by it is not fair to ban school trips because some cannot afford it.

Let those that can afford it go and enjoy themselves.

Yabu.

Your kids will get over missing a couple of school trips. I wilfully didn't go on any when I was in school. Not a natural joiner.

mrsterrypratchet, Ubik, BelleEtlababy I salute you!

I am totally aghast that some of the posters here feel that "well hey if you cant afford it then tough shit".

It is state school FFS, surely is has to be inclusive, easily accessible, free.

The schools are to blame, the trips should be designed for everyone to partake in. I find it disgusting that anyone on here would begrudge a child an enriching educational experience because of their parents circumstances.

I absolutely dont hesitate to tell my dcs if we cant afford things. But we arent that poor; they do ge "stuff" and they do "things". We aso live in a deprived area with a very wide range of socio-economic circumstances, so there is no real stigma or shame in being unable to afford things.

I imagine if you are poor relative to those around you, and are clearly more disadvantaged from your peers; then 'being poor' is not a lesson you need to learn over and over and over...

Nit the children who never go on anything notice. I'm a secondary school teacher and I notice who those kids are.

Whether their parents are total wasters or saints doing vital but lowly paid jobs, it's not really in the kids' control, is it?

Anyway, kids from chain smoking, sky sports watching, alco-pop binge drinking, benefit scrounging, drug dealing, single parents at thirteen households, probably could do with the break more than the kids with the super perfect Boden mummies

Just sayin'

'Tbh, it sounds like the teachers want a jolly.'

Just as an aside (on the subject of expensive school trips, I'm fairly 'meh' & cheerfully resist any pointless ones my dc have shoved at them, without particularly wanting to deny them to other people):

I'm off with 100 kids tomorrow to run a 2 day trip. I do quite like residentials, as it happens, but this one has been foisted on me after the colleague who booked it left.

At a conservative estimate, I reckon to have spent 20+ hours of my planning & preparation time on organising the bloody thing; so that's another 20 hours of marking pushed into evenings & weekends.

I've had to sort out, & pay for, childcare for my own dc to fit round the fact that I'm away tomorrow night.

I expect to get about 4 hours sleep tomorrow night - & am quietly congratulating myself on bagging a single room as party leader. My colleagues are sharing double beds.

I'm missing a Saturday with my own dc, which means dh will be taking them out for a fun family day whilst I'm headcounting teenagers on & off a sweaty coach all day.

If anything goes wrong, my arse will be sued.

With the greatest respect, anyone bandying about the notion that teachers get a carefree 'jolly' out of these trips, is very welcome to train as a teacher & accompany a residential as a staff member. You can be the 'sickbucket bitch' - that job is particularly sought-after!

Isn't it sad that all the poor kids need to learn their place, rather than all the kids learning something about community and inclusiveness. Life isn't fair but sometimes you can do small things to make it a little less shitty for everyone.

I'm not in any way at all a Boden mummy.

I dunno, I'm struggling with this to be honest. I hate the idea of anyone being miserable because they can't go, and I could say I haven't seen that, but I don't suppose I see everything.

On balance, I think it's good the opportunities are there, but more could or should be done to make sure more children can access them. Our school has always given lots and lots of time to save up and pay over a long period of time, but maybe that's not the same everywhere.

Dd didn't want a paper round, initially, but she did want to go to Kenya. I think it's been a very very good thing for her to do.

Of course YABU.
Yes, I'm speaking as a parent who has on many occasions said "No" to the trip letters that come home, but to suggest that nobody can go just because you can't, is ridiculous. We all go through life not being able to have everything that we want, but that doesn't mean that nobody else can have things either.

I'm passionately pro comprehensive education, and we've taken the opportunities out of it that we can. Not by any means all of them, but I'm glad they are there, on balance.

we've just been hit with a £230 bill to pay over a few weeks for a residential trip in the North-East in October - it'll be 3 days with day 1 and day 3 mostly spent travelling to and from - how is that good value?? Of course my child wants to go and I would love her to go especially as her siblings have been on several residential trips BUT I am upset at the short notice and the month choosen - usually we're told at the beginning of a school year and are allowed to pay in instalments for a trip at the end of the school year - when the weather is better.

I don't agree all school trips should be banned but I do agree that the costs should be looked at so that everyone can afford them and then if a child doesn't go it's because the parents have decided against sending them rather than because of cost. By the way - all the trips my children have ever taken with their schools have been during term time and I've never given much thought to it but it is a very valid point that if a parent takes their child out of school it's truanting but it's ok for the school to do it!

I do think that the residential trips in England are overpriced - dd1 went to France last year and that was £345 for 5 days but this trip isn't much cheaper and is only 3 days and alot more local! I am concerned about not letting my child go because she states all her friends are going but then I think would it be better to save the money for a trip that might run next year or the year after? Yes we all know kids are expensive and schools run trips that cost alot of money but some of the comments have been quite unpleasant on this thread - we're not rich and we're not poor but there has to be limits as to how much a school expects from a parent. If the uptake isn't enough then the trip runs the risk of being cancelled and then the children whose parents can afford it will miss out anyway because not enough kids are going - of course it's NOT the schools deciding the costs of these places but the residential centres themselves - I don't see why a trip should cost £230 for 2 nights' stay if maybe 40 children are going when the staff at these places are probably only paid the minimum wage.