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

Yes, teachers go "for free"

But they are working, and looking after the kids in their own annual leave.

I don't think there's any obligation upon people to send their children on paid for trips organised by state schools. Or am I mistaken?

£900 is a crazy amount to ask for a 4 day holiday for a schoolchild. It's irrelevant where the trip is to when the catchment area of school is not a financially comfortable one.

So no MFL trips? No trips to Auschwitz for GCSE History? No West End Shows for GCSE Drama students? No helping broaden the horizons at all?

If the trip is necessary or gives a significant advantage to a student then the course should be subsidised to a point where it is available to all.

If the trip is not necessary then the school shouldnt offer it.

School is not a travel agent. School trips which benefit only a better off few use up scarce school resources including admin time and teacher goodwill.

If my school was anything to go by the MFL trip was just a jolly with more time spent on a visit to Eurodisney than anything else.

A trip to a regional theatre could probably be achieved at far lower cost and with a bit of thought could have far more useful content (backstage tour, talk etc) than a trip to a West End show.

A trip to Auschwitz or other site of significant world event is one which would be beneficial to all and should be subsidised to make it achievable for all.

When we were kids my mum and dad would really skrimp to send us on the trips. We were very hard up, but DM wanted to give us the chance of travel and reasoned it was better one of us go than none of us.

Yes, you can go to Rhodes for 2 weeks as a family of 4 probably, but a £900 trip likely will include as others have said booking through a specialist company with all the insurance and trips and travel included.

£900 for 4 days in NYC would be reasonable. I hear Iceland is incredible and not cheap. I’d save and save for those.

And obviously the accompanying adults don’t pay.

Two trips abroad were offered by my school, there was no hope in hell my family could afford it as there were six dc.

I visited Mont Saint Michel as an adult, it was one of the places my friends raved about having got back from the school trip to France. I cried a little for the girl decades past whose family could afford nothing extra. I bought myself a really lovely silver bracelet in the gift shop.

I totally get just how crap it is being the poor kid at school . It was one of the things that gave me a clear picture of inequality. It made me work my ass off at school to escape. I’m sure others will not like or understand my sentiment of course equality of opportunity is better and more humane but it’s not anyone’s world.

I’m from an era when genuine social mobility seems to have had more of a chance though.

It's not (usually) a jolly for the teachers. They are on duty 24/7. They have to take turns doing middle-of-night shifts to make sure kids aren't patrolling corridors & breaking other rules.

Like the Iceland trip DD went on: yes the teachers see the same great sights and enjoy the walks (but they've seen/walked them before). Their biggest pleasure comes out of expanding the kids' perspectives on the world, and making classroom learning into something tangible and experienced thru the senses.

DD's school also does London theatre & chocolate trips... I imagine it takes days to come off the adrenaline high afterwards, for the adults, because of the having to be 'On' the whole time. I dunno how a ski trip happens. Do the kids ski anywhere they like, never with an adult on the same runs? Which is how I ski'd as a child in 1970s, but that was 1970s! Mind boggles at how that has to be supervised on a 'school' trip.

Adverse I totally get you. For me, it was meeting Donald Duck and joining the Disney parade aged 46. I’d waited 33 years for that moment, and when it came I was a kid again.

If the state schools don't offer these trips then only the private school kids or the ones whose families can afford to go (and for whom it is suitable) get to go.

So overall fewer children get to go.

The ones who miss out might be ones where in the family there is a much younger sibling, or a disabled sibling, or a disabled parent, or where parents can't get time off at suitable time of year, or want a week in the sun, or don't like museums, or are scared of flying, or aren't fit enough to ski, or, or, or.

These aren't essential trips, they are enrichment activities to broaden horizons, spark or develop an interest. Whatever price you charge there will always be some whose parents can't/won't afford the extra. And actually due to parental anxieties there will always be some who aren't allowed to go even if it is free. Is it really right that everyone else should be denied the opportunity?

@dailymailsuckswails - my DD is just getting ready for her school ski trip. They are going with a specialised ski company. The kids are put into groups and will be in ski school all week so they will have a qualified ski instructor supervising them at all times.

WHERE TO?

@GnomeDePlume
A trip to Auschwitz or other site of significant world event is one which would be beneficial to all and should be subsidised to make it achievable for all.

How do you suggest it is subsided?

Actually I agree it's too expensive regardless. 4 days, and in a POOR area. The school is out of touch and the fact the trips are voluntary is not the point at all. Lots of children would feel excluded and it create layers within the school of haves and have nots.

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

Are you kidding? They give up a week or more of their own holidays, family time, to take other people's children on a holiday, keep them safe (no mean feat with 40+ teenagers) and make sure they have a great time and you think they should have to pay? Not only am I very grateful that they are willing to do this but I email on their return to thank them for doing so. My child had the opportunity to do something that he would not have otherwise done.

As I said earlier, this is likely to be a holiday and not a curriculum trip. As long as the curriculum trips are inclusive and subsidised then I don't see the harm in offering other trips.

marcopront for such a trip I would be happy to support school fundraising in the wider community. Look to build a pot of money which is ringfenced for such a trip. A trip to such a significant site should not be consumed by a jolly.

My DCs are out of school now so I dont have a vested interest.

£800 all in for DS's school ski trip to Austria - 1 week. Can only imagine NY or similar costing £900 for 4 days

“d should be subsidised to make it achievable for all.”

Subsidised by whom?

£900 Is ridiculous amount of money for a school trip. Even if it would be super cheap considering the location, they shouldn't organize that expensive trips from schools. Unless maybe if it was holiday season and not really related to the school at all. You can get really cheaply to mainland Europe from the UK and that is perfectly nice for students. I really don't see the need for school to take students to ski in the alps. I see more value with a trip to Rome for educational purposes.

I We have gone abroad with class twice when I was in school. Once was when we were 16yo and I remember the teachers saying the price (maybe £500) for the flight and all the students were wtf. So we looked up cheaper flights (Maybe £150) and booked those. I think the teachers just looked up the first direct flights with nicer airlines where as we were happy to take Ryanair.

I do also remember during that trip that the teachers stayed in a different hotel that was next door. One night we were hanging out at the hotel and someone run up to say that they had seen one of the teachers. We all quickly hid all the alcohol. The teacher knocked on the door and she was totally shitfaced. Good times.

@nokidshere, I was explaining the cost and nothing more. I don’t expect teachers to supervise children on school trips at their own cost or for the school to pay. I have 4 dcs including triplets and I know perfectly well how school trips work.

BertrandRussell I answered the same question to marcopront:

For such a trip (as a trip to Aushwitz or other very significant site) I would be happy to support school fundraising in the wider community. Look to build a pot of money which is ringfenced for such a trip. Collective fundraising to bring the cost down for all.

In an ideal world the trip would be funded from school funds but we arent in an ideal world so other fundraising would be needed. I wouldnt put my hand in my pocket to support a school skiing trip but would for a thoughtfully organised and run trip of such social and historical significance.

A trip to such a significant site should not be consumed by a jolly.

My DCs are out of school now so I dont have a vested interest.

DS went on a trip to Iceland which cost about that - he was in year 10 when he went.

It was a good job he went when he did (more luck really that we found out the trip was running for year 11s and a few year 10s went too) because when it came to organising the trip for his year group the parents went on a sanctimonious too expensive crusade ("even though we can afford it we won't send our child because it's not fair on those who can't afford it") (funny that they have no such qualms about expensive family holidays to places like Japan) and the school didn't run it (but they are running it later this year for the current year 10s.

Other trips have been much cheaper eg Berlin and Barcelona for around £500 each and a camping trip in the UK for £80.

In year 6 the 4 night residential was around £300.

I forgot to say I was happy to pay for an educational trip to Iceland.

A ski holiday, not so much.

About "exclusivity", a school close to us had an option of 50 theatre tickets for next to nothing, but only 50. There are 180 children in that year group. The cost of that trip is pretty low, the coach to the theatre plus about £5 each, it's out of school time, and they put names in a hat as it was massively over subscribed.

On the whole "if everyone can't go, then no one should" that some on here feel, it shouldn't have happened.

Schools often provide limited opportunities, chances for extra curricular activities that aren't available to all students, due to cost, limited places, needing parents to take/collect you, needing to have particular talents or academic levels.

Its not wrong in itself to have some extras that not everyone can do, so long as there's a range of extra activities provided so most students have a chance of something.

Almost 2k for ds’s trip next year. That’s 9 days in Canada. No holiday for us this year! But it may be a once in a life time trip for him, so we are paying it. I’m just green eyes that I’m not going!

Really need to know where this £900 trip is too (unless you’ve posted and I’ve missed it)

If anyone suspects school trips are subsidising teachers costs, I'm sure schools would be more than happy to remove this and invite teachers to attend the trip,as students are (but to act as adult supervision still) andvpaybtje fee.

Why?

Because no bugger would take them up on it and trips wouldn't take place due to no supervising staff.

Winner all round!

“I would be happy to support school fundraising in the wider community.”

Hmm. How do you imagine this working?