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 🤔🤷‍♀️

My experience in these world vision trips is it's more hassle for the locals. Send the money to a reputable charity and let the locals do the work. This way they are contributing to help the locals in work, the economy etc......

I have a friend who is ex army. They were sent to build a property on some pr mission as he put it they basically built the locals an oven in the middle of nowhere as they didn't have the skills to build a mud building which are done for insulation properties. They built a metal building that would have roasted them alive.

2BoysandaCairn have you visited any of the camps? I'd tend to say that Auschwitz is far more than the sum of a few buildings and obviously has many films of its liberation, walls covered with the original photos of inmates with their dates of death, different blocks explaining, using a whole variety of media, the stories of the different groups of peoples from the various countries and much more by way of education beyond that. I do find the idea that people 'don't need to visit' because it's merely 'a few buildings' and one can look at films from the comfort of ones own school hall to be really missing the point. Of course people shouldn't go if they have no interest or if they see it merely as a good selfie opportunity (which often upsets others), but to dismiss the place where these things took place as 'a few buildings' is really not great. Maybe give it a bit more thought before dismissing it like that.

I think most sane people hate these trips and lots of wise words here about charity tourism

I am very cynical about world challenge and the like. The only winners seem to be the third party organisation who organise these over priced trips. Why should family and fitness fund (via sponsorship) for a jolly under the guise of charity? Very little charity gets done, the villages or whatever get very little labour for a brief period by a bunch of unskilled teenagers. Con all round!

What Papaya said. Allow locals to do it themselves with financial help and teaching skills - the latter impossible for school kids to provide.

University Admissions Tutor told us about an applicant who talked about his World Challenge experience, building a school library, in an interview.

The tutor asked whether they had also donated books. Hopeful student looked blank and said "no". "So", said the tutor, "you put some shelves up!"

I HATE being asked to sponsor kids for their holiday. I do think the kids doing it learn from the experience, but there is no wider benefit other than to the shareholders of the companies running the schemes.

Teachers Jollies!!

That's too much. If i had a spare 5k it'd go on dental implants.

£5k??? Holy shitballs! I used to balk at a couple hundred quid with my eldest. My youngest is due to start school next September but we couldn’t afford anything anywhere near that! That’s a holiday of a lifetime type money for my family of 4.

Teachers Jollies!!
I wish!
I've done some nice school trips (not the voluntourism ones) and they are far from a jolly. They take hours and hours of preparation and organisation. Usually they run into the holidays, we're on duty 24/7 & there's no time back in lieu or overtime pay.

They're usually really good experiences and I tend to get involved with one every couple of years but they arent a jolly.

It would really depend on the trip. If it were actually pretty good value for money then I might think it was a good deal, but it would have to be a pretty special one, considering it would be in addition to family holidays in the same year!

You're paying for the teachers to go!!

I hate those sort of trips. It’s part of why we decided to homeschool our children. We do expect them to do voluntary work but not the kind offered by schools. Plus I’m not willing to force them into something they will definitely hate either.

That completely defeats the purpose. Work should be simulating and challenging as well. Not impressed. Can you call the school and complain about this?

As a last ditch resort, consider removing them from the school. But only if you are getting nowhere.

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)

GreenMeerkat, I'll see your Normandy and raise you Dun Laoghaire to Holyhead, 1978, in my first year of secondary school. I bought a souvenir smoked glass mug in Woolworths. They accepted Irish punts.

Because a small group from my year got up to some serious mischief on the ferry back we were grounded from all-year trips until we were in our final year and the small group had all dropped out of school.

There were 20 places available. They'll be helping to build a school for the children that live there.

How do young teens help build a school? What are their qualifications? Seriously- what will they actually be doing,? I'd be very worried about the robustness of a school built by middle class teens!!

I’ve already said my teen has signed up for this. He certainly won’t be building a school. And he’s not asking friends or family to find it either.
I would hate being asked to pay for someone else’s child to have an amazing holiday. Or dressing up a holiday as a worthy volunteering choice. But we’re not doing that. So I can’t understand the issue. It’s not compulsorary.

And he’s not asking friends or family to find it either.

Will he be working part time to earn the money? Or will he like so many others be mowing lawns and washing cars etc. All stuff that whilst not verbally asking others to fund the trip actually mean that's exactly what they end up doing?

The problem here is most of these world challenge trips are exactly what you say your son wont be doing.

World Challenge. I said no to all my kids as the cost was eye watering but said that if they raised all the money themselves by working they could go.

One of them decided to go for it. He got a Saturday job and saved for over a year. He had an amazing time. It is possible for them to go and you pay nothing.

“Fundraising” my arse. Had this nonsense at my local Waitrose checkout. Tarquin trying to take over my bag packing while waving a bucket under my nose.

Actually the fundraising element is only allowed to be spent on the project.

The trip (flight / accommodation / food) has to be paid for by the student - in ds's case with a Saturday job. None of them are Tarquins as it is a bog standard comprehensive.

I saw a bunch of schoolchildren from Scotland on one of these trips in a tribal village about an hour outside Hanoi in Vietnam. The village was very entrepreneurial, they ran a big karaoke restaurant as well as offering eco tourism. The children were weeding the vegetable plot and helping entertain the children in the restaurant. I wonder if they paid £5000 to be cheap help and it was sold as doing good works for a remote and impoverished hill tribe. 😂😂😂😂 It will no doubt have done them good though as they probably wouldn’t lift a finger to help their own parents in the garden!

Slightly different...

I worked for charities for many years.

At one charity we had a group of bank managers wanted to do some volunteering (dubious reasons - I think they thought it was a jolly allowed by the bank) and were very hopeful we'd let them loose with the children with disabilities. We obviously didn't.

So they had to paint the day room instead. (And we had to provide them with endless cups of tea and biscuits) It was so very badly done we had to get a professional decorator to redo the whole lot immediately. I really wish the bank had just given us some money.

Huge amount of disruption, admin and staff time given over to something with a really rubbish outcome. Lesson learned.

I guess it depends how it is organised. The school ds's group helped provided a shopping list and they bought stuff the school actually wanted. The work project was within the capabilities of the teens so no wasted resources.

Heads he has two actual part time jobs. He’s not cutting lawns of friends and family and demanding cash. He works hard for the money at actual proper paid employment having answered advertisements.

If corruption is taking money meant for one thing (building a school) and use it for other/personal purposes, then what's the difference with these trips? Money taken to build a school/teach kids and spent on unskilled, completely inexperienced builders or teachers so that they can have a bit of fun

I'd suggest there's actually very little difference; after all, it boils down to money intended for a stated purpose simply lining someone's pocket

It's good to see the sheer common sense on most of this thread though. I'd thought more people were sucked in by the voluntourism thing, but apparently not