to think that this is too much money for a school trip

[aquariel]

Hi all,

Eldest son (13yrs) brough a letter home from school for a trip they are planning to Iceland in October 2015. Cost of trip is £790 and will take place during October half term.

I run a very tight budget (currently clearing off all credit cards etc aiming to be debt free by 2018 - just in time to help him with fees for university no doubt!) and while we could stretch to it if pushed this seems like an obscene amount for one child (although I guess at his age he's probably charged as an adult on international travel). School has said they'd like a £50 non-refundable deposit to secure a place to be paid immediately (I couldn't pay till payday anyway - mid month for us) so probably wouldn't be able to commit to the trip.

I really don't want to disappoint my son as he rarely asks for much and he seems really excited about the (possibility of) this trip. We have in the past paid up for trips to London and Belgium for him so I'm not worried about him missing out on that side of "the experience" (although I appreciate Iceland is a totally different kettle of fish) but the most either of those trips cost me was £350 including his spending money.

So .. what do others think? Reasonable price or unreasonable?

Dd1 has just started secondary and got a letter home about skiing in Austria or somewhere at £750. We thought seriously about it and explained that this time the answer is no as we have a baby due around the time of the trip and there will be other trips. She was fine with that.

Not everyone goes on these trips, but for the ones that do I think they do get a lot out of them.

Quite frankly I would happily pay for my kids to camping and do outdoor activities and the schools could make a profit from me. DH hates camping with a passion and I could never trust the scouts with my children after the documented incidents of abuse.

Luckily my children are both young with my first starting school last month. I have no intention of my children doing trips with their school that I could quite easily manage as a family educational trip!

We are super lucky that we live close to NYC so the vast majority of her school trips involve us paying her bus fare only. All the kids bring their own packed lunches and there is no spending money as the kids are 3 and would just lose it. DD is going to a pumpkin patch in 2 weeks and the cost is $4 including transporation. I am so thankful the school think about the cost. The teacher takes pictures and emails them out to the parents. Quite simple really.

Mumsnet makes me dislike my job. I am sat at home still lesson planning. No I don't want violins but, seriously, some sort of acknowledgement would be chuffing lovely.

3 threads tonight, all so flaming negative about teachers and schools. The comments about teachers paying for themselves are truly, truly jaw-dropping.

Whatever the fuck happened to 'My DD's school has offered this trip. I think it sounds like a lovely idea, but I don't think we can afford it'. Why are schools getting slated for offering a trip?????? You don't HAVE to go!! And I say this as a kid who could never go - not even to the £45 Belgium one - because my parents couldn't afford it.

Tonight I have read the absolute corkers of 'teachers should pay for themselves' and - hilariously in another thread - 'why should I say thank you for taking my child on the trip? It as the school that wanted to take them'.

I've never really disliked this site until tonight. It has really saddened me to see so much negativity in the world. Go and look at Syria. Then find something proper to whine about.

Yes Teesome of the the whingers on this thread makes me glad I dont know many people like this irl.
Any yes, suggesting that teachers pay for themselves is jaw droppingly mean spirited.

Well tomorrow's Friday it's not all bad

TeeMany I don't disagree with you on many counts but I have two questions:

1 - Why do you mean when you say you expect acknowledgement? Are you referring to a lack of respect? I am not a teacher so please enlighten me. As an auditor the only acknowledgement I expect from my clients is that they pay their bill on time and in full. I know you are in a very different position so I would appreciate learning what you mean by this.

2 - Do you not think that parents are left thinking they are failing as parents when they are not able to afford a trip that other children are going on? I am made of strong stuff and have the funds to offer my children lots of opportunities so I am very comfortable saying no to a ski trip. I do think these trips should be inclusive with as many children going as possible. It saddens me to hear of ski trips to America for over GBP1000 when a school could arrange to go to Europe and expose the children to a foreign language. It would put the ski trip in the GBP300-400 range.

FWIW - I also can't believe people expect teachers to pay for the trip themselves. They are taking time out of their schedule to arrange the trip and are on duty the whole time during the trip. Quite frankly the least one could expect is that their costs are covered. I remember our school ski trip to France and our teachers deserved a medal. My Dad arrived to pick us up with a bottle of scotch and wine for each teacher.

want2bsupermum DD is going to a pumpkin patch in 2 weeks and the cost is $4 including transporation. I am so thankful the school think about the cost. The teacher takes pictures and emails them out to the parents. Quite simple really Hmm, you might find by the time they hit their teens the pumpkin patch looses it's appeal

Also, you can't as a parent, give the child the things they get from going on a residential school trip with other adults and children,

Tee lots of supportive comments too please don't feel rubbish. I think people are more demanding and unappreciative these days. I am not a teacher but both parents were and my sister is they work so hard and get so much crap in return it makes me so sad on their behalf. However many parents really appreciate the extra mile that most teachers go

I saw a glimpse of what teachers have to put up with when I organised PTA events. Parents moaning, criticising, sitting around drinking while the small team that had set up and ran the event cleared it up too. There is a weird sense of entitlement these days I don't get it.

TeeMany Try not to take it personally. There are FAR more parents saying the exact opposite of those things, it's just you 'hear' the negative ones much more loudly :(

I was listening to LBC yesterday and they were talking about 'Are Teachers Hero's' it was really interesting. JHB was saying to one teacher about 'planning' and that 'surely after the first few years you just use the same stuff' - I thought the teacher was going to cry!! She took a full 5 minutes to explain why 'No, you really can't do that' and for once JHB was at a bit of a loss as to how to answer...

I think part of the problem is that people genuinely don't understand what goes into planning lessons and marking work etc.

Chipping I totally agree with you on the residential trips. I am talking about the more expensive trips like Skiing in New Hampshire and going on safari in deepest darkest Africa. I can do all of that with my kids. I want the schools to be doing the residential school trips and would happily pay for a 2nd one during the summer.

The local private school is doing a trip to an organic pumpkin patch and the cost to each parent is $150 and some parents were asking why the school wasn't going to the same place. Our trip at $4 results in 100% of the children going on the trip. There are lots of twins here with a few families with triplets or more plus lots of low income households. Quite frankly I wanted to tell the parents complaining to go pay $50k a year for school fees and then they can go on their $150 school trip.

£790? That is VERY cheap for a school trip let alone Iceland.

You should let him go. Iceland is very different to london so essentially he is missing out if you do not let him go.

If fun is the purpose of school trips they don't need to be in far flung expensive locations.

Our DC have done loads of school trips. The truly educational ones (language exchanges, CERN) are way the cheapest and way the most memorable.

I am talking about the more expensive trips like Skiing in New Hampshire and going on safari in deepest darkest Africa. I can do all of that with my kids

But not everyone can do it with their kids. So why shouldn't they be offered this opportunity?

They are residential school trips?!

It's 1500 for a trip to Iceland at DSs school. He's not going.

£790? That is VERY cheap for a school trip let alone Iceland

Please tell me you're joking?!

Hi want2be

To answer your questions:

1. I think acknowledgement is probably the wrong word on reflection. I guess what I mean is, base don some of the views here, you'd think that schools are trying to make life harder for kids, rather than trying to imrpove lives. I suppose what I mean is I wish people could just have a bit of empathy for the other perspective.

1. As I don't have kids myself yet perhaps I underestimate this. I'm sure it must be hard to say no when funds don't allow but AS LONG as there is a range of trips offered, and no-one phrases anything like it is obligatory, then I think children need to be aware that there will always be people who can 'have' more than they can. If a school makes you feel like a failure then that is not on, and neither is only offering v expensive ones.

Thanks for the wine everybody. Clearly I needed it!

rollonthesummer

No not joking. I think it's extremely good value for a school trip.

You could go to the western isles and experience a different language and culture.
Hell, you could go to Glasgow for that

As someone above said - saying no is fine if you can provide other things -a family holiday etc

But it must be bloody tough to keep saying no to fun stuff, especially if DCs pals are going. Worse to know that your child isn't even going to ask to go.

But what's the alternative BogQueen? Stop offering the trips because some parents can't afford it or for other reasons choose not to allow their children to go?

We can't all have everything. I'd love to be driving a top of the range car - but I can't afford to, so I don't anymore, sob it doesn't mean I think everyone else should have to give up their nice cars and drive a very basic, old, car.

Oh dear. My DS did get to the stage when he stopped even asking to go. He was on a bursary anyway and we just couldn't afford the trips and a family holiday. If we had our time again I would never send the children to a private school, scholarships and bursaries or not. Those with bigger houses and flashier cars and who could afford to go on all the trips had a better time and were more popular and self confident than the others. It was a lot worse at the boys school than at the girls school.

I think schools should offer trips which are much more affordable.

We used to have to pay slightly more for our trips to reduce the costs for children on low incomes. There was also a school fund to also help with the cost. My school tried to ensure everyone who wanted to go could go. The only exception was the ski trip to France.

I think they should have a range of trips and prices. I don't see why parents who pay get offered all the extras and if you use state education you can't get any( or not very exciting ones).