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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be unhappy with this school trip?

487 replies

IWannaHoldYourHand · 30/09/2015 22:29

Ds2 is in reception and has come home with a letter advising us of a school trip to a farm in December. The cost is a reasonable amount for the farm that will be visited, however the main focus of the visit is having lunch with Santa, and receiving a gift.

It is the visiting Santa that I feel odd about. I see this as a very family based event, and not something I would expect to do with anybody else, or without his sibling. We wouldn't even refer to him as Santa at home, and it just feels strange to me.

I have spoken to the head who informed me that this will be backing up their learning for that term, and advised that I have the option of attending, but it still feels wrong to me. So is this normal, do schools regularly take a trip to visit Father Christmas?

OP posts:
hairbrushbedhair · 01/10/2015 08:36

Where's the headbanging emoticon? And the brick wall one?

ilovesooty · 01/10/2015 08:37

Parents like Bobo make me profoundly thankful every day that I no longer teach.

Lurkedforever1 · 01/10/2015 08:39

I wouldn't want any reception teacher to think their main aim was to educate dc in terms of academia. Reception is about setting them up to pick up knowledge through the rest of their school life. So social skills, fostering the idea school is an enjoyable place to be etc. Hence the reason teddy bears picnics, sand pits, and school trips to farms etc. They could learn more about farming from a series of lectures and an hour on a working farm. Would they get the same benefits? Would they fuck.

Dd learnt fuck all about farm animals from her early years trip to a petting zoo. Because to her farms are normal. She did learn not everyone is familiar with them though, and really enjoyed it. From an academic point of view she could have gained more knowledge from a dry lecture on physiology and fertilisers, rather than spending the day in a sanitised version repeating what she's already exposed to. But she wouldn't have gained anything socially or have had fun. And I certainly wouldn't have had the high opinion of her reception teacher I do have.
Especially if their attitude to children who were deprived in anyway was 'fuck it you're here to be educated'

BoboChic · 01/10/2015 08:40

Presumably if you gave up your job as a teacher and find my posts upsetting, it is because the requirements of teaching were beyond you? It's not about distracting the DC with outings.

ilovesooty · 01/10/2015 08:41

You would presume wrongly.

But don't let that get in the way of your agenda.

ilovesooty · 01/10/2015 08:42

And I didn't say I found your posts upsetting did I?

BoboChic · 01/10/2015 08:43

An agenda whereby teachers teach and DC learn (rather than teachers take them on commercially based outings) isn't wildly out of line with reasonable people's expectations.

HearTheThunderRoar · 01/10/2015 08:46

We are talking about one fucking treat after a long, hard and tiring year. Surely you don't begrudge the children that?!

Mistigri · 01/10/2015 08:46

bobochic lives in Paris I believe and I don't think her attitude towards education would be unusual among parents of children in chic Paris schools ;)

I'm a bit at a loss to know what learning a trip to Santa is backing up (as per the OP's school) but that's hardly the point. These are preschool children (and a reception class would a preschool class in almost all other countries) going on a fun farm trip with Santa on the side. And there is nothing wrong with that :) (and a lot that is right, especially for the most disadvantaged children).

ilovesooty · 01/10/2015 08:47

I just find your posts inflexible and ignorant and it seems a good few others agree with me.

Of course it appears you think you know exactly what teachers should be doing and how the school curriculum should be shaped.

ilovesooty · 01/10/2015 08:49

Yes thankfully most HTs in the UK state system have enough professional knowledge and autonomy not to be unduly influenced by a minority of busybody parents.

Floggingmolly · 01/10/2015 08:50

Look in the mirror, op. Is your face green? That's because you are the CHRISTMAS GRINCH.

BertrandRussell · 01/10/2015 08:53

I am always amused by the belief that somehow taking 30 4 year olds on an outing is easier than keeping them at school.........

BoboChic · 01/10/2015 08:56

Of course it's easier. Being at school isn't (or shouldn't be) just an issue of keeping them shut up in a classroom to amuse themselves.

ilovesooty · 01/10/2015 09:01

And Bobo your experience of teaching is..
?

BoboChic · 01/10/2015 09:07

Filling in the bloody great gaps left by poor curricula and teachers Grin

Shutthatdoor · 01/10/2015 09:11

And Bobo your experience of teaching is

Dictating to others how things should be done, it would seem....

ilovesooty · 01/10/2015 09:13

Evidently so Shutthatdoor

PurpleDaisies · 01/10/2015 09:15

Teachers shouldn't be wanting to make a difference to DC with inadequate parents. They should be wanting to teach them.

Those bastard teachers actually caring about their pupils. Bloody sack them all, that's what I say.Hmm

AmysTiara · 01/10/2015 09:21

Until I joined mumsnet I had no idea that such miserable people like bobo chic existed. How utterly joyless you sound.

PurpleDaisies · 01/10/2015 09:22

Take some comfort amy in the fact that bobo's views are very much the outlier rather than the norm.

ilovesooty · 01/10/2015 09:25

I bet some of the 11 year olds I taught would really have benefited from the Bobo school of thought when they returned after the Christmas holidays upset and disruptive on hearing about other family Christmas days knowing they'd been left entirely alone on Christmas day without food or presents while their parents buggered off to the pub.

BoboChic · 01/10/2015 09:25

It doesn't actually comfort me that our DCs' academic performance, happiness and well being are so much greater than the norm. Pissing about during school hours is bad news for far too many DC.

Shutthatdoor · 01/10/2015 09:55

It doesn't actually comfort me that our DCs' academic performance, happiness and well being are so much greater than the norm. Pissing about during school hours is bad news for far too many DC.

If you believe although you certainly aren't you are the guiding light in all things academic then why don't you actually teach, rather than dictating to school how they should do things, deciding that teachers are inadequate after only being there 2 weeks and rewritting a curriculum for a school!

You seriously come across as someone who things they are always right and everyone else is wrong.

SuburbanRhonda · 01/10/2015 10:01

shutthatdoor

I'm surprised you didn't already know that bobochic is single-handedly rewriting the curriculum for schools in her area after helping her DCs' school management to see the error of their ways Grin