School trips - holidays for teachers

[QueenBing]

I'll just kick this off by saying I am a secondary school teacher and for the third year in a row I am organising the annual MFL trip to Germany. AIBU to request that people/parents/fellow teachers/parents kindly effing STOP referring to this trip as a "holiday". And believe me, they're not joking. The extra work that's gone into organising it. The lack of sleep while I'm there. The pressure of looking after 40 teenagers. None of which I begrudge doing, but it is not an effing holiday.

Sounds bloody good exhausting and definitely not a holiday!

They just don't think. How could it possibly be considered a holiday when you're in charge of a large group of other people's children 24/7 (especially when that's what you do every week day 8.45-3.30 already). There are plenty of threads on here where people complain that a holiday with there own couple of kids isn't relaxing! The lack of thanks is depressing. My ds just came back from a week's residential and I didn't see many other parents thank the staff.

I have huge respect for teachers anyway, but I think they go above and beyond with school trips

Not all parents think that way, I promise! I can't think of anything worse than taking a huge group of other people's children away so I'm always extremely grateful for the fab teachers that sacrifice their own time in the line of duty! Thank you OP

Guide leader here, while there are many parts to taking the Guides away that are enjoyable, it is definitely not a holiday.

And while I'm at it, please just label all your child's stuff. It's hard to eat when you've lost your cutlery because it doesn't, funnily enough, look that different to any of the other 100s of pieces of cutlery on site.

My kids are all in Scouts & have been to loads of camps including a 10 day trip to Holland & a week in London. The leaders pay for themselves & also have to use their AL. They are all amazing & sacrifice so much of their time for our kids. I certainly don't consider it to be a holiday for the leaders or for teachers going on school trips. The stress of looking after other people's kids must be enormous & parents should be eternally grateful 😀

I had this when I went with a group of 40 Yr 7 students camping. Obviously not on my own.
Yes it was fun and I enjoyed it, but parents / staff etc. saying 'enjoy your holiday, enjoy your jolly days off' etc. really made me feel crap.
It was extremely hard work, taking full care of other people's children. I think you are worth your weight in gold, and until someone walks in your shoes, they should be full of gratitude.

Teachers I admire immensely but volunteer scout and guide leaders are just heroes

Bloody hell waitforitdear, that sounds traumatic!

Timely thread, am just back from 4 days in France with Year 7 and 8. The kids were mostly really good and very pleasant to be around, but it only takes one who has a few problems to make the whole trip actually very stressful. Paperwork beforehand was probably 30+ hours' work - unpaid. I then had to give up my weekend and one day unpaid weekday (when I'm not normally working) and sort out childcare etc for my kids. About 25% of the kids said thank you as they got off the coach. I got off last, carrying all their belongings they had forgotten. First thing a parent says to me is "Where's R's medication?". A few parents were nice enough to ask if we had all had a good time (although that makes me wonder whether they think I was having a nice holiday at their expense!!) and were gracious enough about lost iphones (did tell them not to send Little Johnny with an expensive phone). But the kid who was a negative, complaining, attention-seeking little Madam throughout the trip... well guess whose parent rocked up last?! 45 minutes late, no apology, no thank you for looking after my DD. You do see where the less nice children get it from... I would say this one was a successful trip. There were lots of great moments and the kids had fun and learnt something. I will probably run it again. But right now I am so tired and the lack of thank yous from parents has really grated.

I took wine for the teachers when I went to pick mine up from a weeks skiing in high school. I know the teachers who went love to ski, but what a price to pay for it. And my kids would never have got to ski with us, I was so grateful they got the experience.