To think this is really crap on the school?

[User62618926]

DC in year 7 has a reward trip to a shopping centre in a nearby city. It's a big one, tonnes of shops, cinema, crazy gold, arcades, food hall etc etc.

Trip is to reward good behaviour and they will be walking around unsupervised for the day.

We as parents had to provide them with money to spend throughout the day. Most of them want to go to the cinema, then food on top, drinks, spends for the shops/arcade.

When I was in school we got rewards for things like attendance but it was something like a chocolate bar! My parents were never expected to fork out cash so "school" could reward me.

AIBU to think this is pretty poorly thought out by the school especially with current times? I know a few parents have complained because they are already feeling the pinch and are now feeling pressure to magic up £££ for this, many are taking even around £50 with them!

Crazy golf*

Obviously title should say OF the school 🤦🏼‍♀️

Yes that’s a shit idea. Either the school should pay for the reward or it should be a fixed price trip.

Completely shit.

There was a similar trip organised by our school cinemas or theme park. The difference is it was paid by the school.

@User62618926

Crazy golf*

Yes it's pretty crap of the school but THANK YOU for clarifying what crazy gold was - I was wondering if it was some new trend!!

Ridiculous "reward"

School should be funding whatever reward they choose to give, and should cut their cloth accordingly.

One of the schools I taught at had a reward trip to Blackpool every year. The school paid for the coaches but parents still needed to provide spending money. That was years ago.

Surely there is no expectation or obligation that parents provide £50?

It's terrible. I'm assuming they have chosen that because it's free for the school.

That's terrible and will exclude so many kids (awful timing too to suggest it now). DD's school has reward trips but these tend to be to a zoo or other attraction so spending money is £5 for sweets etc

Surely there is no expectation or obligation that parents provide £50?

No of course there is no obligation nor is there actually an obligation to send DC. But it's pretty shitty for the children who are excited to either not be allowed to go or only be allowed to take a tenner compared to their friends £50.

It's just a shitty thing to do especially in the current climate. Way to show who's got money and who hasn't at the moment!

These trips are stupid if there’s just a selection of kids going for ‘Good behaviour’ - my kids school did this for the naughty kids. But it should be going to an activity, not a mall!

It's not a particularly clever thing for the school to send a bunch of teens (presumably in their uniforms), unsupervised around shops, especially given the potential for misbehaviour, bullying, coercing into petty theft if no spending money etc

That's terrible!
When our school do "reward" trips the specifically set an affordably low maximum amount that children are allowed to bring for spending. Usually £3. So that there can be no oneupmanship if one child can afford something that others can't. And that's a fee paying school (although with higher than typical bursary kids) - a state school should be even more sensitive to the differences in economic circumstances amoung pupils. There must be loads of families at present who couldn't consider spending money like that on a day out.

What a rubbish "reward". Surely hanging out in a shopping centre is something they can do without the school's involvement. They should be organising a sports day, or fun activity team building day. Basically the teacher will sit in a cafe while the kids roam around eating sweets, buying crop tops and shoplifting.

There must be plenty of other more intelligent options in your area.

Same reward is a trip to ice skate that parent pay for, including transport and lunch! Gee thanks.

Surely, the reward should have been a funded cinema trip, or film to be watched at school with a free tuck shop. "We're taking your kid to truant for the day at your expense" isn't a reward for anything. Can you raise it with the school, how it looks from the parents' perspective?

@ilovesooty

One of the schools I taught at had a reward trip to Blackpool every year. The school paid for the coaches but parents still needed to provide spending money. That was years ago.

Surely there is no expectation or obligation that parents provide £50?

Of course there's no expectation but it's a bit of a shit reward to just wander around a shopping centre with no money. Surely most of them do that at the weekend anyway as teenagers?

I do agree that it's a pretty shit reward actually.

Is this a joke?! Why on earth does the school think it’s ok to in effect spend other people’s money. Especially the way things are at the moment

DS1 is going. Why shouldn't kids who behave etc get something for once?

The kids were buzzing for it and have been planning the day out since they found out about it.

A cinema trip is something they do normally. A day out without parents? Not happening. For one thing the local city centre is a druggie infested hovel. Where they are going is quite nice.

I think it's a good idea to actually reward the good kids for once. We can't limit everything just so it's fair for everyone.

I never went on school trips as we couldn't afford it. That's just how life is.

Christ that’s ridiculous.
When I was at secondary school in the 1970’s you were ‘rewarded’ by the teacher saying well done!
No wonder young people struggle when they start in the workplace if they need rewarding for doing what they are supposed to.

That's terrible. It's barely even a trip! They're just taking them somewhere, dumping them and not providing any structure or treats in the day? Absolutely awful. I've worked in schools and this would never have been approved. The most popular reward trip ever btw was taking a group to Pizza Hut buffet! Relatively cheap for school for a small group and a real fun trip out.

So the schools idea of a reward is to take a bunch of teenagers to a shopping centre in another city, dump them off to go around unsupervised for the day, then pick them up again?

Well, apart from this not being great from a safeguarding point of view, they are essentially providing transport for a reward that you have been ordered to pay for, and they won’t get the reward if you can’t afford it. You could refuse to let them go I suppose, but then it would have ramifications in school from the other kids.

YANBU OP, and if this was my kid’s school I’d be writing them an email with a long list of reasons why it’s a terrible idea.

Yes, that's crap. My niece went on some kind of reward trip around that age too, but it was a trip to a theme park type attraction, their entry fees were paid for and they were specifically told to bring a packed lunch so parents weren't having to give them extra money for outrageously priced theme park food.