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?

Out of interest… how old were these children?

What does it matter?

@Gwen82

Out of interest… how old were these children?

They are 14 to 16.

I'm still with them.
We left the hotel at 7 am, we'll get to school in about half an hour which will be just after 5.

Older doesn’t make it easier. It’s just different risks. They still need supervision and checking they are safe.

Honestly, I can't see much difference in what your daughters school offers than I was in Secondary. But I can completely understand why secondary teachers aren't going out of their way to arrange more.

No matter what you do, you get complaints! Why so expensive? Why is there not enough space for everyone to go? Why was my child not selected? Why not go here instead?

Then there is the issue of teacher shortages. A lot of schools are reliant on short term contract or supply teachers.

Schools may not have the budget for supply teachers to cover the class teaching.

Any behavioral issues are difficult to deal with as there is not support system abroad. Likewise health/medication requirements seem to be increasing.

Teachers are expected to be away from their families, which they may not be willing to do do or afford as it may incur childcare costs.

Add in possible covid restrictions/tests and likely more expensive travel. Which will just get more complaints.

If none of that is a problem, the amount of work that goes into organizing a trip, from comparing companies/flights/hotels/prices/travel then all the safeguarding/risk assessment/medical information etc on top of an already high workload would be enough to put me off organising one.

I work at a secondary school. I get the impression that, these days, residential trips are more trouble than they're worth.

Pretty sure one of our kids once tried to take a knife abroad ...

OP, I have not read the thread and imagine I am simply going to add to many teacher voices.

You couldn’t pay me enough to take children away overnight. There are too many who are badly behaved, ill mannered and ungrateful. The parents are worse. I will not use my own precious family time to deal with such behaviour.

As long as you expect children who are badly behaved to not be responsible for that behaviour, there will be teachers, like me, who refuse to do anything other than the job they are paid to do.

I only ask because at those ages… surely In charge of own finances? Are you saying you are paying for everything hence having to sending itemised bill?

my ds went to France last year for 4nights. He was 12. Accom and activities paid for. Breakfast included. Other than that… spending money. No bloody way was the school paying and then being reimbursed. And no bloody way was I expecting an itemised bill from my son.

sounds as if the school are using funds and resources to benefit those who most need it - not the elite few whose parents can afford expensive trips.
from other posters suggestions there are alternatives that you can organise and pay for independently.

MUN conference trip = Model United Nations.

Likely to be private school. Some trios will bill for individual expenses.

Regardless, anyone running a trip has to pay for a variety of things during the trip - could be entry fees, food, odd bits of medicine, food, drinks, supplies the kids lose or forget, taxi to hospital etc etc. It all has to be accounted for and documented on return. There will be a float of cash that will need documenting and use of school credit card. Lots of paperwork.

@Gwen82

Did you miss the three currencies part?

We felt it was easier to pay as a group rather than have each student change money individually and then all pay separately for each meal. They will not need Kenyan shillings again and so having lots of small change would be a problem.

We are a residential school most of their parents are in a different country which makes money more of an issue.

@WombatChocolate

*MUN conference trip = Model United Nations.

Likely to be private school. Some trios will bill for individual expenses.*

Why does going to MUN mean it is a private school?
We are a few paying school but about 40% of our students are on scholarships including some of those I took. This was in Kenya which might make a difference.

@Gwen82

You do realise that all trips are different and therefore your experience wouldn't automatically fit other children / trips / ages?

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.

Kenyan school. Okay.

In the UK, MUN is typically attended by private school students.

we had Activities Week! It was so good, some of the best times of my young life (or life- sad). teachers must be stressed and scared of litigation if anything goes wrong.

I think the activity week sounds fantastic.

Realising my experience of high school (and primary actually, come to think about it) must have been unusual then. We didn’t do residentials. We didn’t even have a single day trip other than the free museum which was less than a mile away from the school which we went to once.