to be pissed off at school 'enrichment' trips

[AugustRose]

I know this has been done many times before but I have just received an email about a 4 day trip to Iceland, costing nearly £1000. During the summer there was a trip to South Africa (it happens every 2/3 years) costing £2500.

This is the second time they have done the Iceland trip and they also have an annual skiing trip which is about £700.

These trips are not inclusive and it's always the same children/families (and teachers) who can afford to go. It's a small secondary of about 600 students but 80% will never be able to go on any of these trips. In Y8 DD1 had a 6 day trip to France that cost us £425 (it was good value) however it took us 6 months to pay for it as I really wanted her to be able to go.

I just get frustrated at the lack of less expensive trips/activities which could include many more children.

When I was young my family was very poor. We didn't have holidays abroad and days out would always be to free things. However my parents scrimped and saved so I could do these trips. I went skiing in Canada, cruised around the Mediterranean and spent time in a high school in the rural US. I'd never have had the opportunity to do anything like that otherwise.

So because you can't pay for your children to go on these trips, you don't think other children should have the chance to go?

It's not a race to the bottom you know.

Plenty of people do something like send 1 child on one of these trips over their school life - cheaper than taking the whole family to Iceland.

I didn't say others shouldn't be able to go but offering increasing numbers of trips that cost upwards of £700 while not offering altenatives doesn't sit well with me. Especially when you know you have a core group of families who will always take you up on the offer.

Yes children learn that some people have more money/things and that is life - my own children certainly understand this. But in schools this needs to be seriously considered with what could be offered and how often to include as many children as possible.

because you can't pay for your children..you don't think other children should have the chance to go?

No, I would prefer for a lower budget trip to be offered occasionally so that some other children could broaden their horizons, make lasting friendships and increase their confidence instead of being stuck at school doing "P.E activities" for enrichment week.

Most families can afford a couple of hundred, few can afford the trips currently offered with no cheaper alternative.

My DS went to Iceland on a 6 day Geography field trip. Curiously the sch said there were only places for two thirds of the gcse geog group and it was NOT first come first served. In other words, certain pupils were not going to be accepted if they applied... it was a great trip and I loved seeing DS's film clips of spouting geysers. He got a C.

Oh these happen in school time?? Apologies - I thought they were in the holidays.

That's ok, Yellow. The enrichment trips at my dc's school are always in school time but that may vary for other schools.

Yello

From memory all the 'enrichment' trips at my children's school were done during school holidays. Skiing trips in half term and the South American trip during the summer holidays.

Only the trips relevant to coursework were done in school time.

I appreciate not all schools are the same though.

YANBU.

Language trips to France on a low budget (or whichever language is being taught) but £1k or more is not inclusive.

When dd was at school there were no trips offered in this country at all. No trips to areas of historical interest - nothing. It was all over £700 trips abroad so she didn't get to go on any as we couldn't afford it.

I have no problem with the expensive trips being offered but it's a bit shit that there's no alternative.

The Iceland trip is part of the geography course, but they only have room for about half the students. And then there's the issue for some people of cost.

I actually went and asked the teacher if the trip would benefit for gcse - and if so, what did that mean for those who couldn't go... he didn't have a good answer

It's not as if Iceland is going to be cheap when you get there.... I've been. It's great but bloody expensive. Much more expensive than other parts of Europe.

"taking gifts, spending time with orphaned children " ???

I think the school needs to look at this...
www.wearelumos.org

Anyone who thinks a school residential is a "Jolly " for teachers has clearly never been on one.
Agree. They are my idea of hell on earth.

Our local academy offers a very expensive trip to LA. I'm baffled as to what is enriching about a trip to Rodeo Drive and a 'homes of the stars' bus tour - two of the planned activities.

Ds is off to Iceland next year with year 13. About £750 for 4 days. We don't do family holidays anymore and I have no problem paying that.

Agree there should be more cheaper options. But is £700-£1000 really out of reach when saved over a couple of years. A takeaway twice a month would pretty much do it.

One trip per child over their five to seven years isn't unreasonable or unrealistic and Iceland is an awesome place one wouldn't do on a family holiday.

Agree that just because some dc can't go, others shouldn't. DH couldn't go and was v poor as a child. The memory of that has helped him strive and he has never said no to a school trip for the DC - except the £5k one to the Galapagos Islands but even ds thought that was daft as did most parents.

But classics trips to Sicily, music trips to Germany, ski-ing, and sports tours to NZ, Sri Lanka, SA, yes.

Yes ,£1000 really is too much for a lot of people even saving over a period of time,hard as it is to imagine clearly.

Unless they are laying on other trips that can be afforded by many other families then I feel this is something that needs to be highlighted. I'm clerk to the gb in a large academy and that to me would feel horribly elitist. I would suggest a letter addressed to both your head and the chair of governors demanding to know why they are only focussing on trips that only 20 per cent can only afford. Ask them what enrichment trips they have planned that do not cost that kind of money. Make sure you get a written response and if you are still not satisfied demand a meeting. As a parent I would be bloody pissed off myself.

People objecting to this aren't promoting a "race to the bottom". All of us accept that rich people can go on expensive holidays and poor people can't - the point is that they should do this privately and that a publicly-funded school system should not be in the business of subsidising trips that only very wealthy families can afford (if any part of the trip takes place in school hours, and if any teacher or school employee is on the trip, then it is being subsidised by tax payers' money).

My kids' schools offer European trips that are reasonably priced and partly subsidised by parents' associations to keep the cost down for less wealthy families - my daughter has done trips to Italy and Spain that have varied in cost from €50 up to €250. If a family really couldn't afford it, a solution would be found ... Most of these trips are attended by over 90% of those eligible and the ones who stay at home do so for non-financial reasons.

I'm amazed at the cost of some of these trips! I have never paid more than a couple of hundred pounds and frankly wouldn't. They are just school trips after all, and what if you have more than one DC?

The sort of sums being bandied around are what I spend on our main family summer holiday and I don't think I'm particularly tight.

I could take DS on a really educational trip abroad for far less than that IF I was allowed to take him out of school for it when the flights are cheaper.

But I'm not allowed to because it would affect his education

Falling about laughing.
I'd LOVE it if the companies had some lovely sort of sweetener for the schools signing up beyond a free pen. Alas this is not the corporate world and we use external companies because they can offer more for less. We simply don't have time to call every hotel in Reykjavik for the best prices because we're planning nice lessons etc.

And it would make very little difference - the tour groups can often offer lower prices because of the number of trips they book per year.

Surely the issue here isn't that 2 expensive trips are being offered, but that apparently there are NO other trips? So no local theatre trips, no geography trips to the local town centre etc? That sounds like the thing to be raised.

I can't speak for other trips but the Iceland trip is always going to be expensive. Outside of Reykjavik there's v little budget accommodation and distances are huge. A lot of the companies have massively hiked their prices this year in response to currency fluctuations. For that price your child will get 4 packed days with little to no down time beyond that spent on the coach. Days tend to start early and end late to ensure that students see as much as possible.

The idea (with schools I've taught in) tends to be that if a trip is well established, students and parents know it will be open to them in 2/3/4 years and can save accordingly IF they want to participate.
But for trips that are part of the curriculum e.g. For coursework we can only ask for a contribution and point out that if we can't fund the trip it won't go ahead. Pupil Premium students are fully funded.

Oh, and a nice jolly? That homework won't mark itself when we're off gallivanting up glaciers you know. And there'd be a whole flurry of parental complaints if we fell behind with the marking because we were on a jolly. So once we've coerced your overtired and grumpy teens into bed the general task is to sit in the corridor well past midnight to check for anybody wanting 'extracurricular fun'. With a stack of marking.
Still worth it though. Please know that nobody staffs a residential unless they genuinely love their job! It truly is round the clock work and so can be difficult to staff, especially when the headteacher stops certain teachers taking part 'because they go on too many trips' (never mind that they might be the head of science or geography....)

Though if this thread has taught me anything it's that I need to make it clearer to parents where their contribution to the cost of a trip goes :)

Couldn't you have an equally hideous time in the Cotswolds or the war graves in Belgium, though Daily? I thought those were ambitious enough. When I was at school our annual school trips included - visit to a wallpaper factory, visit to a bakery, visit to a dairy cooperative. I think our teachers must have been very concerned about our employability, but we really enjoyed our days out and have managed fine ever since.