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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

School trips which are only affordable to a minority of parents - just why?

266 replies

Mintyy · 01/10/2015 21:10

Why do schools do this?

If someone can explain, I am all ears!

I am talking about non-leafy state comprehensive schools here.

OP posts:
fulldutypaid · 03/10/2015 21:58

Oh get real Mehita. You decided that you lived in poverty to do that.. Most people dont. id rather a new kitchen than send my child on a £3,000 school trip.

Mehitabel6 · 03/10/2015 21:59

I would hate a world in which the privileged few get offered everything and 97% can't be offered anything!

fulldutypaid · 03/10/2015 22:00

a school trip that lasted two weeks or a new kitchen.. let me think about it, err no.

Mehitabel6 · 03/10/2015 22:00

Having my neighbour's old pram and second hand baby clothes is not 'living in poverty'!

WhatsGoingOnEh · 03/10/2015 22:01

Mehitabel Thanks for explaining, but a coach SURELY can't cost more than £2-3k for a day? (Can it? If so, I'm in the wrong job...)

Mehitabel6 · 03/10/2015 22:02

It depends if you need a new kitchen- I had a perfectly reasonable kitchen and I never mentioned kitchens in the first place.

Mehitabel6 · 03/10/2015 22:05

All I know is that we offer a very cheap day out for local children (£2 a head) but that the coach (within the same county) puts it too expensive for many WhatsGoingOnEh.

merrymouse · 03/10/2015 22:17

I do not think a school skiing trip would be the trip of a lifetime for my children. I expect them to be able to pay for their own travel when they have jobs. I would be pretty depressed if I thought a holiday with the school was going to be a 'once in a life time' opportunity for them.

Mehitabel6 · 03/10/2015 22:24

The useful thing about it was there was no chance of us going skiing as a family when there was a big age gap. DS really enjoyed it and so now that he is an adult he pays to go himself and worked in a country where he could go all winter. In a way it was a trip of a lifetime because he started when young - not possible without the school opportunity. I was grateful for opportunities where he could do things at his level when siblings were not old enough.

Mehitabel6 · 03/10/2015 22:29

If people are being very disparaging about them and can't see the value then I can't see the problem- don't send them.
Mine didn't go on lots of trips. They were not spoilt- they understood that it couldn't be afforded.

Mehitabel6 · 03/10/2015 22:38

I can't understand why if people think something is a waste of money they want to stop it for everyone.
I think that anyone who has a whole class party for a 5 yr old is utterly bonkers , but they are perfectly entitled to do it if it makes them happy!
I think that anyone who gets their child a phone that is more than the cheapest PAYG is equally bonkers- but again they are perfectly free to do it.

We all have choices. You can just say 'No'. I went on one expensive school trip as a child. I was very grateful. Had my parents said they couldn't have afforded it I would have understood and not been upset. It isn't as if everyone goes and one person is left out. There are a lot of things that I didn't have- I am not scarred by it.

Mehitabel6 · 03/10/2015 22:46

Skiing may not be 'once in a lifetime' but going to Russia was- he will never be able to get that experience again were he to go as an adult 20 yrs or so on.

CharleyDavidson · 03/10/2015 22:51

Our school (primary) used to do this. They ran a skiing trip. It really was down to the fact that one teacher in particular was the driving force for it. A few other teachers (inc the head) loved skiing and were keen to also go.

The organising teacher took his partner and family with him. He basically got a subsidised skiing trip due to running it as a school trip for the school he worked at.

I have no idea how he got away with it. I know that he paid for his kids places, but I think that his place and his partner's place was subsidised as supervising 'staff'.

Only half of the children could afford to go. That never sat well with me as a trip to run. Either you should run trips that all the children could and would go to or you didn't run the trip.

fulldutypaid · 03/10/2015 23:13

If you cant see it, then you never will.

YANBU OP

Sallyhasleftthebuilding · 03/10/2015 23:17

DD school advertise one trip in year 8 - so 18 months notice .. at a cost of £1300 skiing. No other trips available. Out of 300 children only 50 get to go. First to pay deposit are in, all spaces filled by next day lunchtime.
This is unfair for parents deciding if they can afford it, get the deposit and child definately wants to go.
My bug bare is there is nothing else, no day trips, no fun afternoons, no weekend camping .. nothing .. not everyone can afford it, not everyone wants skiing. Its wrong on a lot of levels.

merrymouse · 03/10/2015 23:25

We all have choices

Actually, no we don't, particularly as children.

Plenty of people have no where to cut back.

merrymouse · 03/10/2015 23:28

We don't all have choices, particularly as children. Plenty of people have nowhere to cut back.

School should be accessible to all regardless of home life.

merrymouse · 03/10/2015 23:28

Weird double post.

BlueJug · 03/10/2015 23:30

fulldutypaid - I think that you have got things a bit mixed up.
The discussion is about state schools - not private so the "private school without money" comment doesn't make sense, (unless you have misunderstood somewhere). No-one is talking about church schools becoming private either.

You may want a shiny new kitchen, sparkley worksurfaces to make your friends jealous - you may not - we don't know. I am real and a new kitchen, new furniture, clothes, "nights out", are not my priority and never have been. As long as the oven works and the fridge works and you have a sink and a table does it matter if it is 15 year-old IKEA or something posher and brand new. I really, truly couldn't care. And there are millions of people just like me.

My kids are the same.

The point about school is that they offer a huge range of opportunities for kids who have different interests, different home lives, different skills, different incomes.

I don't want to argue but I hate seeing chances for kids closed down because of others' disapproval. All kids get things that are not available to everyone - and we take the chances we get and make the best of what we have.

merrymouse · 03/10/2015 23:37

State schools should offer opportunities to all pupils regardless of income. Can't think of an example where this wouldn't be the case - not intentionally anyway.

BlueJug · 03/10/2015 23:44

I agree - but if we go by absolute minimum income, which we would have to, then really no-one gets anything much. Surely better to give chances to as many as we can and work to make it better for everyone.

I do also feel that there is so much more than income to be taken into account but that, whilst very real for the child involved, is not really addressed.

tldr · 04/10/2015 00:40

Schools can't/won't cater to everyone whilst their staff aren't being paid for accompanying these trips. Of course that's going to influence which trips happen. My own school ran ski trips every year because the PE teachers were prepared to spend their holidays taking a bunch of teenagers skiing.

My sister wanted to go, got jobs, saved up, paid for it. I was never interested so never went, didn't feel like I missed out at all. Sis can ski, I can't, no big deal.

(My English teacher loved the theatre and took a group of us to our nearest city to see just about every production ever staged at the main theatre there. No overnights required but we learned how to do dinner/theatre young!)

Mehitabel6 · 04/10/2015 07:20

IT is all a matter of what you think important and we are all different.

Earlier it was put 'new kitchen or 2 weeks away' as if anyone who went for 2 weeks away needed their head examined! I wanted my children to have as many experiences as possible- that was my priority and not a new kitchen.
I am very pleased that they got some of them- if they wanted them. They couldn't have them all- we just had to say 'sorry- too expensive'.
DS 2 didn't go on an expensive trip- he didn't want to.

Some if you are so disparaging about them and think them a waste of money which is fine just say 'No' but there is no need to stop others and then make out that doing the sensible thing of getting everything second hand for a baby is 'living in poverty' ! A baby doesn't know, or care, if it is second hand so it is a time that you can make huge savings.

About 97% of children are state educated and I think it highly unfair if the privileged few are the only ones to be offered the extras at school.
I don't want mine at a 'bog standard' school where they can never do anything that costs money. It isn't even as if the moaners are likely to be on PTA and raising money to get something for everyone- they are just as likely to be disparaging about PTA committees!

The facts are that schools run trips because they are wanted.
They would soon stop if they couldn't fill the places.
They have always been run. I went on a Mediteranean cruise from my secondary modern school 50 years ago next Easter.

At that time we did get a lot of trips paid for by the LEA (not the cruise which was expensive at the time) but parents wouldn't like that either because it was then compulsory! We went in an outward bound type week at the start of year 7 and it didn't cost anything so staying at school or home was not an option.

Washediris · 04/10/2015 07:49

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Mehitabel6 · 04/10/2015 07:52

Mine all went in the holidays.