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?

We are paying for the summer residential trip. The school dd attends is a state school.

Who is "we" and whose trip are you paying for? Your DDs school doesn't do trips...

I would never organise and almost definitely never run a residential trip, especially abroad. It's not just significant hours (like hundreds) of unpaid admin time and stress, it's also massively stressful whilst on the trip.

I have organised and gone on numerous day trips and they are enough work, stress and responsibility. You can never relax and enjoy even one moment. Go to the theatre and barely notice the play because you are worrying about the coach turning back up, or Gretel with the nut allergy inhaling something and not being able to find her epipen on time. And parents are always late collecting. Every. Single. Time there will be one child an hour late being collected. And no one ever says thank you. The kids, very occasionally. The parents, never.

So, I will continue to organise or go on day trips, theatre, author talks, museum trips, etc. I can do because my own dc is adult now and I don't think it's fair to ask colleagues with small dc to do it. But I always say never again because it is just so much (unpaid) work and hassle beforehand. And during. And guilt of other staff covering your lessons because there's no money for supply. And then I remember how some kids have never been to London, or the theatre, and I want to give them those experiences and I get sucked in for just one more.

My school sent out a letter about a primary school residential happening in eight/nine months. Heavily subsidised by the PTA fund and with the caveat that any children who want to go will be paid for.

The first bit of feedback we got was ;

"my mum's angry about it. She said you didn't ask her first"
"Oh dear, righto"
"Yeah, she said you should have told the parents about it first"
"That's what the letter was for..."
"No, you should have phoned or something first to ask"

Because we're so swimming with free time that phoning 60 childrens adults to pre-ask if they might want a letter about a residential which will be offered to all of that year group regardless and is the better part of a year away is a reasonable request...

Covid gave teachers a break from the whole, insane chaotic mess and the paranoia of school residentials. No being on alert 24/7, no wrangling of children, no relentless, ridiculous parental demands and paperwork.
No Sword of Damocles waiting to fall.
Then the world started back up again, children’s behaviour has deteriorated, schools can’t afford trips…and teachers realised that not having residentials was a fantastic choice.
So many positives for a teacher. So few negatives, if any.

any children who want to go will be paid for

Wow-could the PTA cover every single child?

Yes. I do the fundraising. There is a healthy account and we are fortunate to have a lot of parents who can match raised funds with work place charity allowances.

So the vast majority of the parents can, and will afford it, and those who struggle will be subsidised/paid for. Most don't take the piss financially.

But it's two days in mid Wales, not skiing in the Alps.

It's not really secondary's job to mop up things missed in primary, IMO.

3- 5 days away for a whole year group puts a hell of a lot of stress on multiple departments in terms of curriculum catch up. Hence they usually occur in primary, where they have one teacher, usually in year 6 once SATS are over.

You do realise schools were open for key worker kids the whole way through lockdown, right? Plus teachers had to prep work for kids at home. It was hardly a fun time of skiving off at home for the vast majority of teachers!

It's also not the case that schools have decided to not do residentials since. What the OP is saying is that her child missed theirs due to lockdown and now wants the secondary to run one. Primaries are back to running residentials.

Do you feel this about all aspects of a child's education? That it's not secondary school's job to 'mop up' things that were missed in primary school? Or is it just when it comes to enrichment that they're off the hook? I do hope it's not the former. And if it is, I do hope you're not a secondary school teacher.

Don't be ridiculous.

Of course the poster is referring to residentials, the subject of this thread. You are being extremely mischievous in inferring anything different.

Yes, deliberately goady it seems.

StaunchMomma You misread my post and my intentions.
I am a primary teacher. I know exactly what it feels like to step off a particular treadmill and realise that getting back on is optional.
That considering all the other expectations and burdens teachers and schools are carrying, choosing not to restart residentials in a hostile climate reduces the load.

I came here to somewhat support @StrongerThongs, however after reading your follow up posts I feel your attitude is downright rude!

I instantly lose compassion when a poster takes against a teacher who puts limits on the free time they give and says 'I hope you're not a teacher'.

Could your DD go to the school you teach at?
Then she would get to go on school trips.

The National Curriculum objective that underpins most residential trips for primary is a KS2 PE one relating to ‘outdoor and adventurous activities’.

There is no curriculum requirement for these to be residential, but the facilities at most centres used by primary schools are more set up to meet this goal.

KS3 PE has pretty much exactly the same statement, which means that if their KS3 PE curriculum has always been set up to cover this objective, there is no curriculum gap from primary to fill.

Given the curriculum gaps that DO exist across the whole range of other subjects, and the fact that the requirements of the ‘end point’ of GCSEs / A-levels haven’t changed, it is very hard to argue that running ‘extra residential trips, taking children out of the teaching of other subjects but not filling any curriculum gaps, is in any way good use of time or staff.

😂😂

Better still, she could go and teach at her child's school and show the lazy teachers how it should be done

I am a teacher and a mum. Before my kids came along I organised and ran three language trips to France / Spain and assisted in another trip to Italy. It's bloody hard work and such a massive responsibility. Then Covid hit and I now have a young family.

I'm not using up my precious half term as that's the only time I get to spend with my own kids. The admin, overseeing of money collecting, risk assessment etc is too much work and my school just doesn't have the admin staff to do this. Plus I teach in a really poor area where we are providing food, pens and shows on the daily.

The last trip I did was to Spain about ten years ago. As each child piled off the coach, not one of them said thank you and the one parent who did approach me, complained that the coach has been delayed and she'd been waiting for too long in the school car park. There was a delay with the plane landing and she had not received the text message which was sent by me via the school mobile. I received not one thank you.

So when the deputy head asked me a few months ago. I said 'no'.

I'm not a teacher but run a sports club that has about 450 members of which about 80 are juniors. We run very popular residential training camps each year that take an awful lot of handwork to orgnaise. As mentioned above already, lots of risk assessments, DBS checks, kit lists, transport of people and equipment, catering, accommodation, passports, insurance, allergy and medical statements etc. All organised by volunteers with full time day jobs who are taking holiday days and paying for their own costs. Most parents are engaged and proactive, but my God some of them are utter shitbags to the point where we have had coaches vowing never to do another trip such is the moaning and criticism they get over every detail.

I 100% do not blame teachers for not wanting to run residential trips. Parents are way too precious and children's perceived needs (dietary, educational, pastoral) are now far too varied and great to expect teachers to look after them overnight, especially at primary, but increasingly at secondary too, as teenagers are just less independent than they were (in general- there are obviously exceptions) and with far more MH issues which means arranging trips that push comfort zones in any way are just going to be one long admin nightmare.

I think it's better that parents who want their kids to do these things just arrange it privately. Then it also doubles up as holiday childcare and it's not a lot more expensive than school trips from what I can see. A lot of the schools use third party providers anyway.

That it's not secondary school's job to 'mop up' things that were missed in primary school?

Controversial but imo this should apply to areas of the curriculum. I'm a maths teacher. I am trained in teaching maths to students of a certain level and above. I am not trained to fill gaps like understanding place value, or telling the time from ks1. I do not know how to teach those things effectively to a whole class. I could muddle through a 1:1 session but it wouldn't be best practise.

It is in no way shape or form the job of secondary schools to gap fill enrichment activities from primary. Pull the other one.

My dd has been on a couple of very expensive ski trips with her school. Very little else on offer. I don't blame the school,, really. Teaching is hard enough as it is, and teachers may not want to volunteer for the extra responsibility. Schools have no budget either, so parents would need to cover the full cost. Exchanges are less popular these days, partly because they're a safeguarding nightmare.

I do think it's a shame. I went abroad virtually every year in secondary school, occasionally more than once a year. Those trips are some of my best memories of my school days, and I feel sad that dd hasn't had the same opportunities. The trips were very affordable, but that was partly because they were heavily subsidised by EU funding. Don't suppose that's an option any more

My children at prep school and both on overnight residential this year (and very reasonably priced. 2 nights for DD £135 including all activity)

7 nights France trip for DS £850 including all food, all activities (and loads!) and all transport.

I also went to private school and never ever went on a residential. Can’t say I was bothered or thought I missed out on it.

My children excited about it but wouldn’t be a big deal if they weren’t and I wouldn’t be fussed. In fact, I don’t sleep well all when they’re away on residentials so I’d get a good night sleep at least if there weren’t any!