School Trip to Morocco

[Goldsand]

My DDs secondary school have just announced they will be doing a school trip in the next school year to Morocco for my daughters year.

It’s normally Iceland but they have changed it to Morocco this time.

A couple of other mums have said they won’t be sending their kids as they don’t think it’s safe to send their teen girls there.

Iv never been personally but I thought it was a safe country overall.

However, now I’m doubting myself …. I was going to agree to her going even though i think it’s steep as it’s over £1,000.

So…

YABU - It’s safe, don’t worry about it.
YANBU - I would never send my teen child there on a school trip.

Oh and not sure if it's been mentioned, but you can actually go skiing in Morocco in the Atlas mountains , and then come down the mountain and sunbathe.

We wanted to return and hike the Atlas mountains, it was beautiful there, but the news about the two women who were beheaded in 2018 put us off.

Tbf, tangiers is a shit hole I expect Ceuta to be no different

i wouldn’t want to go back there, as a woman and would be very wary of sending a teenage girl there. I’d want a lot of reassurance

find out much M ore @Goldsand

My son has just done the 2 week World Challenge Morocco trip and said it was amazing. Their party was about 50% girls and a couple of the parents expressed similar concerns to your own at the first info evening. World Challenge are hugely experienced in running these trips, the young people are never in groups of less than four when they go out to the markets on some of the day trips, and the adults are always within a couple of hundred metres.

I know your trip is a school one but I personally wouldn't worry about the safety aspect, subject to getting the answers to the questions I'd be asking about their plans for safety etc. I think the cost and such a short trip is more of an issue tbh. World Challenge was £2.2k (plus £180 on travel vaccinations and @£300 on kit) for the two weeks of a packed and exciting itinerary. Going for just five nights seems ridiculous - I suspect they're trying to squeeze an international trip in to the curriculum in too short a time to do it justice, and the cost is always going to be disproportionately larger on a shorter trip.

For me that’s far too expensive, so it would be a no.

That said, I think the safety issue is less of a big deal. I’ve lived an worked in North Africa since late 2019 (currently not based in Morocco, but I visit frequently). Honestly these countries rely so heavily on western tourism that the law and order situation is relatively good. She will be safe in a group with a guide and on the tourist track.

I've been to Morocco a few times and have also travelled all over the Middle East.

I loved most of Morocco - got absolutely no hassle from locals, except in Marrakech.
Ourzazate is in the middle of nowhere and is lovely. I hiked the Atlas Mountains, which was amazing.

However, I'd be wary of going back to the Atlas after the tourists were beheaded in 2018. I don't think I'd be comfortable letting my teen daughter go without me. I'd definitely take my daughter to places like Essaouira, Fes, Meknes, but I'd feel too vulnerable in the Atlas. Could you go on the trip too, as a parent volunteer?

I travel to morrocco frequently. It's fine with a tour

I thought all this rubbish about foreign school trips was over. It should be. Ridiculous. Pressure on parents and so unnecessary for pupils.

But I don't think Morocco is the sort of place that I would be happy about my teenage daughter wandering around on her own with her school friends.

She won't be. They're year 8. They'll be supervised all the time.

I’d quite like to visit Morocco but am wary (though I’ve travelled to places like Kenya and India so not entirely unadventurous) and I know my mother would have kittens if I went there. She went on holiday to Morocco in her 20s with a friend who was murdered by a local man she went off with. A very long time ago, but still . .

Morroco- No
Yr 8- No
Over 1k- No

I'm very well travelled (not British) and I loved Marrakesh. There's a lot of racism on these boards. As well as a lot of teacher hate (people really expect teachers to pay to take a group of 13 year olds away?)

I'd love to see the risk assessment. My DSIS is a HT and I know what her risk assessment was like for much older teens going to India. Taking Year 8s to Morocco is laughable.
I've travelled to various parts of Africa including areas that are more unsafe than Morocco so I'm quite pragmatic about risks but there's no way on earth I'd be taking a Year 8 school trip to Morocco. The only way you could absolutely guarantee their safety would be to have such a restricted visit that they wouldn't get to experience the country at all. I actually can't believe any school in the UK would suggest that location for that age group. Most of the teachers won't even have experience of safeguarding and on-site risk assessing for a country like Morocco. It's completely different from an Iceland trip.

Inclusive in what way?

@Goldsand Could you offer to go with them? As a parent helper? That way you can chaperone

I’m pretty sure that poster was being sarcastic.

Meh, life isn't safe. She'll learn a lot and her teachers will be there the whole time.

@GCAcademic Ah of course, sorry, sleep deprived! 💤

After all the diversity and inclusion education that goes on in schools today surely it should stick in the throat that the school has chosen to go to a country where homosexuality is ILLEGAL.

Hardly practising what they preach is it?

I was in my late twenties and with DH in Marrakech very modestly dressed, shoulders to ankles covered at all times and got groped by young men twice in three days, once right between my legs while I was using a cash point, DH was standing about ten feet away. Where are they staying and what's the itinerary? We drove down to Essaouira and that was much friendlier, the trek in the atlas mountains was amazing. The owners of the Riad we stayed in were wonderful hosts, but central Marrakech, I wouldn't go back.

I've done a fair bit of business work in Morocco - everyone I met down there was really welcoming - the women who worked in our office dressed like Western European women and behaved like people in London.

This is at the top end of the working market though and like many Muslim countries the number of sleazy men hanging around would make me feel uncomfortable about letting my 13 year old daughter go on a school trip there.

I was in Casablanca which isn't a tourist destination like Marrakech but I imagine that would attract more bad people (particularly with drug scene and alleged child sex issues there)

For a grand I would knock this on the head although if it was 5 days trekking in the Atlas I would be much more inclined to let it go

As an aside one of my kids did a school trip to Iceland - loved the scenery but said the food was desperately bad

No way would I allow teachers to supervise my DD in Morocco. They would need eyes in the back of their heads to keep a group of young girls safe and secure there.

Google Gov,Uk Morocco.
Read it
Print it out
Bring it the school
Ask The Fool who thought it would be a good idea for their thoughts
Write up their thoughts on how they are going to deal with the problems that are clearly described on the government website.
Circulate the government page and The Fool's responses to all Yr 8 parents.
Do not let your daughter go.

I went to Morocco on a school trip for 3 weeks when I was 17! Best time of my life and I ended up deciding to study Arabic at uni because of it! She will be fine x

@Goldsand if you haven’t already, please read the Foreign Office advice - high likelihood of terrorist acts against Western tourists, possibility of politically motivated kidnap of tourists, dangerous roads with high fatalities, expectation that young women will dress and behave modestly yet still be harassed. And it’s an earthquake zone. For £1000 too.

www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/morocco/safety-and-security

It would be an absolute no from me. If you are still not sure, ask to see the school’s risk assessment.

I'm also well travelled, and really did not like Morocco due to the way I was spoken to and treated just because I did not have a penis. It does not mean some one is racist or not well travelled, to dislike a country.