In thinking almost 5 grand for a school trip is beyond the joke ??

[BabySharkAteMyHamster]

We live in a town with a massive, rich poor divide. A lot of jobs here are highly skilled so if you can't do those there's little else. It has massive pits of deprivation as well as very wealthy areas.

There are two schools. One being an academy in the middle of one of the poorest areas of the town but also next to an estate where houses sell for upwards of 500k.

Who the hell thinks these trips are a good idea ?? It serves nothing but to highlight the massive rich poor divide and yet again kids who have heard 'no' pretty much from the day they were born will be on the outside looking in whilst the wealthier kids swan off on a month long trip to south America to build schools and lord knows what else . Options are pay half now and half later or pay £60 per week for the next 2 years (( my food bill ))

Why the hell arent these things capped ?? £1000 yes, families could make cutbacks over 2 years and give their kids a chance to experience life outside their barrier but 5 grand is just an impossible task for so many.

Considering so many schools these days obsess over stupid details on school uniforms so that 'every child is equal' isnt it a bit odd they seem to think it's ok to constantly remind them just how unequal they actually are 🤔🤷‍♀️

This kind of poverty tourism doesn t sit well with me. Far better to actually just go on holiday to the local area and spend your cash on local area arts and crafts. That money will directly help the local people rather than a badly made wall by some students. or donate to the 5k to a local project or one with meaning www.doctorswithoutborders.org/
If you are an plumbing engineer or have a skill set then YES you are adding to the local community.

VSO ask for at least 3 years in your skill set
www.vsointernational.org/volunteering/volunteering-pro/how-volunteering-works

£5000 is probably our summer holiday budget so I certainly wouldn't be blowing it on a school trip. I'd love to hear the conversation in the staff room when that price was published. Surely there can't be more than one or two staff in any particular state school who would think that was acceptable. I've also had experience of charity tourism, my company thought it was a great idea that I build some fences to stop elephants trampling crops in Zambia. I'd never held a hammer before and a crowd of locals sat under a tree and watched my colleagues and I build the smallest, crapest fence you ever did see. We then went back to a champagne reception at a five star hotel. Madness.

maylou2
Exactly, Why on just visit the local village try some local food and buy a something or other? maybe pay a translator to ask questions about village life? lot more dignified for all involved. Rather and build a shit fence.

Puzzled
I paid the money directly to the charity, which is a smaller charity which works only in this particular country, so I know that the money (we had a breakdown of how much actually went to which local projects, I just can't remember how much it was) actually benefitted the people we met.
To this day I have raised around £10,000 for this charity, excluding the trip, as well as sent tonnes of school and sanitary products to encourage children to stay in school.
I'm sure lots of what we did could easily have been done by locals, there were local young people of the same ages as us who were paid as translators for the time we were there (both paid Work and experience in a valuable skill) as well as teaching them some of the activities that work well with children in the U.K and some of what is required to run large scale youth events. However, the presence of British people was a massive draw to getting participants coming to the events. We had up to 500 younger people attending some of the events we ran, which the charity representatives said they don't even get 10% of that number attend when it is locals running them.
At the end of the day, it comes down to us having the skills and the resources that the locals may not have done, and more importantly the free time (many locals would be out working and couldn't afford to run free youth events). At the very least, they took away some school supplies and sanitary products, which they may not have gotten and hopefully had some fun.

What were the youth events and structured activities, thatmakesmehappy?

The poverty porn charity trips are the worst, I used to live in a town in an East African country that regularly had world challenge type groups out.

They’re either basically nicking jobs from locals or doing completely pointless jobs or doing things badly or the worst coming in and disrupting lessons to teach the same thing every other group have done 1-10, nursery rhymes and then sweets and a me me me leaving party.
Teenagers with no skills have no place doing these type of trips, go for the safari, go spend money in local stores, but don’t go trying to be some kind of saviour teacher/builder for a week when your a teenager with no skills!

I’ve seen it done properly, actual qualified teachers staying for a decent amount of time and learning the local curriculum, actual architects, other skilled groups etc but they were few and far between compared it the Tarquins coming to “find themselves” in Africa by painting a wall and picking the kids up for feel good selfies.

thatmakesmehappy
I don't doubt you've had good intentions and have fundraised etc.

I still don't understand what load of college students (who I'm guessing are on the whole not qualified teachers, play therapists etc) offer children in a war torn country that a qualified professional couldn't do better. E.g. instead of having 10 students pay £5000 each to go, the community could have had £50,000 to work with. That could have funded a qualified and experienced youth worker to work with children who have experienced trauma (which will probably do more good than a few activities planned by college kids).

I don't doubt the good intentions of kids who sign up to these trips, but the question for me is usually 'what are these kids offering that a qualified peofessional or local person couldn't?' The vast majority of the time there isn't an answer.

Most of the trips in dc school are under £500. There was a ski trip that i think was over 1000, but only a tiny minority did that, so people didn't feel left out.

Not RTFT but YANBU OP. It’s ridiculous and only serves to deepen the divide between the haves and have nots.

I hadn’t heard of this world challenge/building schools malarkey. That’s pretty cringey isn’t it.

£5k to go and build a school or similar. You'd have to be a mug to go, or pay for your child to go even if you had the money.

I agree. A state school should not provide opportunities to one set of pupils on the basis that their parents have a lot of money. £5,000 is prohibitive for a lot of parents. Also, these schemes where pupils help build schools etc in developing countries have been much criticised for denying local businesses the chance of paid work.

Im sorry but if you are truly on the breadline you cannot simply save child benefit as every penny is needed just to live.very naive to say that if you are determined enough you can save for it

Often organised by a teacher who fancies going on said trip, except that said teacher doesn't have to pay their own way, the teacher's fare is calculated into the 'contribution' of the students.

If they had to pay their own way they'd go with family, not be responsible for teenagers

While £5k seems very top end on the cost spectrum, (most overseas exped’s cost between £2,500 and £3,500), the level of manufactured outrage and cynicism about the value of overseas outdoors activities is nonetheless disappointing. For many young students, spending time with others from economically and geographically diverse backgrounds in arduous conditions can be a life changing and fulfilling experience. The vast majority who go on such expeditions with World Challenge, British Exploring and others put significant effort into their personal fund raising over many months, sometimes years. They deserve to be applauded for their efforts as do the school and youth leaders who work with them to help them achieve their goals. Interestingly, The protagonists for these trips tend to be the young people themselves who rather than ask ‘why,’ ask ‘why not?’ and good for them for doing so. For a young person who may not flourish academically, or be good at team sports, climbing a mountain can be their first experience of how it feels to win, to deal with adversity and to experience being part of a team. To my mind, any parent with a son or daughter pondering on signing up should encourage them to do so with enthusiasm. Then figure out how to fund it. Grants are available from numerous sources for students from backgrounds where funding opportunities are limited.

MentalCrumble kids can do all of that in the lake district

You wonder if those who decide these things are living in another world. Don’t they realise that there are such things as family holidays which families struggle to pay for let alone offering expensive trips which would in the case quoted cover a really good family trip.

And they do... one doesn’t exclude the other! If you have the Lakes, or North Wales or the Highlands it tends to lift rather than limit personal horizons to beyond these shores. Personally, I love them all.

Manufactured outrage? That's a rude a dismissive way of minimising the concerns around a morally bankrupt practice.

For many young students, spending time with others from economically and geographically diverse backgrounds in arduous conditions can be a life changing and fulfilling experience
The young people in the countries they go to aren’t there to make Disney style life changing experiences for middle class uk teens.
Go climb the mountain, go do the safari, go see the beaches, but don’t rock up for a week, bugger up lessons or shaft local clothes sellers by flooding the place with free second hand clothing or paint a building when that could be done by a local.
These are just ridiculous vanity projects, if they wanted to do some good they’d give the money directly to a local charity working in these areas or pay local tradesmen to do the work or they’d go off to university and go to these countries when they have something worthwhile to offer, a trade, medical expertise and dedicate some time to it rather then just selfies and a half arsed project.

I get why kids are excited to do it, the criminals are the companies that fleece the uk kids this insane amount to “do good” when it tends to do more harm then good for the community overall.

Is this World Challenge?
If so half is to be funded by sponsorship.

My son goes to a famous boarding school. There are always trips on offer and nothing likr this expensive

My children go to a prep/senior school (£18k a p.a fees each child) and we've never ever been asked to pay this much for a school trip. Compulsory residential trips are funded by the school and the extra ones, usually in the holidays are mostly nowhere near this much. Maybe £3k sometimes, but more often around the £1.5k mark.

I think £5k at a state school is completely outrageous and definitely shouldn't be allowed by the government. How sad for those who can't go and it's actually probably sadder for the parents who have to go through the ordeal of telling their children they're to be excluded! Horrible.

For many young students, spending time with others from economically and geographically diverse backgrounds in arduous conditions can be a life changing and fulfilling experience

These “others” aren’t there to enhance the life experiences of over privileged rich Western kids.

I was referring to other students from economically and geographically diverse parts of the UK. For a small country, it is surprising how few young students know much about their own country or countrymen. Moreover, the corrupted narrative about such exped’s being the preserve of the privileged needs to be corrected. The organisations themselves make great efforts at inclusivity and as I mentioned, a great many teachers and youth leaders work hard to keep the door wide open.