To think school trips have become so expensive

[Reignbunker]

I would call my family comfortable working class, we have 3 kids, 2, 11 year old boys and 1 14 year old girl.

As they've grown older, school trips have just gotten fancier. Perhaps it's because they attended a small rural primary school but the most expensive trips then were about £300 per child for the whole year, this includes, a week away and days out throughout the year.

When DD started Secondary, they had a yearly trip abroad during Easter between £500-750, DD has gone twice as the other two years we simply couldn't afford it.

This year we have 3 children attending secondary & DH and I decided last year that we'd let all three go abroad and have a week off at home as our holiday for the year.

After quite a difficult year, we've managed to save up £2460 for their trip. This may not seem like a lot but it was bloody hard work, saving so much.

We received the letter about this years trip abroad for Easter and it's a week of skiing in Quebec, Canada for £1300 per child!

That amounts to £3900 all together, which is £1440 more than we can currently afford.

It was quite a shock & a disappointment but theirs no way we can afford it, we've decided to save up some more and spend the money on a holiday abroad during the summer instead.

I'm really disappointed & surprised, this is a regular comprehensive secondary, I doubt most of the kids will be able to go, the two times DD went only 20-30 kids out of her entire year went, but perhaps I'm just letting my feelings cloud my judgement.

I feel a sense of group responsibility. I chose my 6th form because I got an almost 3 week exotic trip to another continent for £400 in the late 90s. It was a great introduction to travel, as my parents weren't in a position to take us away far or often. So if kids are choosing schools for the trips, schools will offer 'wow' trips.

I'm now trying to work out now much 400 in late 90s would be in todays money. No idea how!

Is this the only school trip offered? Do they not offer a variety eg language trips or a geography trip to Iceland?

My DD1 went on 3 abroad trips in secondary, but they were all subject related, not just holidays. We didn't send her on holidays such as skiing or water sports. We will do the same for DD2 - send her on trips related to academics but not expensive holidays.

The largest number on a trip is the y7 one to Paris, they take 90 which is around 1/3 of the year group. Most other trips are only 20-30 kids at most. So it is definitely not being 'left out' or peer pressure to attend.

I think you are right to spend the money on a family holiday. We are very comfortable and I wouldn't dream of spending £4K on school trips.

That's what I'd spend on a holiday for all of us to spend time together as a family.

Driving so if the expectation is that not all will be able to attend due to lack of finance, why not arrange ones that are within most budgets.

I'm sure that educational trips don't need to be so elaborate so support learning.

Secondary school trips are never compulsory, if they were, they would be funded or in curriculum time. They would also have the caveat "a voluntary donation" included in the correspondence.

These are curriculum enhancement trips.

A lot of families may not able to scrape together the 4k it might cost to take an entire family skiing abroad. Therefore being able to save hard to be able to send their dc on a trip which may well cost 800plus is something they can do and weigh it up with its either this trip or no trip ever.

A friends teen went on a very very pricey trip you China, however it was never going to be somewhere they could afford for the whole family to go so it was this trip or nothing and thankfully they could afford to send one.

I don't have a problem with an expensive trip being offered. It is cheaper to send 1 child skiing to Quebec than child and 2 parents. So it might be a way for a child to get an experience they wouldn't otherwise get.

On the other hand there should be a range of trips to suit a variety of budgets and interests.

I do see that these trips are very expensive. However, they are optional. Where is the pressure as you say 'only 20-30' were able to go out of her whole school year. You can't afford another trip. Tough, some parents couldn't afford just one.

On the other hand there should be a range of trips to suit a variety of budgets and interests

Overseas trips, in my experience, take place over half terms and holidays. That necessitates teachers to give up their free time, time away from their own families and children, the loss of time they use to prep, plan, and mark - they do not get paid time for trips taken in holidays.

So if one teacher can drum up enough colleagues to support a trip to Quebec, skiing, you cannot reasonably expect the entire music department to plan a trip to Carnegie Hall; or the geography department to be off to the Atlas Mountains.

I used to work with a lady whose DD was offered an expensive school ski trip.
She shopped around and took the whole family skiing somewhere else for the same cost.
They all had a holiday and her DD still got to experience skiing.

DS's school did a skiing trip for £800 in Austria by coach. DD's school for some reason felt it better to fly them to Whistler for nearly 3x the price. Drives me mad.

So DH went skiing (once) and DD isn't.

None of them are compulsory. DD will go on a different trip another year that is less OTT.

Driving I agree that trips are run purely due to the commitment and energy and goodwill of teachers. For which I am very grateful. My DD1 has massively benefitted from teachers being willing to give up their time to take teenagers abroad.

However I would query a school if the only overseas trip were a very expensive skiing one to Canada. But it is not clear if that is really the case here.

I don't understand how school trips have changed - or maybe it was just my school? I left school about 10 years ago, went on one residential in primary (UK) and four in secondary - three were foreign exchanges- none of them cost more than £150.
Can't kids go skiing when they have jobs and save? Can't they go to China or Iceland or South Africa when they have some money and can go backpacking?

OP, I live in Québec.

You can come and stay with me for less than that

Seriously though, the skiing, hotels, food etc are much cheaper than say a trip skiing to France.

Flights are dearer, though.

Copperboomcopperboom
There is no way you could get a foreign trip for £150 or less and I have no idea how that was the case at your school 10 years ago!
I am running a 3 night coach trip to France for £290 and I have had complaints about the price. That's probably the cheapest foreign trip the school runs. I couldn't get it much cheaper with a company I feel comfortable with.

That sounds astonishingly expensive to me. It's not unusual for us to have no family holiday in the UK due to the cost, and a trip for just one person abroad would be at least, if not more, expensive. I didn't go on the school skiing trip when I was at secondary school, and remember thinking it sounded like a different world (although it didn't appeal to me anyway).

My view is that school trips should be available to all children, and not dependent on ability to pay. The less well-off deserve at least as much chance to go on an exciting trip. I feel there is a social pressure (including those on here) to make sure you don't appear "jealous" of those with money, so it's hard to speak up about such things. By all means send your child on an organised skiing trip unconnected to school. But when it comes to state education, I think it's reasonable for equal opportunities to be properly implemented, to lessen division by wealth, not worsen it.

Overseas trips, in my experience, take place over half terms and holidays. That necessitates teachers to give up their free time, time away from their own families and children, the loss of time they use to prep, plan, and mark - they do not get paid time for trips taken in holidays.

Lots of these teachers go year after year and are basically getting a free skiing holiday. These are holidays not school trips. A trip supports learning in the subject. This is just a jolly.

The staff at my school used to take their partners and children.

I'm not sure it's a free holiday when you're looking after 70 children. I did two French trips and a Spanish trip last year. I barely slept. One of the hotels we were in was mixed with another school group and the boys were trying to get into our girls' rooms so me and the other staff from my school slept on the floor outside their rooms 😂
Ski trips - I understand what you're saying- but I think staff offer it because it's an opportunity that some families can't give and it is an amazing experience.

That sounds hard work rick. Language trips support learning of languages though?

Yes, they do. I see your point about ski trips just being fun, but on the other hand at my school our kids probably will never go skiing and it is a good life experience for them. On the other hand, it's a coach trip and costs a lot less than the one the OP mentioned!

All the same at £1200 its not really including all the children who would never get a chance to go skiing is it?

Weve had the letter for the £3000 trip to Namibia
And the letter for the £1250 trip to Iceland.

Great opportunities but only for those that can afford it. Sadly not me for my ds.

Their use to be 2 away trips throughout the year but that stopped 2 years prior. Their is now one big away trip (Easter) and one day at the end of the Academic year were for a day one entire year group will go somewhere fun, but it's not overnight.

I can't be sure if their are other school trips planned for the rest of the year, but DD has none and DTs are going to a museum for their history class.

My issue isn't the ski trip, it's that their's only one big trip throughout the year and a large percentage just can't go. I won't kick up fuss, however I'll perhaps email the school and suggest that for next year, perhaps they can add a trip in the UK as well as the one abroad, so that a lot of other kids, get a chance to go away, I don't want the ski trip to be taken away at all, it's a wonderful experience for kids, but I also think that that shouldn't be the only away trip on offer.

Chocolatecake12 that's insane, Namibia for a school trip?

Toffeboffin, I may take you up on your offer