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 suppose there aren't any other staff willing to offer another trip than the ones who are offering the ski trip. That's disappointing, but you can't really ask the school to run one. I would email school and share concerns about the cost, however.

Those prices are outrageous - I'm not looking forward to my dd's going to secondary.... and that's just the cost if the trip without all the extra equipment/clothing they will need.

I would definitely say family holiday - I'm sure you could put better use to the money you saved.

Those saying it's an experience which the family may not be able to provide - I'm sure they will get much more from it at 18+ when they can save and do these things themselves.

Yanbu they're getting out of hand and distinctly non education related too!

Rickandmorty, thanks for your input, it really has helped to see the other side. I suppose it's easy to only see things from a parents view and expect schools to do things that may seem simple but are actually quite difficult. I can see your point about lack of staff and accept that another trip may not be possible but pricing is certainly a concern. Their's lots of wonderful places to Ski in Europe that would be a lot cheaper than £1300

I never went on any of the foreign exchanges offered at my school, my mum (single parent, low income) could not afford it. Because I went to school in a affluent area, I was one of the only pupils who did not go on at least one foreign school trip.

I remember everyone in my German class went on the German exchange other than me, I had to make up excuses to my friends why I wasn't going.
It hurts, I've never felt so different in my whole life and no child should have to go though that.

It separates the poor from rich. Every student should have the same educational opportunities in a state school.

Another point, saying that it gives children who couldn't go with their families an opportunity, makes sense if the prices worked out but at £1300 it really isn't targeting those children.

OP that's an expensive trip. But I do think that unlike primary school, people need to realise that most students don't go on the trip.

We do a year 7 MFL trip and one year I had a letter back from a parent explaining that his daughter would not be coming on the trip. There was no need! (sweet tho it was). We would typically take 70 out of about 220 students in the year.

My DC were offered a £1300 skiing trip - I saw no educational value (apart from the independence/foreign experience element) and it was too much money so I said no. I think they survived. I have never seen any peer pressure to go on trips in secondary.

Also to add, the children who go on these foreign trip abroad often already have more opportunities than those who don't, thus the poorer students are even more disadvantaged.

And I agree, why can't these students go on safaris, skiing trips etc when they are an adult and are on their overseas experience / gap year or whatever. Thats what I did.

School trips suck big time imo.

I'm not as disappointed as I was when I stared this thread, the wide range of opinions from get over it, it happens to YANBU has actually helped.

No one is putting a gun to my head, lots of kids don't get to go on any trips at all and from the replies, it seems like other schools have way more trips throughout the year at a much higher price (Namibia, American etc)

In the end my DCs will certainly forget it by summer holidays, I am however still marginally disappointed, on the plus side, we'll hopefully have a great summer holiday and an email to the school will get them to rethink destination for future years, so that the pricing works out cheaper for families, if not, at least I tried and DCs can all hopefully go away when they're 18+

From the other side of the fence...booking school trips has to be a balance of educational value, time and cost. It is a fact that tour companies are offering a wider choice of destination these days and I can imagine that this is, in a small way, driven by the shrinking world we live in. Many children are already well-travelled and would turn their noses up at the local Butlins.

In our school, we have to balance this with the sort of child who (on a recent trip to the seaside, where they'd never been before despite living only 20 miles away) was amazed at seeing a bird as big as a gull, that being the highlight of their day. It is difficult to offer trips that all can have a chance at accessing.

What about £3,000 for China? Nope, dc not going!!

CreamPastry, blimey what's up with all these exotic trips that cost thousands

This idea that kids are going to be socially pushed out for not going on enrichment trips isnt the case at secondary. The last cross continent trip im aware of had less than 40 students over 3 year groups going. Skiing trip this year had 4 out of my group of 28 going.

My school offers flexible payments and almost all schools ive worked at hsve had some.provision to help low income families.

All the 'why cant we do uk trips'- ive ran UK trips and it costs almost as much to do London as it would france. Plus then weve had parents ring in saying they unserstand theyve paid up but now theyve heard theres a german trip in 6 months time could they get a refund 2 weeks before the trip because theyd rather their kid went abroad if possible.

That's a lot of money. Our DS starts secondary school next year and we won't be doing any trips like this. We would rather go on a family holiday

I agree that the cost of school trips is beyond the means of lots of families, and it's especially difficult because you want to give all your children the same opportunities and if their friends can afford to go and there's lots of peer pressure and disappointment. And for educational trips - not skiing jollies! - it really does put a lot of kids at a disadvantage.

OTH, for some families it gives some children an the opportunity to do something they would otherwise not get chance to do - and that might be for reasons other than just financial (eg the rest of the family might want a beach holiday not a skiing holiday). So it's always going to be a contentious subject and I think very strongly that schools should offer more affordable alternatives - but I think providing staff to run them can be a challenge.

My DCs school offer several residential trips throughout the year - the vast majority are educational and we seem to get about a year's notice of dates and cost - and they are of course all optional. The ski trip is obviously a big jolly and at £1,300 sounds very expensive. However I ski, and when I got over the initial shock added up what they get I know it is done at cost and to a tight budget. Ours includes everything:

Transport to/from and in resort
Hotel
All meals
Ski equipment hire
Lift pass
4 hours ski school for 6 days
Evening activity each day (ice skating, bowling, tobogganing for example)
Staff costs - as pp said they give up their holiday / planning / marking time & this is 24/7 work for them (though I would always hope it's nice work too!)
And of course parents effectively get a full weeks' childcare

I know my DCs school runs tight ship with the budget - my DS went & we got a small refund afterwards - it wasn't much, but at least I knew it was carefully calculated!

For anyone thinking of budgeting for their DC there is additional cost of ski clothing and spending money to find which can also get expensive.

If anyone can find an all inclusive ski holiday for my family of 5 for £1300, during the school holiday, I will be amazed and overjoyed!
The cheapest I could find, self catering, during term time was £2711.00. And that would involve staying somewhere off the beaten track, and a lot of lugging skis around.

Yes, Lynette. So whilst the £1300 cost is vey expensive, it is an affordable way for me to send my DC skiing compared to never going because we can't afford £3-4K plus as a family. My DC are by no means 'disadvantaged' but would still likely not get that experience or opportunity otherwise. That there are even more disadvantaged kids doesn't necessarily mean that there should be no higher priced trips ever. But schools should definitely offer a wide range if possible to include as many as they can in one way or another.

I think it's unfortunate that your DCs school don't offer more budget friendly options too. DSs school offer loads of trips, all to Europe.

My DS will be going on a school skiing trip that is being run by the PE department. It's £900 to Italy for a week and we're going to send DS as it's a lot cheaper than all 4 of us going.

DS is at a large school - 240 in his year and the trip is offered to 3 year groups with priority given to those who have never been before. So roughly 700 ish students. There are only about 30 -40 places, however many a coach seats. So 30 kids out of 700 going. So I think with these numbers there isn't much pressure to go and with so many other trips it would be impossible to go on them all.

Plus the letters go out way in advance and the school breaks the payments down into reasonable monthly payment amounts of around £60.

It sucks that you feel under pressure but in your case I'd either continue saving (well done) and go on a family skiing trip next year or have it as a school trip fund and your boys go on the next one.

All our DCs get/got one residential in secondary. Trips are on offer every year. School offers a range of trips, varying costs, and also offer a week of activities they can choose from if they're not going on a trip. My DD chose the 'activities at school' option and went trampolining, gorge walking, film making, hill walking and had a day of sporty activities in school. She loved it, total cost under £100. Lots of her friends went on the theatre trip to London, some did the Spanish water parks etc. It was no big deal. She's chosen to do a trip when she's older (5th or 6th year). No pressure from school or friends.

I've always wanted to go to Bora Bora so I'll take you up on an offer of a subsidised trip. I can easily pretend to be a guest. How much?

Sorry wrong thread!

The prices do sound excessive to me, particularly for parents with more than one child in the school.

Could you not just use the money you have saved and take the kids to somewhere in Europe at Easter? Or alternatively keep the funds and continue saving so by the time next years trip comes around you will have enough to send them all.

When I was at school I attended one ski trip - it cost about £200 and was 4 days in Aviemore. There where other trips I didn't attend. The France/Germany trip sounded great and wasn't really expensive for what it was (about £400 if I remember correctly) but I didn't go because it was by coach and I got travel sick. Ditto similar trips all by coach so I couldn't go.

The school did however own a small residential cottage (powered by a generator) off the beaten track down near the borders (Scotland). And I went to that every year. They charged £20/£25 a head to cover food and petrol and it was always a small group of about 14 packed into the schools rust bucket of a minibus. I think I enjoyed those trips more than the expensive ones to be honest. The cottage was in use pretty much every weekend of the year with different groups going. It wasn't big or fancy but everyone loved going there. I think more schools should look into having this sort of thing to be honest.

In primary there are fewer residential trips and more people go on them. In secondary, they are usually more trips on offer, which tend to be more expensive and nobody will go on every trip. But the ski trip does sounds very expensive.