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

The teachers tickets are probably being lumped in to that price too.

My DC wanted to go on a european trip i think it was £350-400 but was oversubscribed so she didnt get to go. It was a 20 hour coach journey each way.
If i was a teacher i would not only want the trip paid for but sone sort of compensation for being in a coach with 30 smelly teenagers for 40 hours!! It certainly doesnt sound like a jolly!!😂

“The teachers tickets are probably being lumped in to that price too”

Of course they are. Well, apart from any free places the agency offers as part of the deal. Who do you suggest pays for the teacher’s ticket?

It might be that you're subsidising some of the children going, if it's not an optional trip.
Ours were always expensive because the parents that had to pay subsidised those that didn't. Eg, trip that would cost £300 for 30 children (so £10/child) would cost £15 per child as only 20 out of the 30 children in the class would be asked to pay, as the other children received free school meals and so weren't expected to pay.

Other students don't subsidise trips for those on free school meals. The school receives a pupil premium payment for those students which, if it chooses to, it can use to fund trips.

Forty years ago I volunteered as a parent to help with a school trip. Just once. I have never forgotten the stress. Teachers deserve to be paid double for taking these on.

NCsally
In answer to your simple question:
"AIBU to think £900 for a 4 day school trip for 13/14 year olds is a tad excessive?"
YANBU!
4 days? What is it? Trip to the International Space Station?

I think this raises the whole issue of School trips. I don't agree with them! Controversial of course. But unless they can be arranged so that no eligible child is precluded from going on the grounds of not being able to afford it, then the school should not dangle these delicious treats under the children's noses.

I can't imagine the stress and distress this issue causes parents and children particularly when there is more than one child for whom these trips become available.

I have not yet recovered from the fact that on the week of the Cycling Proficiency Test, my daughter spent the whole week in the classroom on her own because all the rest were out on their bikes. She did not have a bike. It was quite a long time ago now too.

“Ours were always expensive because the parents that had to pay subsidised those that didn't.”

Are you absolutely sure about this or is to just supposition?

Actually, I am with you op. It doesn't matter where it is. Its a ridiculous amount to ask of any parent. You are not being unreasonable.

I'm going off on a tangent. I'm quite new, & want to read what the OP has said in response, but I can't click on the name. What am I doing wrong, please?

I think it's unreasonable as it singles out the children whose families can't afford this, and for a lot of families, affluent area or not, it would be a large amount to pay. And as it would presumably have an educational point seems again very exclusionary; and some parents may feel they have to stump up and that may add to existing debts - credit card and other debts in the UK already very high for a large number of families. So agree with you OP.

@gowgow - you need to customise your usage so the OP and your posts are highlighted.

Schoolkids, trip of a lifetime!! Bollocks, my daughter's 26 and is on her trip of a lifetime, a year in Canada working at a spa resort and sightseeing Niagara Falls, Calgary Stampede and two weeks in New York taking in a show on Broadway. Plus she's visited other places in Canada. Now that's a trip of a lifetime.

To put this in perspective my yr8 dd has just brought home a letter for a school trip to Iceland next March, this costs £880 with a £125 deposit to be paid by the end of this month, a further £125 paid by start of July and the remainder paid by the middle of January next year.

The DH's and I are working class (We both work in a supermarket, him ft, me pt) we have never been abroad as a family (We also have 3 d's 15 & 12) but this trip to Iceland to visit the geysers, thermal springs, the golden circle, swimming at the secret lagoon, a South shore day, a visit to Reykjavik, a visit to Hellisheidi power plant and a glacier walk on Solheimajokull.

This really is a once in a lifetime trip for my daughter, to make this happen, I'm going to try and pick up extra shifts at work, even if it means pulling double shifts.

If you can't afford it OP don't send your kid, but don't bitch about the school being exclusive and seeing as you've not been back online to tell us where the trip is you realise that yabu.

I don’t get the attitude that if some can’t afford it then no one should get the opportunity. For a start, most of the trips in our school are over-subscribed so even those who can afford it might not get to go. Secondly, why do those who can afford it have to miss out for fear of upsetting those who can’t! That’s just life and sometimes it’s not always fair.

I agree it doesn’t matter where the trip is, it’s unfair to put parents under pressure and it’s not very inclusive.
I can still remember my mums angst over not being able to afford the school pgl trip for me, more so than any disappointment I had over not going.
.

I should add that I don't live in an affluent area.

LatteLoverLovesLattes
I take huge issue when you say:
Obviously it’s disappointing for kids who would like to go but their family can’t afford it.

However, it’s a great opportunity for those who can go. and go on to explain how it will enhance their education - indeed their whole life.

When Schools run educational trips just for the benefit of those from homes with higher incomes, and simply accept that the poor children won't get this educational opportunity so will have to miss out, our Education System has totally failed.

When a person can just accept that in one class of pupils some will have to miss out on a school organised opportunity while the rest benefit, then the country has failed in it's attitude to education.

Education is free to all children. No part of it is kept for the more privileged or the wealthier. There will be those who might go to a Private School, but that is totally out of the State Education System.

If a School send out a letter saying they are arranging a Trip and asking for money towards each pupil's cost on the trip, the School has to be prepared to pay for those pupils whose parents simply say they have not enough money to pay for the trip.

No child should ever be prohibited from any opportunity offered by their school because of their parents' income.

aprarl. My heart goes out to you. I can sympathise. I tried hard when I was involved in the Education System to change school trips so that nobody could be left out. If that dire attitude I have challenged above is typical of MumsNet, then you should be glad not to be like the people in it. I think most Mnetters aren't all like that though. Many struggle and work very hard.

It should say 2 ds not 3

It seems a lot to me.

I remember getting the school trip letters to take home, think most went in the bin without me showing them to mum or dad. I knew they couldn't afford for me to go on them.

Weird that OP has not been back on here after all this time.
£900 would not be feasible for us, wherever the trip was.
We felt bad as we couldn't afford a trip to Spain for our DS - they were charging over £1K
He understood our situation and got a Grade 7 for Spanish at GCSE, despite the school implying that missing the trip would make it less likely that he'd do well.
Our two DSs have been on all of the school day trips; they are usually £30 - £40

My DD is off on a school trip to Milton Keynes ( we are in London) that is costing £450....the only reason I paid it is because she is doing alot of activities like abseiling etc so I can see where the money is going. The school wanted 4K for a trip to china but that was 1st comes and we didn't opt for that one

My kids got letters for school trips. If they were less than £50 they could go however there was no way on this earth were they going abroad on a school trip. I just couldn't afford it. There were a lot of kids families in the same boat as mine though so it didn't matter that much. I was a single parent and used to discuss our finances with my kids. They are all grown up now and can all manage their finances they have all said it's because I taught them about spending and living within your means.

The very poorest students who receive the pupil premium will usually have the costs heavily subsidised (NB by appropriate government funding, not by other parents).

Incidentally, the worst trips from the point of view of inclusion are not the ski trips or visits to Iceland, but the foreign exchanges. Funding can often be used to subsidise costs on these trips for very disadvantaged pupils but it can’t magic up an extra bedroom in an overcrowded flat to enable a family to host a student. It’s ironic that probably the cheapest foreign trip in monetary terms is also the most inaccessible for many students.