Lack of school residential trips...

[StrongerThongs]

Full prepared to be told IABU because Covid, teacher stress, cost of living crisis etc BUT I have a DD in Y9 who has never been on a residential school trip, either in the UK or overseas. Her primary school were unable to offer a Y6 trip due to Covid.

Pre-covid the secondary school she is now at offered several opportunities a year but this has been reduced to one massively oversubscribed and prohibitively expensive ski trip every two years (the last one was to Colorado!) and a couple of subject-specific trips for KS4 (eg. languages trips, geography field trips).

Instead school have decided to run an activities week in the summer term for all pupils which includes a bunch of paid days out (eg theatre trips, museums, escape rooms) or the opportunity to stay in school for free activities (sports). This seems like a bit of a crap alternative and frankly a waste of a week's education!

I get that school trips take a lot of planning and I am NOT knocking teachers but I believe they offer really important opportunities for developing confidence, resilience, independence etc particularly for children who have missed so much due to Covid.

FWIW this is a successful oversubscribed state school. At my own bog-standard comprehensive I was able to go skiing in Italy, canoeing in France, fell-walking in the Lakes as well as field/language trips and I'm not from a wealthy background - trips were affordable/subsidised. Obviously times have changed.

Interested to know what other schools offer? And if IABU for thinking DD's school could do better?

I hope you don't vote Tory.....there is no money. Schools don't want to /can't ask parents for more money. Simple. Of course they'd run trips if they could or felt they wouldn't be socially exclusive.

Instead school have decided to run an activities week in the summer term for all pupils which includes a bunch of paid days out (eg theatre trips, museums, escape rooms) or the opportunity to stay in school for free activities (sports).

Sounds brilliant!!

take a look at the many threads on here complaining about the cost of such trips, how the school is wrong for offering them as not everyone can afford to go, how the teachers are getting a "jolly" for free and should pay for themselves to go - that's just to start with as to why many schools just won't bother. Add in the cost of cover and work required to set the cover work, much much more rigorous paperwork and safeguarding requirments now and the last minute "requests" AKA demands from parents about diet / rooming etc and organising your own childcare whilst away, usually for literally NO thanks upon return (but usually a few complaints) and you might start to see why. I actually do still run them - 3/4 nights in Europe usually but they are a MASSIVE hassle.

Interested to know what other schools offer? And if IABU for thinking DD's school could do better?

We offer one prohibitively expensive ski trip, a couple of MFL trips, compulsory fieldwork and an activities week.

We've had complaints about the fact that we "could do better". But our primary focus is the curriculum. And to be honest, most of us no longer have the get up and go to put in loads of time and effort into trips.

DDs school does similar to yours (3 days of actvities)... but they can camp on the "Festival Field" during it. However its a rural school which has a spare field that is only used for the summer camps. (Plus there is no where for the kids to run off to during it)

Primary school also camped. Plus side... its completely free to parents

In the past there were staff and time to plan a trip. Now there isn’t. I stopped them years ago, the hideous risk assessments put me off. Union advice is not to run trips as so many staff end up being sued.

Its not a requisite of a school. It relies totally on staff goodwill.

My youngest daughter is 13 and had all her school and guides residential trips cancelled during lockdown. I want her to have the same experiences her siblings had, so we've independently booked PGL trips for her. She's already done a three night multi activity trip, and is going on a seven night one in April. I myself did two week long school residentials in the penultimate and final years of primary school. I do think it's something every child, where possible, and if funds allow, should be able to experience they wish.

I think the problem has been that once things stop, they then just don’t always restart. This isn’t limited to residential trips, but they are a casualty, definitely. It’s a shame.

Sorry, she's in S2 now, and been on school day trips, but nothing has been mentioned yet about residentials, so I don't know if her secondary school does them or not. Her older siblings never went on residential trips when they were in high school.

I'm retired now but wouldn't do residential trips now if I got a gold clock for doing them. I cite all the reasons raised already.

If you want your child to go on residentials - do as the parent above is doing and pay for PGL.

Does your DD have friends whose parents might be in agreement? You could absolutely send them on a PGL trip together without the school being involved:

www.pgl.co.uk/en-gb/adventure-holidays

I know it's not quite the same but nothing to stop them from getting the experience independently over Easter / half term etc.

School trips are often the best part of secondary life. They leave lifelong memories. It’s such a shame and if parents cover costs (for say skiing) I don’t see why they don’t run them. Maybe teachers have had enough and don’t want to volunteer any more? I agree with you though op. It’s a sad for children to miss out on those experiences, especially disadvantaged kids whose parents can’t afford holidays or trips away.

DDs school is great and I love it, BUT, they are appalling when it comes to school trips. She's not been on any and is in year 11 now. They just haven't been offered.

If you like the school otherwise, I would just suck it up.

This with bells on.

Schools haven’t got the money to employ supply teachers to cover the lessons of those on trips. Teachers are over worked and are running out of good will to volunteer at their job.

YABU, school trips were usually overpriced and shit, plus divided the year group into those who could afford it and those who couldn’t. Sounds like you went to an unusually good school (where everyone could afford it) but certainly my secondary school in the 1990s) only did 3 trips the entire time I was there, one to british seaside (was shit and we got nothing out of it), one to Italy, and one to America and only the richest 20% of the school went on those, they then came back swanning it around with their souvenirs making the rest of us feel crap.

We must be Evil Parents, because we didn't bother trying to organise anything with DD's friends, but just waved her off to stay in a 4 bed dorm with complete strangers on her first PGL trip. Figured it would be character building and all that. 😉 Luckily she loved it, and asked to stay longer next trip, hence the week long trip coming up in April.

I forgot the admin staff. When I wanted to run a trip I would contact the admin staff who dealt with trips who would get all the quotes and book everything. All I needed to do was write the risk assessment, letter, chase payment and set over work so still a fair bit of work.

I feel similar. Makes me sad. Ds2 list out on yr 6 camp due to covid. They did have a PGL in year 8 so that was good. I can't believe the prices of ski trip. Some got offered a French trip (ds2 doesn't because he does Spanish) and it was so expensive, and poor, I felt like offering to organise a cheaper one myself with a £39.99 EasyJet/Ryan air flight!

I used to a be teacher. You know what trips my school offered, none. Not one. Why? Because we were in an area where it wasn’t affordable and where the budget for “poor kids” was spent on getting them shoes and pens, not on trips. Because about 50% of the students couldn’t be trusted not to be violent or take drugs or carry knives so taking them abroad would be a terrifying prospect considering that foreign law enforcement is a lot less friendly than in the UK. Because most students didn’t have passports, or were young carers who were needed at home, or looked after younger siblings every day, or worked part-time after school/weekends to help support the family. I appreciate that most schools do have trips but having multiple trips abroad is not “bog-standard” at all. We didn’t offer geography because we had no geography teachers, we didn’t offer any languages except Spanish and we didn’t have any actual Spanish teachers - we had a PE teacher and Spanish-speaking TA.

Trips have been reduced because:

• Families can’t afford as many in a cost of living crisis
• Prices have gone up
• They aren’t efficient time-wise for education and there’s huge pressure on schools getting students the grades they want
• Schools can’t use term-time for non-academic trips
• Staff are working in their “holidays”, they can’t do trips in that time.
• Parents complain about everything - it’s a ballache (anyone remember the thread on here about the parent who complained her DD couldn’t take nuts on a trip to France because another pupil was allergic and might die).
• Student behaviour is at an all-time low and they can’t be trusted to follow instructions, not break the law, not put themselves or others in danger and not cause trouble.
• Since Covid, people don’t trust they’ll necessarily happen.

Regardless, a ski trip and subject specific trips is all that was offered at my Outstanding Ofsted rated schools when I was a pupil (the two that I went to) so I think you sound a bit odd for thinking that’s insufficient.

Sorry, it it’s a reflection of the constant narrowing of the curriculum due to resources.

Less popular subjects get dropped at GCSE level as they can’t attract the high numbers needed to justify a teacher, more students are offered fewer GCSEs, less art, music, drama and creative subjects earlier on as they often need to be taught to smaller classes and use expensive equipment, less swimming, less practical experiments in science due to cost….it’s heading towards a very narrow curriculum taught through PowerPoints.

Support the teacher strikes for more funding for schools. This is what it’s about. Remember staff are leaving in droves…..that means fewer permanent staff and more supply. Supply aren’t going to run trips and the remaining teachers are more stretched than ever covering more lessons. Anything beyond the most basic teaching gets dropped. Education is becoming more and more utilitarian.

Write to your MP about it. It will continue to get narrower.

After seeing the correspondence to a teacher trying to prepare a day trip for her secondary school students , I wonder how any of them have the heart to plan any trips anymore . It duly reminded her that if the trip went over budget ( ie cost the school anything and was not student/parent funded ) it would be considered gross misconduct.
So taking into account the trip has to be costed and travel booked etc to confirm the date they needed prior to obtaining payment , she is then at the mercy of parents to actually pay the cost of the trip .

Why not do this, families would be really grateful.

As a teacher who has run many trips abroad and in the UK over the years, I'll be completely honest and say that post pandemic, I haven't organised any trips as I simply don't feel it is actually appreciated how much time, effort and responsibility teaching actually takes, never mind extras like trips.

I work bloody hard and cannot do my day-to-day job without if affecting my family life so I can't take on the extra work of a residential trip. My school expects us to go during 'holiday' time so I'm not going to put my own child in childcare in their holidays while I'm off with a bunch of teenagers who will often walk through my classroom door without even paying me the courtesy of greeting me.

Until the post-pandemic behaviour of a lot of my students improves, it's not worth the risk to take them anywhere. If they have difficulty following basic instructions in the classroom, there's no way I'd risk taking them abroad. Sad for those kids who are polite and do behave but that's just the way I feel.

The reason any remaining trips are so expensive is because most schools now use travel companies and these need to make a profit. Why? Firstly because teachers are now so stretched covering the work of colleagues who are leaving, that they haven’t got the time to put into the hundreds of hours that arranging such a trip takes. Goodwill is increasingly lost as people are stretched, so people who would have given up their holiday to run them, just are less likely to do it now. And lots of schools won’t allow residential without a company organising them because the risk assessments and dangers of being sued make it impossible.

Remember the price you pay isn’t the price of an EasyJet flight for one. You have to cover your child’s share of covering the staff places on flights, accommodation, activities. You have to cover their share of possibly infilled places which push the price up. You have to cover their share of the travel operators fee/profit that is built in. You have to cover their share of the contingency fund it’s vital to have so teachers can deal with an emergency if it happens.

These trips look extortionate….and yes they are expensive. BUT a key reason why they aren’t running is people saying this and therefore a desire to not offer things most can afford, or because people just aren’t realistic about the cost of providing a trip with the equipment and staffing required.

It will increasingly be private schools and schools in affluent areas that offer them, because those parents will be prepared to pay what it costs. Remmeber, when you pay for a trip,your child gets to have that experience of skiing or whatever it is, without you having to pay the cost of taking the whole family. Even though it’s very expensive to send the child, it’s far cheaper than the family going….which is why for so many kids, their only experience ever if skiing is on a sschool ski trip.