AIBU for £900!

[NCsally]

AIBU to think £900 for a 4 day school trip for 13/14 year olds is a tad excessive?? I would understand if it's a private school or even a school in an affluent area but it isn't! It's a poor area with very low wage jobs! Parents can barely afford school lunches let alone £900 for a trip which doesn't even include spending money etc

I don't think it matters where the trip is to! The point is that the school are asking for £900 in an area where families struggle to even pay for school lunches! YANBU OP

It's £900 for a 4 day school trip for 13 year olds surely it shouldn't matter where it is

Of course it matters

It would have to be optional, yeah?

YABU not to say where to and yet expect folk to agree with you.

Well of course it matters. Is it a ski trip (never necessary IMO) or a once-in-a-blue moon trip to an unusual destination that will help your dc’s language/history/geography studies? (Good idea and worth it if you can afford it).

Of course it doesn't matter where the trip is to if hardly anyone being offered the trip has a prayer of being able to scrabble together £900!

Depends where it is

The destination is irrelevant if you can’t afford to pay for your DC to go on the trip regardless of where they are going.
For us to say if it’s expensive or not then destination is key - 4days camping in the new Forrest then it’s expensive, 4 days in a skiing resort then not so bad

About average for a foreign school trip, I think.

Ski trips or sports tours tend to be even more expensive (1.5-2K)

But they are not compulsory and normally only about 10% of the year go, so its not like you stand out if your parents can't afford it!

It's an extortionate amount of money, regardless of where they're going to! £900! For four days? That's about £1500 a week. I wouldn't pay that for me, never mind a child!

Ski trips tend to be over £1k

We recently had a letter for 4 days in Iceland which I think was about £950.

Why would they offer the trip if they didn’t think demand was there?

I don't think it matters where it is, 900 for a 13 years old school trip is so far beyond reasonable I think I must live on a different planet to those who think it 'depends where they are going'.

I think the point is dangling £900 trip in front of the kids puts pressure on families no matter if its good value or not.
School.trips are ridiculously expensivs and I think its time the trips were reigned in a bit.
The school will deny it but you will be subsidising the teachers accomodation and meals because I very much doubt there is much room in their budget for this

YANBU OP.

I dont think it matters if it is to Skegness or the dark side of the moon. I agree with OP, £900 is an enormous amount of money for a state school to propose parents to spend on a trip.

This is a constant bugbear of mine. If the trip is compulsory then it should be affordable for all. Otherwise the school should not be proposing a trip which is to all intents and purposes a holiday.

Schools are not travel agents. They should not be wasting a moment's time or effort on holiday trips which benefit only a minority.

These are not 'once in a lifetime' trips. There is no Brigadoon. The world will still be there for our DCs to explore when they leave education, get jobs, pay for their own trips.

jessicawessica "tour of the Grand Canyon with sarnies thrown in" did make me laugh!

@NCsally
It's £900 for a 4 day school trip for 13 year olds surely it shouldn't matter where it is it's the fact it's bloody £900

I 100% get this.

We have 2 school trips almost mandatory in May and at the end of Aug when kids go from junior to senior school (13/14 yr olds). But even that is 350 for the week. One is in France the other in UK. And kids with bursaries get financial help as they really want all of the class to go.

Other trips like ski trips, San Francisco, Iceland... are always in holiday time, have limited space and are above 1.5k. Now they are expensive....

julensaor I think I live on that planet with you because there is no way I would pay £900 for a four day school trip.

julensaor said what I’m feeling!

Right. We’ve so far established that the population of this planet extends to at least me, the OP, jule and MudCity. Very glad it’s not too lonely on here.

“ Is it a ski trip (never necessary IMO) or a once-in-a-blue moon trip to an unusual destination that will help your dc’s language/history/geography studies? ”

If it’s a ski trip that’s sort of OK. If it’s a trip that will help with languages, history or geography I would go completely ballistic. Getting the local paper involved ballistic.

And don't feel pressured by the school OP.
I got constant text messages from the school asking me to reconsider "for DS's sake".
They even called my EXDH who then called me to say I should pay up and let DS go.
If you can't afford it, you can't afford it, especially if it means you and other Dcs have to forgo a holiday to pay for it.

@ScienceIsTruth are you in the UK? Pupil premium students are paid for by the pupil premium grants in the UK, other parents don't subsidise them. If a school is saying other parents ARE, then not only are they fuelling people's negative feelings towards less advantaged kids and their backgrounds, but they're possibly pocketing the money themselves.

Also why is it "okay" if it's a ski trip?
Who pays £900 to wear more clothes on holiday than they do at home