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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to post a friendly reminder about school residential trips?

416 replies

ErmNoNoNo · 27/03/2015 23:09

Seems as good a time as any: lots of school posts (as always in AIBU), the wine is flowing (Friday) and the summer term is coming up (come on weather please)...

It seems every year that there are many parents that are genuinely shocked to find out that teacher and TAs who accompany the class on residential school visits do not get paid a single penny more than their normal wage.

Yes, we volunteer. Yes, we deal with all the tears. Yes, we are on duty 24 hours and sometimes get VERY little sleep. Yes, we deal with the vomit. Yes, we encourage and make sure they get the absolute best out of their time there. Yes, we deal with all medical issues even though, surprisingly we are not qualified. Yes, when its mid-week, we also have to go back into work the next day.

Yes... we would really, really appreciate it if you just say 'thank you', when you pick your child up at he end of it.

(all you REASONABLE parents, I know you do - but honestly, the amount of parents who think we get paid for this would shock you)

OP posts:
chickenfuckingpox · 29/03/2015 23:15

and op i think you will find you are paid for it as its your job my cousin is a teacher she said its part of the job description

Philoslothy · 29/03/2015 23:19

Cardibach, I am not teaching at the moment.

What exactly is it that I am posting which means that I must be a troll?

I hope nobody has ever carried me but I became a teacher bevause k wanted more time with my children, my whole approach to the job was based around that.

I also chose my schools very very carefully.

soapboxqueen · 29/03/2015 23:31

Chicken it really isn't in the job description. Private schools and the wild west that is academies /free schools may be different.

noblegiraffe · 29/03/2015 23:39

Nope, not in my job description and I work in an academy.

soapboxqueen · 29/03/2015 23:44

It wasn't in mine either and I just left an academy but I didn't want to generalise.

Hulababy · 29/03/2015 23:51

Not part of my job description either. Never has been on any of my contracts.

Meow75 · 30/03/2015 00:26

If it's part of the JD, why are the unions always advising teachers not to go on them?!

Philoslothy · 30/03/2015 00:56

My final school was very trip heavy, it was not part of our job description either. It was something that we asked about at interview and many teachers had planning a trip as one of their professional development targets.

Everydayaschoolday · 30/03/2015 01:06

YANBU. I too thought they would get overtime, so I have learned something new. I do, however, always say 'thank you' for trips and for the after school clubs.

landrover · 30/03/2015 08:28

Well, I would be more than happy if the kids were not taken on residential trips!

clam · 30/03/2015 08:35

"and op i think you will find you are paid for it as its your job my cousin is a teacher she said its part of the job description"

Oh well, that proves it, then. It is not part of our job description, although I suppose it's possible that it might be expected for, say, a Secondary Geography teacher to run field trips. But not compulsory, no.

beginnerrunner · 30/03/2015 08:37

Sorry, I've got to this late and haven't had a chance to read everything so I'm probably repeating things. I'm a teacher and I'm going on a week long residential soon. It's not part of my job description. I don't get paid extra for the evenings or overnight bits.
It's hard work and absolutely staggeringly tiring as you are on duty 24x7. I love it all the same but agree a thank you wouldn't go amiss.

I have costs involved for myself so I'm technically paying to do my job! My pet has to go into kennels and I need some specialist clothes I don't have.
I've been on lots of residential trips and I've had around 2 or 3 thank yous. That irritates me. I've rearranged my own life for a week and a lot of people don't see that or forget to say thank you (or can't be arsed).

chickenfuckingpox · 30/03/2015 08:37

yup in the school she worked in when we last spoke about it her contract stated she was expected to go on occasional overnight school trips she renegotiated that part as she had small children at the time she didnt want to leave them

00100001 · 30/03/2015 08:38

chicken residential s are actually very beneficial to children, and yes, your child DID miss out. School isn't just about learning words and numbers.
Schools will have some sort of financial help/fund for those that can't afford trips

chickenfuckingpox · 30/03/2015 08:38

shit i put job description in the first post i meant contract! my posts dont match now sorry!

clam · 30/03/2015 08:39

chickenpox Teachers are paid for 1265 directed hours per year. That just about covers contact time with the kids, plus a tiny bit. Anything else is unpaid overtime, effectively. And the actual teaching we do amounts to around half of the job.

So no, a residential trip where we are on duty 24 hours a day is NOT paid.

clam · 30/03/2015 08:40

It's not in our contracts either.

chickenfuckingpox · 30/03/2015 08:41

as i said they are expensive and in my children school largely pointless they have gone to berlin there topic is/has been america in the 1920s i could have understood it if they went to america

teacherwith2kids · 30/03/2015 09:12

For teachers early in their career, yes.

But also:
"But the researchers add that in England a teacher's salary at the top of the scale does not increase after 10 years' experience, so it eventually falls behind an OECD average of around £29,500."

However, a better comparison might be against what careers requiring a similar level of entry qualification, training and workload pay. I am rather odd - my friednds in RL might remove the 'rather' - in that there are few Oxbridge PhDs in primary teaching, and though my initial pay as a teacher was prtetty much exactly the same as my pay as a management trainee in industry in my first career, my salary progression curve is VERY different. I don't teach because of the money - very, very few of us do.

Equally I don't expect paying for residential trips - I do it because it is such a key experience for the children I take with me. All I am asking for is a better balance between thanks and open hostility!

teacherwith2kids · 30/03/2015 09:19

I suppose my point is, after 15 years in a graduate job which regularly requires 60+ hour working weeks (50+ hours per week if you average it across 50 weeks per year rather than 40, to take account of longer holidays), would £28,700 per year still seem a good salary?

(I realise that this is a simplistic view - there is the pension, and the fact that some of these working hours can be done in the evening / weekends which gives working mum teachers more flexibility - but university friends of mine who have gone into industry, into medicine, into finance etc have siginifcantly better pay after 15 years. But they don't get to teach, and I love teaching...)

Maycausesideeffects · 30/03/2015 09:20

You do realise that is an OECD report and not a UK only report that only looks at teachers salaries? Not sure of its relevance here. Why should it pure petrol on a thank you debate? Are you a troll?

Yes do please mutter some thanks to a teacher who has taken your child on a residential. They don not have to. Collect your child on time. Do not berate the teacher if your child has left something behind.

Then look forward to fewer trips being run in the future due to expense and revised school trip polices coming into force.

muminhants · 30/03/2015 09:26

I am very grateful to any adult who volunteers to spend time with children whether athletics coaching, scouts/guides etc - anything which is voluntary. Without you, our childrens' lives would be so much less rich and you all deserve parents' thanks, the thanks of the children themselves and an MBE rather than all those people who get them for doing their jobs and feathering their own nests.

As for residential trips, I think it depends what it is. My son is learning Spanish. I don't speak Spanish so am very grateful for the opportunity he has to go to Spain with the school this year and for those teachers giving up their time (it goes into half term so they are giving up part of their half term break as well).

lem73 · 30/03/2015 09:34

'Open hostility'?! Where on earth do you work?
I think every job has it's shitty aspect and you have to take the rough with the smooth.
I am another parent who would be happy if residential trips were stopped. My year 6 ds went on one last year and I was unhappy with the level of supervision. Yes I know it's hard work (I have taken kids on residential trips) but if they can't be properly supervised I'd rather they didn't go. I don't think we'll be sending dd after that experience. Also secondary school trips are often ridiculously expensive. Ds1 was offered skiing in Canada for £1500. Of course he didn't go.
I am the type of person who always makes an effort to thank people especially who do things for my children. The staff at my children's schools are generally lovely and I believe they enjoy being with the kids. However there are some people on this thread who aren't painting teachers in a very good light.

00100001 · 30/03/2015 09:37

chicken "as i said they are expensive" - they arne;'t actually considering the activities they do and is full board. If you go to somewhere like Centre Parcs, it's FAR more expensive and you stillhav to buy food and pay extras foractivities.

"and in my children school largely pointless" - like I say, school isn't just about numbers and words. Children get so much out of residentials. Most of which parents actually never realise, because they weren't there. They didn't see their child overcome a great fear, or achieve something they never thought possible. Often the child wouldn't have done that same activity if the parent was there, because of the different relationship they have.

"they have gone to berlin there topic is/has been america in the 1920s i could have understood it if they went to america" - I don't understand what you're saying here. Did you want them to go to America?