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 🤔🤷‍♀️

I have just found out that the 4 week trip at our school to go and volunteer etc is £4k. With 2 DCs that is not going to happen. They are supposed to fundraise for it though for at least 50% so maybe it is possible.

I had no clue it cost that much when I first saw this thread, someone told me yesterday, I was

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.

Surely that is fixed with your normal, run-of-the-mill get in a coach and sleep in a youth hostel, class trip?

Basically, if you are paying someone commission so that you can volunteer then something is going wrong.

Teachers just looking for a jolly at parent expense. Don't pay it, I doubt many will. 5k is easily explainable to your kids, im sure they will understand. I remember being 14 thinking £500 was EVERYTHING. So they are mature enough to know 5k is ridiculous.

so families that can afford it shouldn't be able to send their kids on these trips because there are other kids that can't afford it?

no ones forcing your kids to go, but if you were able to afford it, are you saying you wouldn't send them?

no ones forcing your kids to go, but if you were able to afford it, are you saying you wouldn't send them?

I can afford it and, no, I wouldn't send them to some far flung place with their superhero cape on to 'save the poor'.

Do it or don’t. Your choice. It’s not compulsory. Would be a shame to not offer it as some kids can’t afford it.

If you really want your child to spend an absolute fortune (usually of other people's money - fundraising) to go on a virtue signalling trip that helps absolutely no one, then of course you should be free to arrange that for them - BUT independently of the school system. Schools should not be perpetuating inequalities, and should be concentrating their efforts on more basic educational requirements.

These trips aren't all poverty tourism. There's a variety of nonsense available to suit all interests. The teacher I know that does these trips is a big animal lover so her school goes saving turtles and similar. Not sure that picking up a bit of litter on a beach for a week quite cancels out the environmental impact of flying a bunch of teenagers halfway around the world though.

Our youngest went on a trip to Belgium in Primary seven. It cost us nearly £600 they toured the Ww1 battlefields and museum. It was by all accounts a good educational trip. However Our eldest went did pretty much the same exact trip with the Army Cadets and it cost us £150. Ok the Cadets stayed in a Belgian camp and not a hotel but the educational value was the same. In fact the Cadets actually had access to parts that the public didn’t generally see. High school trips are the worst though. I think some teachers just see it as a way to get parents to pay for a trip they want to take themselves.

MentalCrumble - you really have fallen for the marketing spiel without thinking through the consequences of these trips. The cynicism with which the travel companies target schools is mind boggling.

www.akenkan.org/ghana-expedition.html

Some of the schools around us do this. It's basically privileged London teenagers writing books for children in Ghana and then going there to visit and "teach" the kids. Surely there are writers in Ghana, who would do a better job? And it would be better to raise money to fund a local teacher rather than to pay for their own flights to Africa.

Look at the pictures above. It's all so patronising. Sure the London kids have an "amazing" time, but they're not really helping anyone.

I agree. Privileged white teens trouping off to Africa to “teach” poor children? So very wrong...

www.britishexploring.org not a leaking roof in an African village in sight.

“British Exploring Society”. Just the name makes me feel queasy. Sounds like some 19th century colonel chappy charting virgin territory. But no: it’s a tour operator specialised in youth groups.

Perhaps if you met some of the participants you might be more open in your approach. Each to his own though. I’ll mostly be sticking to promoting the outdoors and helping, as much as I can, young people from all backgrounds when they decide to make positive life choices which will enhance and enrich their lives.

I don’t care about their lives! I care about the planet they are recklessly harming in their self-indulgent holidays’

These volontourism trips are such a pisstake. To any parents feeling proud their child is going volunteering abroad - would you be happy with unqualified foreign teenagers building a school for your child instead of local builders? Would you be happy with your child's
nursery staff/primary teachers being unqualified 18 year olds who don't speak English, haven't passed a background check, and change over every 3 weeks? Seems OK to virtue signal while harming the children and local economy in Africa, as long as you can get a good Facebook profile picture with some poor orphans.....

And sadly, I went to a state school that had 3-5k trips to Borneo, the Arctic and Orlando. Plus they had an equestrian team! Equality, yeah right....

keepingthewormsquiet - great username, BTW - I have looked and found it nauseating. More to the point I read "Amy's story" and couldn't believe anyone could go into such circumstances and make it quite so much about them ... there really was no real awareness at all

Well I care bout their lives and don't begrudge them the airmiles. I do object companies accessing school to sell overpriced holidays to children who are compelled to collect sponsorship to make it happen under the idea that collecting money is good for them! The madness. Maybe I could interest you in an overpriced handbag? Oh, you can't afford it? why not just get a job to pay for it?... Yes, it is just a carrier bag, the job will do you good.

so families that can afford it shouldn't be able to send their kids on these trips because there are other kids that can't afford it? If families want to do a virtue signal 'westerners play at superheroes for the poor' trip then it should be funded by them and not be propped up by schools. When I've done (curriculum based and enrichment) trips there has been overlap in term time. When I see how stretched school budgets are, I don't think money should be wasted covering lessons whilst people go and pretend a bunch of 15 year olds are somehow master teachers or builders. Then there's the endless fundraising which crops up every few weeks as students continually ask staff and students to sponsor them to do X y z. I have to buy my own glue sticks when we run out so don't want to be shelling out to fund this or that trip (plus it ends up being a case of pick which child you sponsor etc whcih seems unfair to me). The only thing I would say is that whilst I've enjoyed the trips I've been on, none of them were 'places Maisy wants to visit so will get school to pay for'. Dare I say it (and I might get flamed) but I think some teachers have bought into all the marketing about life changing experiences, or for younger staff they've done a voluntourism trip/gap yah and want to share their enthusiasm etc with students. It's from a good place but terribly naive. I've not come across a member of staff who's planned a trip to get a holiday (because the process of planning and running a trip is simply to much hassle and stress for it to be a holiday).

Yolo could you imagine the uproar if Random African teenagers came to local primary to paint a wall

Well in fact the UK does have quite an issue with immigration...

no ones forcing your kids to go, but if you were able to afford it, are you saying you wouldn't send them?. We could afford it, but certainly wouldn’t encourage either of my kids to go on these trips. There are far better ‘holidays of a lifetime’ that they could do with the money - flying with better airlines, staying in nicer accommodation and being with their friends rather than classmates as well as choosing their own itinerary.

I have to admit I did World Challenge ( a very long time ago!). It is pretty much a holiday and I do feel a bit uncomfortable about the charity side of it - as it was about three days. However for me it was about being away from home and surviving in a completely different environment- the teachers/ leaders leave everything to you and at 15(I was young for the year) it is genuinely a challenge. I could never have afforded to go travelling so I am pleased I’ve done it but I do agree with other posters about poverty tourism. It makes me massively uncomfortable now. I did raise ALL the money myself by hosting parties at our local village hall. But that was when a party could literally be a CD player and 20 multipack bags of crisps..

We could definely afford this sort of trip but we prefer to choose the summer camps and other holidays without parents that our DC go on, according to our own values and educational priorities.