To ask what the worst school trip was that you ever went on?

[MrsKiplin]

Mine was a trip to Belgium. I had a sickness bug the whole time and missed everything!

Some lovely ‘character building’ school trips on this thread.

Vote for classics!

School trip to Chessington. Which sounds great if you aren't utterly terrified of rollercoasters and anything even remotely like it. My mum did warn the school but they thought she was joking.

And yeah, being bullied on the coach on the way home by both the teachers and the staff wasmy much fun either.

@avonandice:

“Wigan Pier - coach trip to see a scrappy piece of wood over a ditch”

I think it’s closed down now but Wigan Pier used to be a great living museum. Loads of actors in old fashioned garb. There was an old school room and the “teacher” scared the living shit out of me. I remember also going to a wake in someone’s parlour and being told off for not looking somber and respectful enough “for the deceased”

It was great fun. I don’t remember any bit of wood over a ditch?!

Are you sure your teachers didn’t kid you that that as it, and keep the museum entrance fee for themselves to get pissed in the pub later?!

@CurlyhairedAssain

Honestly, that wouldn't have surprised me at all. Think the trips were more riot control than educational

At our school we never really went on trips, the rumour was that this was because on the last trip (at some point in the long distant past) the woodwork teacher had been caught wanking off a tramp in the bus station.

This rumour was accepted by generations of students as a fact and lasted for the duration of said woodwork teacher's 25 year stint at the school.

Ahh I loved the sewage works, it was the business!

Worst trip was definitely the French exchange. We hadn't learned any vocab for food and my host family interpreted me not saying anything as not wanting anything. Spent half the bloody time eating plain baguette. And my host partner's idea of things to do in free time was wander around the estate bi

Sodding phone-- with sanpro sticking them to walls and then setting them on fire. Yay.

I went on a school trip as a parent helper with my ds, as the bus was about to leave a parent hopped on to come along and help, she hadn't prearranged it and the staff just sat gob smacked. The trip was to the beach for sand castle building and a pony ride and a picnic. It was so cold and windy the sandcastle building was hell, while we waited for our groups turn on the ponies the teachers decided we go and have a look in the nearby sea life centre .... gift shop, none of the kids had money with them as they weren't expecting to so anywhere to spend it. Had our lunch on the bus and the lady that had hopped on the bus last minute owned the local Chinese takeaway and was giving out prawn crackers .... just surreal

We're the Richmond adventure holidays at Prior House in Richmond?

They asked our form if anyone was too scared to go caving. I was the only one who put a hand up.
My group groaned and moaned that we wouldn't go.
After the first group came back they all came one by one and thanked me.

The house has now been sold off as flats.

Mine was a couple of years ago as a teacher.

We went to London for 3 nights. One pupil "felt ill" on the coach (it's a long drive to London from here), and started vomiting. We were delayed on the motorway and had no time to stop at hotel before dinner and the theatre. One child had chosen to travel in pjs so they had to go to dinner and theatre in pjs and fluffy dressing gown . Vomiting child sat next to me in the theatre (we had nowhere else to leave her), we were at the end of a row near the back thinking we could get out to the loo if she needed it, but she fell asleep on my shoulder and only woke up as she vomited all over me . The theatre staff were lovely and helped clean is both up as much as possible, but I still spent another 2 hours covered in someone else's vomit as we couldn't go back to the hotel without the rest of the group.

That was just the start of a very bad few days, involving more vomit, an incident with the child in a wheelchair (not their fault at all, but difficult to gain access to an activity we had been told was accessible), a cancelled show and teenagers trying to sneak into each other's bedrooms.

I don't run that trip any more.

God where to start lol.

Went to an activity centre day trip as a helper. Questioned the teacher about the return train time as I got that train to work every day and it was always 26 past the hour, but she was adamant it was 36. Of course it was 26 and we had to spend nearly an hour on the platform with 30 bored kids, then had to deal with various missed school transprts etc when we got back. When the HT mentioned me getting that train everyday the teacher said "Yes, you should have mentioned something lala" and I nearly decked her.

Went to a mining museum. Had spoken to all of the kids at length about their choice to do down the mine or not as it's dark/claustrophobic etc. Worked out who was going and who wasn't. Same question was asked to the adults. One of the parent helpers had a panic attack down the mine and terrified the shit out of the kids who thought she was dying.

The worst one though was a trip to a museum on a shitty rainy day. The kids had been looking forward to a big outdoor part of the day, but the weather was horrific so they were bored. All of the groups were together having lunch and one of the boys made a rude comment about being bored. His Mum was one of the parent helpers and she marched over, screamed in his face that he was an ungrateful little shit and slapped him. Which, of course, by the time we got back had been reported to the school as a teacher slapping a child in the middle of the museum. It caused all sorts of hassles.

14 and Epping Forest to do some horrible biology field trip in the cold and wet. I was a miserable teenager, realizing that I was gay and hopelessly in love with one of the other girls in the class who basically ignored me the whole weekend...

Not me but my colleagues when we worked for a newspaper. For several years they ran a token collect competition to win a whole primary class trip for a week in Disney in Florida.

Our marketing team always went with them as well as the class teacher and a few parent chaperones.

All went well until a few days before they were due to leave Florida when children - all aged 6 or 7 - started dropping like flies with chicken pox.

They were quarantined so could not not fly and had to
move out of Disney hotel into much cheaper travelodge- type accommodation.

Parents had to be flown out to accompany their children home as and when they were cleared to fly. And the marketing manager had to stay until the final few could fly home.

It cost an absolute fortune in accommodation and food costs and although covered by insurance was a nightmare at the time.

That was the last competition of that type ever held

One year we went on a school trip to Brighton. We had fun visiting the shops and having lunch on the beach. At first all was well with everyone. Everything was perfect and we were happy to be out of school too. It was a perfect summery day. Just right for a trip to the seaside.
Until...
A bird flew overhead and almost pooped on one of the other students in the group as we were taking pictures. To top it all off someone else contracted food poisoning from her noodles. She was rushed off immediately. I almost lost my treasured trinket bag at some point during the day as well. And my phone.

Not as awful as some of these, I remain grateful I never did residentials. But we went to Alton towers one year (despite only being down the road from chessington and Thorpe Park) we had to be on the coach at silly o’clock and some boys thought it would be fun to smuggle drinks on with them. They got absolutely shitfaced and threw up everywhere we had to stop the coach somewhere on the motorway and wait for them to be collected by another teacher and taken back to their parents. We got to Alton towers even later than planned, seemed like it was school children day completely packed and queues for three hours for the oblivion ride before having to head back home.

I have been to sewage works as an adult through work though, brand new shiny, non smelling one near reading.

My daughters class, charged £14 to visit the local Tesco express- the sane one she want to with my mum every week. Poured down and could only have a few kids in at once, £14 to stand in the rain and look around a tiny tesco

Alton towers, we were all too short to go on any ride, really morning Day being dragged around gardens. Before the tinterweb was invented

Barcelona - was flashed by a creep whilst he pleasured himself and then had my bag nicked with my passport, wallet and Walkman in it. Think I was most upset about the Walkman.

I went to the airport for GCSE Business Studies. We had to get the bus at the end of the road but as it was public transport some of us had to wait for the next one in the rain. We basically wandered around the bit before security, looked out of the windows at a few planes, wrote down which airlines flew from there and rode the monorail between the airport and the train station a few times. So boring.

I went abroad a few times too with some notable disasters but the good outweighed the bad I think...

London in 4th year (age 15). Horrible youth hostel in a really rubbish area, boys on the trip thinking it was hilarious to keep spraying deodorant on the smoke detector so the fire alarm kept going off and we spent most of the night standing about in the rain while local teenagers jeered at us.
Minimal organised activities in London itself. It was a history trip but we didn't do anything historical. We stood on tower bridge and looked at David Blaine in his box (stunt he was doing at the time) and went to the Tate and saw Fame. But we spent most of the time wandering around Oxford Street while the teachers went to the pub. None of us really had any money and it was very boring!

We were ‘country bumpkins’ taken to meet inner city Sikh girls in a temple in Wolverhampton. We slept the night all on the floor in sleeping bags and woke up multiple times being walked over by old men who didn’t seem to know we were they and were trying to get across the room to pray. Scary at the time.

I went on a residential trip to a place near kings lynn at the same time as many other schools. EVERYONE and i mean EVERYONE that eats meat got food poisoning. Imagine 400 8-11year olds with 5 blocks of 4 toilets......

School trip to Wimbledon - coach set off late, we didn't arrive in time to get in. A couple of resourceful girls jumped the queue and got to see the whole day, because they were in we had to hang round the whole day - we got in on late entry! ho hum..

Outward bound trip to Scotland in Yr 5.

Was molested by a man on the train on the way up.
My best friend was pushed off rope swing and broke her arm so had to go home early.
I was left in a dorm with some horrible year sixes who bullied me, capsized my canoe, kicked stones down at me whilst I was rock climbing, destroyed my packed lunch and various other nastiness.
On the train home a toffee got stuck on a tooth that had only just started to become wobbly and it pulled it out, which was so painful and it bled like a bugger.

Shudder.