To think school trips are too expensive?

[lucyhoward]

My son has just come home from school for half term with a letter about a school watersports trip in France next summer. Whilst I am sure it will be great fun I am not sure whether we can justify the £500 price tag. By the time we have sent spending money and paid for any kit they will need we will be lucky to have change from £600 I imagine.

Is this even something schools should be getting involved in? Surely holidays should be a family thing?

notnowImreading, doesn't make you sound sad at all. PGL holidays are the best thing ever. Fact :o

My DC's never go on the option foreign holidays. They always did the day trips and YMCA type ones though. Only 1/5 of the year tends to go on the foreign ones and this is an affluent area. I didn't feel bad at all that DC couldn't go. Luckily they didn't fancy spending days on a coach.

My son got the opportunity to go to space camp Alabama at Easter with his school. It was a lot of money £1650 but I had two years to pay for it. I am a single parent, a teacher, and I let him go because I knew he would never have another chance like that again. You have to weigh up whether they could have the experience when they are older or whether it is a one off. His school also do a trip to New York but we discussed it and he knew that he could do that himself one day.

We have had a letter for DS1 (14) to go to Berlin for a MFL/History next April. It will cost £600, but we can pay in instalments.

Luckily he didn't do Geography as an option as there was a trip to Morocco costing £1200.

I think it's great they offer them and no they shouldn't be stopped just because some can't afford them. Children learn very early on that there are differences in households. Having something to strive for creates a good work ethic, if everyone was the same there would be none of that.

Not everyone in the family may like winter sports, water sports etc so it's a chance to do something you like without burdening others into something they are not keen to do.

Eek sparkling morroco dd went to france for her history trip she loved it I think she wants to go on the RME trip next year to poland think its going to be costly

DS1 is going to Ypres in October. I am really keen for him to do that. It coincides with the anniversary of WW1. One night away about £200.

I don't like it because it really fucks me off that children who's parents haven't got the money don't have the same opportunities. Then have it rubbed in their face with assemblies, photos pinned everywhere and all that

Thats where dd went she said the experience was amazing and she got to read a poem

Of course YABU in suggesting that schools shouldn't be getting involved in trips like these! Some people can afford, some can't - as harsh as it is, that's life. Schools allow parents to pay in instalments and you rarely have to pay a massive chunk.

The argument that children who's parents can't afford it so miss out doesn't really stand, why should children who's parents can afford it miss out too? Awful I know, but at least the school is trying to offer a range of experiences other than the daily grid of school, coursework and exams.

I don't like it because it really fucks me off that children who's parents haven't got the money don't have the same opportunities. Then have it rubbed in their face with assemblies, photos pinned everywhere and all that

Should it be forbidden to post your holiday snaps on FB then?

I don't recall photos of school trips and going on about it in Assembly in any school I have been a pupil at/worked in.

I don't think parent's financial status should have any impact on the schooling of a child, or the opportunities they are given whilst at at school.

School is supposed to be a place where all are equal, regardless of outside factors.

Opportunities of trips offered to those who have rich parents is wrong.

I say this as someone who came from a family who could afford it. But my best friend's family couldn't and I hated it.

DS is off to the Battlefields next month costing £490.

I wish I was going .

Our school runs a trip for yr8 to a place where they pay only travel cost and the tesco shop for food- A four hour coach trip. And it costs £120.

£500 seems expensive because travel is expensive.

So no one gets to go? No one gets any opportunities?

I worked in a school in a deprived area. The y6 children used to do a week long trip to France during May half term. Parents saved up for ages for it, and those who couldn't afford it but very much wanted to go had help. It was the first time loads of these kids had been abroad, on a ferry, further than Plymouth in fact, let alone to a French market to practise their French and play with French children and so on.

It was stopped in the end because of the loud shouting of a man who had six kids, who was on the governors, saying it wasn't fair because he couldn't afford it. So none of them got to do it. Made my blood boil.

Opportunities of trips offered to those who have rich parents is wrong

Is that how you view it?

How about families like mine who spent almost a year scraping the money together to pay in instalments?

If my child wasn't offered the opportunity of going abroad with the school, he would never have gone because we couldn't afford for me, my DH and our other DC to all go together.

It's not just about rich families being given an opportunity. In fact if the families are that rich, their kids will probably have travelled far and wide.

I understand why my view isn't widely accepted, but some families have no option of being able to pay in instalments either because the school doesn't offer that, or because they still can't afford it.

Whilst I realise it's fun for those who go, I'm not sure why schools offer them. Fair enough a day trip to a science museum or whatever, but going abroad. Why?

My view is marred because I've seen my friend upset by not being able to go, it creates a divide.

Dh looked at yhe tour company dd went with it costs a fortune to go on tnem as an idvidual he quite fancied it

Fact: During a child's life there will be day trips at primary (what £10-£15 a shot), there will be uniform to buy, there will be "that" bag or "those" shoes that are cool (they have little choice over anything else), there will be school photos to pay for and charity fund-raising. From year 6 the trips that cost £400 plus start to enter the game.

Just saying - it's all part of the expense of raising a child and needs to be thought about and budgetted for. I never understand why people are so surprised that there are costs involved with sending children to school and usually very modest costs too.

Belle, I agree to a certain extent, but it's not fair to limit opportunities either, especially when it's often as much a question of values and priorities rather than financial status. Most schools will work very hard to fund places of children who ask to go but cannot afford a trip. There are charitable funds, for example, or extended payment schedules. But the parents have to want it enough for their children to negotiate it all with the school and be organised etc.

Tbf on our school they do allow Installments

Whilst I realise it's fun for those who go, I'm not sure why schools offer them. Fair enough a day trip to a science museum or whatever, but going abroad. Why?

Because has has been said a few times now, it may be that child's only chance of ever experiencing another country, outside of the one they live in.

parliamo none of those were offered at both my high schools, which is a shame because more people would have had opportunities like me

worra but why is that the schools responsibility? And if that's the case surely those with families on low income should be priority?

Just factoring in passports and insurance for a family of four would cost about £200. Then there are the travel costs per person and the accommodation and food. Rich people can afford all that, poor people can't, so school trips are comparatively affordable and do benefit those on a lower income.