Should school employees kids get priority?

[isitalloveryet]

My youngest DS is in year 9, like most high schools they run trips abroad that are over subscribed and many children miss out

My sons school runs 2 trips per year, most kids can't get a place, some manage to get on 1 trip but the school gives its employees kids priority so they can book a place before the trip gets announced.

Example - school employees child has been on both trips this academic year and has said he has confirmed places on both trips next year too

AIBU to think this is unfair and all kids should be treated fairly and have a chance to go in the trip?

That’s ridiculous, all pupils should get an equal chance, I’d be complaining about that.

Well I suppose that depends a bit on whether the employee is leading the trip. If so then I think that is reasonable. They are taken away for a significant amount of the holiday from their family. That their own child gets to go seems a reasonable exchange.

Playing devil's advocate, maybe it's a way of enticing more staff to lead these trips as they are a very thankless task.

Nope parents not involved in the trip

I think it depends if its used as an incentive to get staff to take part in the actual trip or trips for other year groups.

I couldn't get too worked up.

There can't be too many children benefiting from it.

Though feel free to take it up with the school.

If parents aren’t on the trip then yanbu. This would really annoy me!

Working at a school is a tough and largely thankless job and not exactly highly paid, so I guess this is the school's way of doing something for staff. I wouldn't be bothered about this.

But what if they are involved in other trips and this is a way of getting more staff to volunteer across all year groups?

Their is a waiting list of staff who want to get involved with the trips - staff go free so the ski trip in particular has a long list of staff who want to go

One trip a year... fine. Multiple when lots won't get to go on either.. not fine.

How do you know about the apparent staff wait list for trips?
I'm a Headteacher and struggle to staff trips as, to fair, they're bloody hard work whatever the nature of the trip, and staff want to spend their down time with their family.
Something "risky" such as skiing is not the jolly some people might imagine it is...

I was thinking that @InsertSomethingMotivationalHere

How do you know there's a waiting list for staff?

Maybe this isn't the only incentive they offer staff which is why they have such a list of staff wanting to volunteer 🤷🏻

Maybe this incentive also works to compensate for the extra work of the non-trip going staff

Who knows.

As I said previously, feel free to take it up with the school but I couldn't get upset about it

I know quite a few of the staff socially and as parents, most of them want to go in the trips and have waited years for other staff to drop out but they don't so they stay in the waiting list - the ski trip has the longest waiting list (according to a teacher friend)

I think all children should be equal at a school. There should be no advantages for having parents that work there. I don’t believe parents should work at schools their children go to.

It'll be first come.first served. The parent is going in early to work so the slip is handed in first

So they're not even dividing the trips up equally between the staff; the same people go each year until they decide not to? They're never going to make it fair for the kids then.
I think that their kids should get priority if they're going on the trip, or volunteer to go, but it has to be fair on everyone else. Otherwise you could end up with a scenario where the school essentially sponsors annual family skiing holidays for their staff, and no one else gets a look in. Not sure of the educational value in that.

Practically, it makes no difference. If it were decided on a first-come-first-served basis then the teacher’s kids would be first too because they’re physically inside the school to sign the piece of paper immediately on the day and know when it’s coming out.

As a former teacher who’s married to a teacher, I call bullshit. Think about it logically, if they (as you claim) have a waiting list of staff to run the trip and a waiting list of pupils to go on the trip, why wouldn’t they just make the trip cohort bigger?!

I think it's reasonable for the teachers' kids to get a place if their parent is on the school trip - makes childcare easier.

If they're not - as @Chickenly says, I'm not sure why don't just make the cohort bigger.

I know quite a few of the staff socially and as parents, most of them want to go in the trips and have waited years for other staff to drop out but they don't so they stay in the waiting list - the ski trip has the longest waiting list (according to a teacher friend)

Blimey, they must be offering massive incentives (guaranteed places for their children, perhaps).