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

you will be subsidising the teachers accomodation and meals

DDs school is very open about doing this, showing a breakdown of how much the supervising teachers costs each student for their flight and accn (less than £100), but not meals.

On this trip only breakfast and evening meals are included for anyone, so we have been told to budget at least £10 per day for lunch and more for snacks etc. so realistically another £100 immediate cost on top of the trip price, not including spending money.

I’ve paid £900 for DD’s ski trip but that’s for a full week. It really does depend on where they are going.

My DD has long left school but some of the trip prices were excessive. I think worst one was a trip to Galápagos Islands for 3k

Are posters genuinely suggesting that teachers should pay for their own places on school trips?

My friend's son went to Iceland (Geography) and the following year to NYC (Economics), another friend's daughter has just come back from Sicily (Geography). We went to the local watercress meadows!

£900 for 4 days?!?
My dcs are going to a private school and I wouldn’t spend that. Most of the trips they organise are much cheaper than that (eg £300 for a week in France). Skiing being a bit different but they go for a full week, not 4 days.

Proposing that in an area with low income families is crazy. How many people will be able to afford that?

WHERE IS IT??

How does anyone know if it's dear if you don't say where it is?

I think all school trips have to cover the teacher's costs and any replacement staff at school. Having said that there is no way I would pay his for a 4-day trip, and my wage is above average.

I think it's very sad for pupils to be presented with something life-enhancing and then be faced with the reality that it's one of many life-enhancing things they can't have.

The school will deny it but you will be subsidising the teachers accomodation and meals”

Why should they deny it? Do you pay for your own work trips?

School trips vary so much my daughter has been on trips from £45 to £1800 skiing in America and everything in-between, Spain, Belgium and France. The worst was the French/Belgium and only two girls didn’t go and when they returned the rest of the terms work related to the trip so the two who didn’t go were at a disadvantage, very unfair if the school.

It’s difficult and I have made sacrifices for my daughter to go, mainly because I think it’s good for her growing independence and as a only child it’s good for her to be around others for she has never had that sibling relationship. Schools gives a year or mores notice and offer monthly payments.

Saying that if she wasn’t an only child I couldn’t afford it.

The ski trip wasn’t educational it was a fun trip in the half term and we also contributed to the teachers which I thought was fair.

She is at a state Grammar with varied incomes.

Lol at subsidising the teachers

Yes, they don't have to pay, as it is work. Funnily, there is never a queue of teachers volunteering.

DH is a secondary school teacher and school trips are not a jolly or even mildly enjoyable

Instead you are 24/7 responsible for other people's children, who may do silly things, have anxiety or panic attacks, throw up, sneak out, or fall to their death climbing around on balconies in the night (happened once to child from different school in same hotel).

Seriously, he dreads school trips.

But the kids love them

Some even say "thank you" after the trip, which means a lot to teachers

I agree that the trips that cost less are more divisive as more will go, not many will go on the expensive ones. At DSs school the only one that cost over £900 was the ski trip which was open to the whole school each year as take up was low. We said that DS could go once and to pick very carefully which year he went, he went when he was 15 and we did feel it was worth it, we would never have took him skiing ourselves. I’m guessing it is somewhere like Iceland as it is 4 days, skiing is usually a bit longer and Europe holidays a bit less.

Of course you’re subsidising teachers.
Without qualified staff supervision the trip wouldn’t happen.
I can’t imagine anyone wanting to pay their own money to take my DCs to Belgium or abseiling or whatever.
It is too hard to say without knowing the destination and what they will be doing.
I’ve paid more than that for a 4day trip for DCs but it was to a specific tournament and obviously covered entry, insurance, professional coaches etc. So it really depends.

I think I paid that to get DD to Iceland. It WAS Iceland, though.

NCsally
If you are reading the replies please answer. There is nothing more infuriating than someone posting an AIBU and then ignoring people who try to answer it. I understand that Op can’t sit all day watching mumsnet but it is polite to check in more than a couple of times.

£2K for a South Africa trip in my DDs school.

The prices of school trips are high because schools often expect parents to subsidise the cost of flights and accommodation for teachers who are supervising the trip. Schools also use expensive tour operators who specialise in trips for schools and colleges as they need to ensure every aspect of the trip has been assessed for risks. This adds to the cost.

£900 is a lot of money for a 4 day trip and often students are housed in fairly basic accommodation where they share rooms and facilities.

OP might be still in bed as it is Saturday, hopefully she will be back to tell us where, I’m guessing Iceland for which the price sounds about right.

I paid less than 2/3 of that to send DS to India for two weeks with his school! That was definitely the trip of a lifetime for him..... but it wasn't compulsory and we had two years in which to get the cash togather and the school did some fundraising too.

Our school trips cost the families under €300 per child, but they are organised so that the whole class goes - although one child has been kicked off the trip to Poland that leaves today for being persistently abusive to my colleague: it was explained to his parents that it was a matter of safety and supervision - if he wasn't to be trusted in a classroom how could the teachers ensure his and the other pupils' safety in an airport and a foreign country.

I don't think the OP was seeking answers to whether ot was reasonable for the actual trip but was it reasonable to even run such a trip when the vast majority of pupils would not be able to access it.

The cost doesn’t subsidise the teachers, it pays for them. Of course it does.

Unless, of course, you think they should pay for the privilege of holding sick bags for vomiting children on interminable coach trips, sleeping in shifts so that there is always a member of staff on duty to stop the kids sneaking into each others’ rooms, sitting with a frightened child who has been stopped at Immigration, enlisting local police to help find a child who has gone missing on the Champs-Elysées, or dealing with the unspeakable trauma of a child dying in a freak accident whilst in their care - all of which have happened either to me or to my colleagues.

I don’t volunteer for residential trips at the moment. I did a lot pre-children and no doubt I will do them again when my own family is a bit older. Even (and perhaps especially) when they are in the most amazing places they are no picnic and the idea that parents honestly think we are getting a holiday and should pay for it is intensely depressing.

The prices of school trips are high because schools often expect parents to subsidise the cost of flights and accommodation for teachers who are supervising the trip.

God, this is so depressing.

The price is high to cover the costs of qualified, professional staff at appropriate ratios to ensure the safety of the children, the cost of highly comprehensive insurance, and the cost of specialist tour companies.

“The prices of school trips are high because schools often expect parents to subsidise the cost of flights and accommodation for teachers who are supervising the trip.“

Do you pay for your own work trips?

You think £900 is a lot? Dd was offered a trip (year 10) that was £3950! 2 weeks to Borneo to "volunteer" building houses for orphaned orangutang. State school but middle income area (certainly not posh)

Aside from the outrageous cost, voluntourism is ridiculous.

Presumably, none of the adult professional wildlife biologists who live in the country and have a hands-on knowledge of their own nation's ecology and environment was capable of doing this so it was decided that the only people with sufficient skills would be a group of random 15yos from the UK....

Meant to say I would fully expect to pay for the teachers’ places on school trips. They are not going on holiday, they are working and looking after my child.