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 🤔🤷‍♀️

[RedHelenB]

Dd loved her world challenge trip ( didn't involve volunteering)

[mathanxiety]

That is nuts.

My DCs went to a private RC elementary school in the US to age 13/14 and the main school trip events, which took place in their final year, were a day long ski trip to a ski resort with manufactured snow that cost each family $75 and another day-long class trip for a tour of the state capitol and to see important sites and a museum associated with a former, very significant US president born in the state. This cost $50ish, with lunch at a grotty buffet restaurant included.

The previous year they went to see an opera matinee with lunch, and the year before to a Broadway show, again a schools matinee. None of these trips cost more than $50.

There were plenty of kids in that school whose parents spent their last dime to send them there, with no extra money for holidays or enriching experiences abroad or even within the US.The school didn't see fit to provide any of the students with a holiday that parents couldn't afford.

EmmaGrundyforPM I agree 100% with your comment on voluntourism.

My parish does an annual teen service trip to the Appalachian region. A few hundred teens always sign up at a cost of $600ish each for a week. There are adult volunteers, and the hosting organisation provides very basic accommodation in schools that are not in use for the summer. The teens are divided into teams, with about 20 for each worksite plus two adults. They travel by van to each worksite daily. The work consists of repairing the homes of individuals chosen by the host organisation, usually trailer homes but some shacks, all wood or vinyl construction/cladding with drywall inside. There are repairs or replacements to roofs, steps, sagging ceilings, rotted walls and floors, uninsulated spaces, places that need a foundation restored, and all sorts of unskilled to moderately skilled labour needed. Sending the group requires a fleet of vans - about 20 in all.

The overall cost comes to about $70k every year. Families pay some, and the parish community donates the rest, and some local businesses put up sponsorship too. This amount would cover the salary of two preschool teachers in a rural school in a deprived area, or the cost of training a carpenter or electrician or two, or the cost of a trained drugs or alcohol counselor for a year (something most of the areas could really do with).

DD2 absolutely loved the whole idea of the trip and came back all starry eyed from the training sessions (the teens got both practical and informational sessions beforehand). She was even OK with the idea that the girls on the trip were expected to wear jeans and no makeup all day every day because the sight of immodest knees and thighs didn't go down well in the local culture. Then off she went with her assigned group.

Their work started ok despite intense heat, humidity, and cloudbursts, soaked jeans and workboots, and mud everywhere. The third day they arrived at the home they were working on about 9am, and the adult leader knocked on the door after a bit as there was nobody to be seen outside. A child answered and told the leader that 'Jeff' was there and they couldn't start working until he and Mama got up. There was evidence of quite the drinking session from the night before visible in the living room - the door opened straight in.

So the group cooled their heels for about half an hour and then the four little children sneaked out the door and joined them, dressed in pajamas and nighties. It dawned on the group that if Mama and Jeff weren't up yet the kids probably hadn't eaten, and they offered their lunches, which the children ate. DD2 suspects now that the kids had had nothing to eat the night before, or breakfast that day.

Jeff hauled his hungover ass out of bed around 11.45 and left an hour later, giving the girls a good look over as he walked to his truck. Mama was a bit the worse for wear and complained about the noise of sawing, drilling and even conversation that went above a certain decibel level all afternoon.

After reflecting on the experience, DD2 decided not to go for another trip, and also felt very angry about the idea that it was for the benefit of lazy ass chauvinists like Jeff that the girls had been forced to cover themselves and be so uncomfortable while basically doing those people an expensive favour.

[clicketyclick66]

My son is 17 and refuses to go on any school trips because he thinks they are a waste of money and believes the money is better spent elsewhere - I'm not joking!

[Yabbers]

Dancingdot
get involved with the PTA

You are aware that the very people you are crapping on for not doing this are the people who work, sometimes with more than 1 job, just to keep the wolf from the door. Where exactly do they find the time to join the bloody PTA. And if it’s full of people who think it is acceptable to suggest trips in excess of £2k, do you really think their voices will be heard?

On the other hand my eldest had three nights in Belgium learning all about the WW1 battlefields, all transport, entrance fees, accommodation and food included for less than £400.

I did this trip 30 years ago with our school, it was fantastic. Sure the cost was about the same then.

[kennycat]

I did a world challenge expedition when I was 18 and it was fantastic. Yes it was expensive (nowhere near 5k but this was 20 years ago) but we spent the two years fundraising as a team and doing part time jobs to fund it. It didn't cost my parents a penny. I had an amazing experience and it taught us a lot about how to work as a team to fund raise as well as gave me an excellent work ethic and ability to balance working with my school work.
If you think your child will work their bum off and raise the money (while also maintaining their studies) I'd encourage them to go for it.

[ResistanceIsNecessary]

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.

This is not personal - it's nothing against your DD as I am sure she is a lovely girl. But it's part of a bigger issue, which is that going abroad on charity projects where you build schools/teach English/ dig wells for "the locals" is not really helping them.

As PP have already pointed out, unless your DD is a qualified engineer, builder or teacher, then she won't be helping. Instead, she'll just be another face in an ever-changing parade of faces that pass through that community. Can you imagine how you'd feel if your DD was being taught by a different, unqualified teenager every week? If the school that your DD attended deliberately didn't employ local and qualified teachers because using Western volunteers was much cheaper for them? Can you imagine how you'd feel as an adult in that community where you needed a job but were unable to get one because a continual stream of well-off Western tourists were paying more money than you'd earn in a year for the "life changing experience" of playing at being charitable for a couple of weeks?

Your DD has every right to have a fantastic and life changing experience - but it should not come at the expense of someone else's quality of life, should it?

[BabySharkAteMyHamster]

Now I think on it i'm even more outraged. It isnt just about the money. The money is the thin end of the wedge.

The real issue is outward bound experiences where the main attraction us smiley, grateful TRAUMATISED children who are there to make well meaning kids feel good about themselves. These children will form attatchments, they'll form bonds and then after a few weeks theyll be snatched away.

Can you imagine that happening in this country ?? It wouldnt be allowed to happen because of the impact on them. These holidays are wrong for so many reasons.

[goodbyestranger]

AbsentmindedWoman for several years I spent weeks and weeks putting together history trips to a particular European area I know well for significantly less than the tour company prices but with vastly superior accommodation and a tailor made package with local meals included at highly recommended cafes and restaurants. The whole time I was planning these trips I really laboured over keeping prices down to the absolute minimum consistent with giving the kids a quality trip. The price for four nights, all inclusive, was way below £500 and the school subsidised the trip for parents whose income was below a certain level.
£5000 is obscene.

[TopBitchoftheWitches]

resistance

We have a meeting to attend, at the school, shortly, any pointers you could give, plus other posters if they have anything to add, would be helpful.

My daughter was so pleased she was accepted on the trip, I won't say anything to her yet.

I must stress again that we are not well off. I'm a single mum without a partner (thankfully) so she will have to fund raise all the money.

[puzzledlady]

£5k for a school trip? Are you in belgravia/Chelsea/Kensington?

[ASauvignonADay]

I agree is ridiculous. We are in a deprived area (over 50% disadvantaged) and most expensive trip is a ski trip and that's less than a grand (cant remember exact cost) and There is a really long instalment plan time. Schools can't really afford to subsidise massively but I agree particularly where there is a big rich poor divide, that is outrageous!

[WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]

@bumpertobumper - Thanks a lot for posting that, describes the situation very well indeed. I recall reading about Comic Relief (aside from stockpiling money and investing it in things that many people find very objectionable) raising funds for mosquito nets and then sending a whole load of them in to where they were desperately needed.

The problem was, though, that there were locals whose livelihoods were in making and selling these nets. As I remember, they weren't asking for an extortionate price for materials and their time and hard work, although the cost was still obviously above that of many of the locals.

CR could easily have found and worked with all the net makers in the region (maybe even put in programmes to train more people to do it) and then pre-ordered and set up a payment plan for all of the nets that they could supply, before sourcing any extra ones for which there wasn't local capacity from elsewhere. Instead, they sent a great big job-lot in from abroad with the result being a lot of skilled net makers having their customer base and livelihoods taken from them at a stroke.

As PPs have said, it's immensely patronising to assume that, because they're all from a (relatively) wealthy background, western schoolchildren travelling in from thousands of miles away will automatically do a better job of building schools than local, adult African builders. Would you be happy to buy a home that had been built by schoolchildren? Then why should they have to put up with and be grateful for it? If it's so life-enhancing to travel a huge distance to help out in the community, why don't the British children instead raise funds so that kids from Kenya can come over here and paint a library in Rotherham or counsel people in poverty in Bathgate?

[BabySharkAteMyHamster]

PuzzledLady........we're a deprived town on the Cumbrian coast. Our local church put an appeal out for old school uniforms over the summer because so many families of secondary school kids couldnt afford to buy their uniform. They already run a clothing bank.

That's why i'm so horrified it's just so ridiculously crass !

[UsedtobeFeckless]

The Camps International ones are basically adventure holidays with a bit of ditch digging thrown in - there's no actual connection to the curriculem and they happen during the school holidays. I think teaching DS that he can do stuff if he saves up for it is no bad thing and l don't see the difference between DP and l saving up for a few years to go and faff around up glaciers in lceland and DS doing this.

The ones l have a problem with are the Holocaust trips. Not the cost but the concept - lt just feels really disrespectful to all the people who were murdered there to make a school jolly out of it.

[mummyknowsbest2010]

My daughter is going to canoe across Mongolia next year for almost 4 weeks with her school at a cost of £3700 (excluding kit) but has had to fundraise for it.

[WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]

£5k for a school trip? Are you in belgravia/Chelsea/Kensington?

Even if they had been, there are still plenty of people who end up living in what are considered to be extremely affluent areas who are right at the other end of the UK wealth spectrum. Grenfell Tower was in Kensington - long before it became known nationwide for such a tragic reason, many of the families there would likely have struggled to have a week in Blackpool.

[User467]

Part of going on these trips is that the kids have to fundraise to raise the money

[goodbyestranger]

Was any member of your family affected directly by the Holocaust UsedtobeFeckless?

[Shampoo0]

I didnt pay this sort of money, but that's ok because most parents didn't neither so trip cancelled. Just don't pay.

[mummyknowsbest2010]

I never want to see another carboot or school fayre again after my daughter is done fundraising!!

[GreenTulips]

So many schools these days obsess over stupid details on school uniforms so that 'every child is equal

Don't for get the 'equal' trophy rewards, or the titles of head girl or boy, or the free football tournaments for the best players, then there's the most merits, beat homework, best project,

All in the name of equality

[Doubletrouble99]

Firstly £5K is a ridiculous amount for a trip. My children went to an expensive private prep. school on a bursary and none of the trips ever cost more than £300 or £400 for things like outward bound and team/self confidence building trips.
All their friends have gone on to very prestigious senior schools including Eton, Harrow, Winchester etc. and no one has been asked to fork out that amount to these schools so why is it OK to do it at a comprehensive?

My DS goes to Sea Cadets where most of the children there are from deprived areas. They do loads of volunteering locally and fund raise for their unit. This then subsidises any trips so a week away costs no more than £100 for the parents, some even get it free. they have a great time and learn so much. I really feel more children should join things like cadets or scouts. We also use organisations like Scripture Union who offer great outward bound and arty types of camps which are great. My two have gained so much on these, they are both accepted on these trips even though they both have SEN - ASD and ADHD and are really well looked after.

[reallybadidea]

I can't get over the cheek of someone 'fundraising' so that they can go on an expensive holiday. It's not exactly a good cause. I fancy going to Mauritius, anyone feel like giving me some money towards it?

[GreenMeerkat]

£5k??? Bloody hell!

We went to Normandy on a coach/ferry. Probably cost my folks about £200. That's as exciting as school trips got back then (late 90s)

[UsedtobeFeckless]

No, but my Grandparents hosted some of the children that came here with the Kindertransport - l'm happy to be told why it's a good idea, though ... (Not being sarcastic - the idea makes me uncomfortable but l'm open to being corrected)