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 🤔🤷‍♀️

World Challenge is part of Travelopia, which belongs to KKR (private equity). You can be sure that World Challenge is very profitable indeed. I hate the way private equity funds are descending like vultures on state education.

Too right. In fact when we were at the 'looking at secondary schools for DC' stage, we were massively put off one local school because all the languages teachers spoke about was the trips - we knew we wouldn't be able to afford them. The school we chose does have trips but tells you more than a year in advance and encourages payment in instalments. We've had to talk about with the DC and explained that if they desperately want to go on any more trips, it means we won't have a family holiday that year so they have to make a careful choice. Fortunately, they still love family holidays.

Yes piper the Dubai trip was for the benefit of the teachers went to the info evening to get the price !

DS and his mates did the Camps International thing in Costa Rica - they had a whale of a time - worth all the shit he had to put up with waiting on tables to fund it. (Spectacularly misses point of thread)

Is that 5k school trip for real?? It's a joke right??

As for the PP saying her kid is going to help build a school - you do realise this is ridiculous notion and the money raised would be better off being spent directly on the locals?? Surely nobody with any common sense donates to such 'cause'?

My dd has been accepted on a trip to a part of Africa in 18 months time. There were 20 places available. They'll be helping to build a school for the children that live there.

This is exactly why I wouldn't let my son participate in a similar scheme run by his school. I object to 17 year olds (or anyone) doing voluntourism. My son has no skills/experience of building schools. The idea thar he cpuld help "build a school" is laughable

Parents in this country would be up in arms if it was suggested that their child attend a school built by teenagers with no training to build a school. But apparently its ok for poor 'African' children to put up with this.

I do always wonder how school kids will be much use at building schools, etc. What necessary, practical skills do they actually have? Would they even be much use at manual labour, when they're not used to it, especially in a hot climate? There are bound to be older, skilled locals who could do it all better.

As for anyone asking for 'sponsorship', I.e. please fund me to go on a nice little jolly abroad, no way.

BabtShark I posted a very similar thread a few days ago. Only ours was for £2800 which I thought was ridiculous. Yours trumps mine easily!

Personally I think the town would have been happier with the £5000 donation

Given the level of corruption in these places I more of the mind that at the very most only a handful of people would have seen the money.

DS won’t be building schools. There are lots of things they can do. The volunteering is just a part of it. There are physical challenges too.
It’s a holiday. But for DS it’ll be the trip of a lifetime. Not a rest or a break but an amazing experience. His group also have to raise a four figure sum to do something to make a difference to where they are going and deceive how best to spend it.
Not asking anyone to fund this for him and it’s not a “worthy thing he’s doing for charity”. He’s going to have fun. Volunteers at a charity locally each week though.

Dds year went to Africa she didn't go it apparently cost 4k plus the kids vaccinations it is ridiculous but out of that large school year under 20 kids went they ended up going with another school so not all kids go YANBU it is devisive (sp)

FaFoutis Sat 22-Sep-18 17:19:04

YANBU, we have similar at our school. The rich/poor divide is then highlighted further by showing trip photos on a constant loop on screens all around the school.

Ironic much? Seems to be a very middle class thing Acknowledging the poor in other countries while pretending it doesnt exist in the UK

All very Grazia.

Voluntourism drives me nuts. I worked (employed) for a project in Africa that accepted volunteers. We often got young British gap year students who showed up expecting to be building houses etc and were super disappointed when they learned they’d be doing grunt work like digging and sweeping. Far less instagram-worthy. I always felt like you could take the measure of some of these kids, between the ones who moaned about digging ditches in the heat and the ones who jumped all in doing whatever slave work was required, no questions asked.

There were a lot of local projects around who accepted the money for volunteering, let the kids build a few walls and then demolished it later and used the funds to pay skilled workers. A bunch of teenagers rarely have the skills needed to build structurally sound projects.

Why not just go off to South America and explore or stay home and volunteer with local charities? That cost is extortion.

"There's no way in hell I'd pay £5k for something like this, but even if I had that kind of money I'd be swerving it on ethical grounds. If the school is genuinely committed to helping improve the lives of disadvantaged children who live in poverty, then they could take a look at what's on their own doorstep"

This is what i meant too But i guess a visit to the local food bank or homeless shelter isnt as exotic.

This all sounds bonkers! How old are they? My two go to private school but I wouldn't be forking out that kind of money!!!!

Extract from an article about volunteering and esp orphanages.
Link below for those interested to read further.

Voluntourism may be fuelled by noble feelings, but it is built on perverse economics. Many organisations offer volunteers the chance to dig wells, build schools and do other construction projects in poor villages. It’s easy to understand why it’s done this way: if a charity hired locals for its unskilled work, it would be spending money. If it uses volunteers who pay to be there, it’s raising money.
But the last thing a Guatemalan highland village needs is imported unskilled labour. People are desperate for jobs. Public works serve the community better and last longer when locals do them. Besides, long-term change happens when people can solve their own problems, rather than having things done for them.
“There are few things more cringeworthy than watching 20 British schoolgirls trying to build a well under the scalding Nepalese heat,” one Durham University student wrote about her trip to an orphanage. Villagers, wary of offending their visitors, say nothing. An American volunteer in Tanzania recalled: “We … were so bad at the most basic construction work that each night the men had to take down the structurally unsound bricks we had laid and rebuild the structure so that, when we woke up in the morning, we would be unaware of our failure.”
Defenders of voluntourism maintain that its real value is to change the visitor. But while it’s definitely more transformational for the visitor than the host, it’s not clear how significant the effects are. A study of 162 Americans who travelled to Honduras to build houses after Hurricane Mitch in 1998 found that years later, this work had made no difference to their giving or volunteering. And even if the houses they built didn’t fall over, they were expensive. The houses in Honduras built by international volunteers cost $30,000 apiece, including airfare, while local Christian organisations could build them for $2,000. If well-wishers had contributed money instead of labour, 15 times more houses could have been built. The helpful choice would have been to stay at home.
Money goes far in poor countries. Two thousand dollars can pay for a week-long trip by an unskilled American volunteer – or it could pay the salary of a village teacher for four months. “If the church in the US would simply tithe, with just half that increase in giving, you could feed, clothe and medically treat the entire developing world,” says Daryl Fulp, an American missionary who works with disabled children in Guatemala.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/sep/13/the-business-of-voluntourism-do-western-do-gooders-actually-do-harm?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

@helenadove - my ds spent an afternoon at a local food bank and a morning helping in a local school for children with severe disabilities - I'm pretty sure he got much more out of that than he would from a trip like the op describes

What is the issue with my dd (she'll be 15 at the time) going and having a fantastic opportunity that she has raised the funds for? Plus she gets to help other people.

She is doing this all by herself. I am a single mum of 4 teens at home and never could I afford such a chance for her.

Given the level of corruption in these places

At best, that's a sweeping generalisation, at worst, racist.

I worked with a teacher who wanted to go to a certain ski resort but couldn't afford to if they had to pay out of their own pocket, so they organised a school trip. The cost to the kids included the cost of three members of staff to accompany them !!!!

At best, that's a sweeping generalisation, at worst, racist

It could also be a fact and one I have no qualms about making based on life experience.

But you just carry on accusing someone of sweeping generalisation and of being a racist and I'll carry on letting you get on with it.

We told our kids that we would not be forking out for expensive school trips, but would save to help them out with uni.

It was the most sensible thing we could have done, as both now have degrees which have led to good career prospects. Even if money had been no object, it would always have been spent wisely.

It could also be a fact and one I have no qualms about making based on life experience.

But you just carry on accusing someone of sweeping generalisation and of being a racist and I'll carry on letting you get on with it.

I'm from an African country with high levels of corruption and I'm well aware of the misappropriation of funds that goes on. I still think your statement is at best, a sweeping generalisation and at worst, racist.

It's really upsetting to read about voluntourism - and in the case of orphanages it's unforgivable because tour companies are making fast bucks off the back of doing horrendous damage to these vulnerable children. They are rubbing salt in the attachment wounds that will be present in every child in an orphanage. It's inhumane.

It's also shit in a different way for the UK schoolkids who can't afford to go build a school or whatever - as you say it highlights the rich/ poor divide.

There's no bloody need to organise trips for £5k to have an exciting time where teens learn a lot, that's what is so frustrating. A savvy teacher organising could put together really amazing trips to European destinations for about £500 per kid. Of course there will still be kids who can't afford that, but surely a lot more can afford trips if they keep costs well under £1k - with enough notice, it's much more realistic for a student or their family to be able to save a few hundred pounds over 18 months, for example.

jellie

i think young people get a bad rap these days........unfairly so.