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?

This is pretty much what we offer. I have no idea what more the OP wants, it’s pretty standard, Geography field trip, Drama theatre trips, MFL trips to France and Spain, ski trip, PGL style Year 7 trip.

I accompanied a school trip with my DC to a local church in the town centre when they were about 6 and have also helped herd them to a swimming lesson about half a mile away.
I was quite agog at the long winded risk assessment needed for a simple walk into town (less than a mile) that I did with my own children daily. ...but then having seen how 5 and 6 year olds behave en masse and seemingly unable to walk and talk simultaneously, as well as look where they're going, I could see why it was so stressful! And that was a very low key local trip. It was like herding cats.

So staff are giving up their half term to take kids on a school trip, something they do not have to do ? You should try it, it’s bloody hard work

Mine are both going on residential this year and the eldest had one in the autumn too.

It costs parents zero (aside chocolate money) because the schools petition local businesses hard for donations so that ALL children can attend - regardless of family finances.

I am so grateful for the incredible teaching staff and the generosity of local businesses who strive to make this happen.

It’s expecting staff to work for free. They are on duty 24/7.

I actually think this doesn't even really occur to a lot of parents. It's absolutely exhausting. On one 6th form residential trip to Paris I did years ago I got virtually no sleep, because I spent a lot of the night patrolling the hotel corridors and hoiking boys out of the girls' rooms and vice versa. For no pay. I could have been at home on my sofa.

You see, even this ski trip that is being offered (invovlding could less hours of work outside of the normal busy teaching week) has attracted criticism from OP. It is very expensive and only for 30 students. She wonders why they have chosen this particular trip, with the implication that there is some kind of personal gain (free skiing?) or that there would be other trips that would be more appropriate. You can’t win. If you dont offer trips you’ve failed. If you do, they are too expensive or the wrong ones.

Yes, skiing is very expensive. To offer it for more would require more teachers to go than they can probably get. If it becomes really big, it becomes a bigger thing for those who do’t go. A small trip is a minority thing where you’re unusual for going, not for not going.

It is a shame for kids. Most of us who are parents remember school trips fondly. The reason schools offered them is because kids got a lot out of them. But this is an education system going backwards isn’t it. Lots of things which existed in the 70s and 80s and 90s in schools don’t now. It’s more chronically underfunded than before. Recruitment and retention is worse than before. For those remaining, it is therefore a harder job than before. So yes, it is a shame that schools aren’t offering trips like before (or paid for instrumental music lessons, or much swimming, or the full range of creative subjects, or so many GCSE or A Level options, or so much teaching assistant support, or so many exercise books, or text books, or so many free clubs) but the key thing is to be willing to address the CAUSES of it, rather than just hoping individual schools will somehow flog their staff harder to organise trips that people can afford, meet stringent safety regulations and meet parental approval…..whilst doing an already almost impossible job.

Parents need to seriously look at the causes of the difficulties in schools which absolutely are impacting their children - and see it’s not the school itself, but something bigger that’s causing it. And they need to act so that things can be changed.

Goodness, if I had little kids now who had 10 years to go before they finished education, I’d be seriously worried about what that education will be like. But it’s like parents can’t see it and are sleep walking and letting the education system crumble around their kids before they are out of it.

I was about to say pretty much this.

Teachers are leaving in droves, or stepping back from going above and beyond, because not only are they paid far less than they should be, they're very often treated like dogshit by both kids and parents.

Why should they offer more of their own time and energy unpaid.

You can’t win. If you dont offer trips you’ve failed. If you do, they are too expensive or the wrong ones.

Exactly this. Which is why I now only organise trips that I want to go on for students I want to take

My ds is Yr10 at a small independent school. There is a 'stupidly expensive ski trip' every two years (cancelled last year because of Covid), one foreign language trip and one Geography field trip.

They don't have time for much else.

I've always written to thank the teachers for the residential trips whether my kids enjoyed them or not. DS has loved his trips and I told the teachers so and thanked them for the time and effort given up. DD hasn't enjoyed hers but I sympathise with, and enormously grateful for the teacher having to comfort and reassure her in the middle of the night!
I also give positive feedback for other studf where I feel they've gone above and beyond to either make something special for kids, or help the kids with something they never thought they could acheive. In my own job the amount of negative feedback we get, way way outweighs any positive comments. No comment is meant to be indicative that the customer is happy. But its so nice to occasionally get someone saying they were actually pleased with the job we've done! And I imagine the same with schools (and all sorts of other jobs!)

Lots of reasons given in the posts so far.
The main issues are the costs, many parents can't afford them so where is the money supposed to come from to cover those who can't pay, and, getting staff to cover them.
I used to take Year 6s to outdoor centres every year. We had so much trouble getting the staff to go - basically no one wanted to. We'd be away from Thursday to Monday and that meant working through the weekend and being on duty day and night for the whole time. Really stressful and then you come back knackered on Monday afternoon and have to teach the rest of the week (in my case Year 1). No one ever said thank you. Not the head, not the Year 6 teachers who wouldn't go and certainly not the parents.

If you want your kid to do residential trips you'd be better off looking at them joining cadets or scouts or something similar.
I went on loads of great trips with the Air Training Corps and they were great for developing confidence and all kinds of transferable skills.

I voted YANBU because I also have a Y9 and she has had zero school trips since starting secondary school - and that includes any day trips, not just residential. School has sent the trips schedule for the next few years and reading it, it’s almost like the school is avoiding her year group I know it’s not done on purpose but every time I see a trip/outing that is not for Y9 (and 10 and 11 in the next couple of years) my heart sinks a bit. Luckily DD had a residential in Y5 and one in Y6 as it was before covid kicked in.

I have 2 DS in state secondary. DS1 went to the lakes at end of yr 7 and to Canada skiing pre Covid but had a Spanish trip due May 2020 cancelled. He is going to South Africa for 2 weeks in July.

DS2 had 2 trips in Feb, one to Spain and then skiing in Austria. He has just booked a battlefields tour in France for Sept.

School are also running French and German exchange trips and the cricket team have just come back from a week in Dubai.

I am very very grateful to all the teachers involved.

My year 8 son is currently in Italy skiing. 1100 for the week which was about right. Paid in installments. There was a horrific amount of planning and red tape in place and this is very much reliant on a stable staff force within the school. Very much a rarity these days. You can’t expect trips when so much of the infrastructure in schools isn’t there. There’s no money!

Have you seen the news articles where the teachers get raked over coals because something went wrong on a trip/ a kid got injured or hurt?

Why would anyone want to put themselves at risk of that?

Yes, lack of stable and experienced staff contributes to a lack of trips. Many schools are missing a good proportion of the required staff and relying on supply staff as they can’t recruit. The supply staff won’t be offering trips. Many schools don’t have many teachers over 35 now and some have a majority that are NQTs who only stay a couple of years. The kind of work and level of responsibility that is required, is not really for the NQT, even if the school would let them organise such a trip. Most staff would want to have been in a school for a couple of years or been on the trip before, before deciding to offer it. There are just less and less school staff in that kind of position.

Private schools usually pay better and have longer holidays, plus a bigger expectation on staff to go on trips and run extra curriculars, as well as obviously having a parental body who can afford trips. They have got more ability to keep the goodwill of staff which is needed. Staffing is often more stable and there will usually be a higher proportion of more experienced teachers (who cost more). So, the kids who already get to travel and have experiences with their parents, get the widen the gap further by having lots of exciting school trip options too.

I think often parents don’t realise how ‘on their knees’ schools are. Teachers and Heads always make the best of things and want to present a positive face. They have a ‘can-do’ attitude and try to do the best they can with limited resources and feel the need to be up-beat for the kids and parents. They want. People to continue to apply for their school, because otherwise funding will be even less. So, it’s all cheery newsletters and emphasis on positives not struggles. So often parents just do t really know, or how their kids’ education is being impacted.

You have no idea the time and effort it takes to arrange a trip abroad. Teachers don't get any extra time for this. The planning is ALL in their own time, in addition to the time on the trip itself. All unpaid of course. Are you surprised not many teachers want to plan and run overnight trips? I organised a simple theatre trip recently for around 100 kids and it was a nightmare- I had SO many emails from parents asking questions about it (most of which I'd already addressed in my original email anyway!) that I was fed up before the trip even happened. Hours and hours of extra time. Then the parents complained because the coach was 20 mins late getting back. Never again. Also, the responsibility if something goes wrong is huge.

*I think teachers who give up days of their own holidays to run these things are a vanishing breed. It's a huge amount to give over and above a demanding day job, and morale is just too low these days.

I emailed the teacher who ran the one trip my Dd's been on to say thank you, and she replied saying I'd made her day. A thank you should be standard from everyone, it should not have made her day. (Maybe she was just being polite? 🤷‍♀️)*

I agree with this. In what other job would someone be expected to give up, for instance, 5 days of their annual leave, to work day and night, unpaid?

Yeh, I'm not sure i recall ever being thanked for running a trip by a parent now I think of it. The only contact I've had post trips has been complaints. It really does put you off!

My ds is Y3 and had the only class trip he has ever had cancelled due to lack of parents paying. I'm so disappointed for him as his ND brother got to go on 3 by this point. He doesn't know any different and he has lots of fun extracurricular activities, but I can't help but feel that his experience is so much poorer than my so called chappy 80s/90s experience.

I don't blame the teachers for not wanting the red tape and sheer headache associated with them.

Outward Bound is another option if you want to organise something independently for the holidays.

I work in a school office (primary) and I have to go on the residentials each year because there aren't enough teaching staff to cover them. I get no time in lieu or payment for the extra days I do whilst away, it's all good will and if the likes of me didn't step up then the trips couldn't go ahead.

We don't get paid for school holidays so residential trips take us away from our own families and children. We have to pay for things like kennels and childcare so that we can go. I think, until recently, I always felt it was appreciated. By colleagues, by pupils, by parents. But that doesn't seem to be the case any more. It's an expectation. Who else would give up a week of their own time and work for free? You can't run teachers into the ground, complain about us constantly, grumble about us striking (all on mn regularly) and then also expect us to do the voluntary extras.

The main reason that schools offer and run less trips is to avoid pressure on hard pressed families. Many cannot afford them.

This x100

Trips are sadly unaffordable now - both to schools and to families.

We have been lucky that my eldest had a residential in Year 6 and a trip to France in Year 9 but both cost £350+.