To be disappointed that there have been no school trips this year for the kids in our Year 3?

[Hector2000]

My dc attends a prep school (please - no unpleasant comments about that - live and let live 👍) but all this year, apart from one “away” concert to sing in, my dc’d Yeargroup (Year 3) have had no trips at all. I think some trips are really important, for bonding and also exploring topic-related venues (eg a Roman villa or British Museum if doing Rome as a topic). The Head’s response when I queried this was “teachers are busy enough without having to do trips” (I’m paraphrasing) - and I know they are a lot of extra work for teachers, but most I’ve spoken to would be glad to do occasional trips....

Do they get to do them other years?

I think my children have done one trip per school year, but some are very basic like walking to the nearest town to the library and having a picnic.

My daughter (ex prep now senior) didn’t attend any trips in year 3. Year 4 however was a PGL type trip, Year 5 they went to Spain and Year 6 a history residential (UK)

Can you look at the later years school calendar?

Il a teacher but not in a prep school. I’ve had to fight all year for my children to have a trip. Budgets, lack of parent volunteers, curriculum time. Basically you have to be able to justify every second of the trip and it’s impossible! I finally managed a trip but it was free apart from the cost of transport. Struggled to get parent volunteers so we ended up pulling TAs from other classes which obviously went down well (not!). It’s sad but just the way things are nowadays.

Our year 3 trip (to a museum in the next town) was cancelled this year because not enough people paid the voluntary £10....

My teacher daughter's main bugbear is the lack of parent volunteers in her class when it comes to school trips. I don't know if that could play a part at your child's school?

CharltonLido - that’s a good point, but actually no shortage of parent volunteers. I think it comes from the Head, based on need to focus on academic work. I just think it’s sad, the odd trip does so much good for kids’ morale, bonding etc

I teach (although secondary) and trips are nice but they create a huge amount of work. From the paperwork before hand, justifying the trip to senior management, chasing letters/payments and then managing the day itself.

I haven't run a trip for a few years because of the amount of extra work involved. Sad but true!

Lack of parents prepared to pay fee to cover the costs.
Too many hoops to jump through.
Children with behavioural problems that mean that staff numbers would have to be through the roof to have enough support.
Ungrateful parents who bitch about everything and never even give you a thank you.

I agree that it is a shame, but I don't think anybody is entitled to demand school trips. If you don't like the ethos of the school, send your children somewhere else.

I don’t mean to belittle the issue, but your DD will be okay. You can take her to “topic-related venues” and she and classmates will bond just fine at lunchtimes, etc. There will be plenty of trips in her school career, don’t worry!

So organise one with the other parents in your child's year. Problem solved really.

I think school trips are the work of the devil :)

ex TA

(only half joking)

If it's any consolation, according to my DCs ( now 14 & 16), they have never been on a school trip that they have really enjoyed or found worthwhile, with the exception of Dads French exchange in Y8. They much prefer family trips where they have the time to investigate what they want, and we can help explain etc.

Have you have ever tried to organise something like a class party for your child, and thought that was a PITA... Then a school trip is like that. But 10 times worse!

So much paperwork and hassle.

Then you get parents moaning about every tiny little thing.

Just take your kids to the places yourself. Or as Pp have said, why not volunteer to organise a non-school trip if it's so important?

That’s sad. DS is at an independent school too- end of year 1- and went to Harewood House this year. Next year they do Harlow Carr Gardens and then I think they start with overnight trips in year 3.
For me all the extra nice bits are as important as academic achievement - I want him to enjoy school.
Our school fees aren’t high and I don’t begrudge £20 for DS to have a day out related to his topic Work.

Not taking the class on any trips is pretty poor, I would definitely complain in your shoes. My yr 3 dc (also in a prep school) has been to a local museum (learning about insects and animals), to a castle in the next town (Romans & Anglo Saxons), to a farm, to a local allotment and to an archaeological site & museum. They have also had 3-4 dress-up/activity days in school

Complain???

po you have ANY IDEA how much fucking effort it is to run a school trip? How many hours and hours of work has to go into one? The teacher can easily spend 20+ hours trying to organise a 4 hour trip :/

They're not compulsory.

And if it so bloody important to the OP, then she can bloody organise one. She might then not moan about howrher darling child didn't get to go to the local museum (which she could take her child to independently)

The different viewpoints are really interesting, thank you! I do a lot of voluntary work in the school for the PTA but also regularvhelp listening to readers etc and help organise less formal stuff eg year-group picnics etc, and I fully appreciate it’s not a “right”, and that it’s a very time consuming and exhausting “extra” for staff already under a lot of pressure in relation to SATs/literary targets etc. I was just interested to know what the expectation generally was, as from just one school it’s easy to get tunnel-visioned. I don’t think my post deserved some of the comments it received, to be honest.

I think 101s post was in response to capers advice to complain to be fair. Not to you so much OP.

School trips are a total PITA ! And IME not even all the children even enjoy them.

However, they are an expected part of the school year and if there's been a firm decision by the head to veto them for one particular year group then that fact, plus the reasons behind it, should really have been explained to the parents. That would have been the professional thing to do.

School trips are a pain in the arse to organise. But a god school trip will give so much back in both curriculum terms and personal development for the children that it is a shame so many schools seem to be stopping them. In the past when money was an issue I have taken classes on free trips to a local park, a supermarket, a dental surgery, a local history museum , children come back buzzing from even mundane outings. I would be very sad if a Y3 class had no outings at all.

It is a shame that schools are stopping them, but it is because of one, some or all of these reasons:

1. Ridiculous amounts of paperwork - so many forms and Risk Assessments and collection of paperwork.
2. Poor behaviour from children
3. Parents complaining, not filling in forms, or doing as they are asked
4. lack of adult helpers/supervision
5. costs - not all kids can afford the trips so the money has to come form somewhere
6. takes much needed time away form the classroom
7. Staff aren't willing to take on the responsibility
8. It take AGES. Imagine working around 60 hours a week, and then adding another 5+ hours for the next 4 weeks to organise this trip in your spare time
9. It's really stressful making sure 30+ Kids are in the right place at the right time - getting them to where they need to be safely
10. parents deciding the rules don't apply tot heir darlings. When we say "NO MOBILE PHONES" we mean it, not "No Mobiles phones, except for the one you snuck into Johnny's case, because rules don't apply to your Snowflake"

and then after spending hours of your own time organising the trip, chasing forms, copying forms, filling in pages of risk assessments, creating resources, shepherding over-excited children on the bus, off the bus, to the site, around the site, corralling them for lunch, if they're outside, making sure they're not too hot, not too cold, have their lunch, have drunk enough, stopping them running off, and organising the 'helpers' (who are often only interested in their own kids), making sure the kids are safe when crossing roads/carparks/whatever. Handing out resources, getting the kids to fill them in getting them back to school on time - a parent comes and makes a complaint the HT that the bus was 10 minutes late, and their snowflake lost a plastic fork.

Bonding? They just sit next to their friends on the coach and then sit with their friends at lunch. They're not 'bonding' with new people. If you're so worried, invite their friends to come to a Roman villa with you.

They're with each other all day five days a week for 7 years. They have plenty of opportunity for bonding.

And for the educational aspects, you can take them to these places yourselves.

you forgot ' making sure they apply their sun cream every 72 seconds 001

"you forgot ' making sure they apply their sun cream every 72 seconds 001"

taking great care to not apply it for them!