Schoo trip first come first served

[Meetingonthehill]

AIBU to think school could and should have managed this better?

Son is Year 9.

Today school informed the children that there is an enrichment trip to a theme park. The letter would be sent to parents at 3.30pm and the payment portal opened at the same time. Kids advised it was first come first served.

This particular enrichment activity was open to Year 9 (this is their only offering for this year group) and also open to Year 8 (who have the choice of two theme parks).

(Year 9 have had no enrichment trips prior to this - Covid meant the Year 7 residential wasn’t offered and nothing was offered last year when they were in Year 8.)

My son tried to call me at 3.20 as he came out of school but I was at work (no phones allowed). I did finish work at 3.55 so called him back when he told me about the letter and trip.

I logged on to the portal straight away but all the places had gone.

AIBU to think that if offering something on a first for first served basis they should give people a bit more notice than 10 minutes? (The time between when the kids can use their phone after school and the time the portal opened.)

Surely only the parents who don’t work/have desk based jobs can realistically book something with that tight a turn around?

Not to mention those who may just be able to afford it but might need a little bit of time to balance the books to make sure.

Of course, it’s half term next week so nothing can be done and probably won’t be.

I realise they are lucky to have staff that can put on trips but it seems really unfair to split this opportunity across two year groups and not give everyone a fair chance at taking them up on the offer (especially as they haven’t had any other trips before). I realise they may not have the staff to cover everyone going. But why not make the booking process fairer?

I honestly think that if they can't make it available to everyone within reason then they shouldn't offer it all. Certainly that just looks like poor logistical planning from beginning to end - I would totally complain about that, vociferously!

You CANNOT understand the levels of stress and hours of work that go into planning even the smallest of trips nowadays.

And you CANNOT make it fair for everyone, because by definition giving you a place would mean denying someone else a place.

I ran a trip two years ago where an arsey email from a parent about something similar, when I was genuinely on my arse with logistics and paperwork and competing demands sent me over the edge and I haven’t run the trip this year because I just can’t face this sort of stuff.

You really, truly can’t please everybody and they will have had a list of reasons as long as your arm about why it had to happen this way.

@GeekyThings but how? You can’t POSSIBLY offer every trip to several hundred kids, without knocking how many coaches you’d need or how much it’d cost, or how many staff would be needed.

What you’re saying sounds great but IN REALITY means you think they should never offer a trip at all.

Easy. Anyone who wants to go signs up before a certain time, if demand outstrips supply, those who didn't get to go on the last trip get priority then names out of a hat.

Utterly crap way of doing it. Working parents wouldn't have a chance. Our school usually sends out notices like that on a Friday with them to be back on the Monday.

My stepdaughter’s school sent an email out saying there would be an enrichment trip with all the details etc. they had an expression of interest form that parents could fill in the following day from 6pm. They then confirmed she had a place a few days later and we paid. Seems a fairer system

I think that’s poor. Lottery would be better. I’d feed back to school. It’s unfair like you say and not inclusive it’s a few days to pay day for some. Giving say a week then selecting at random from those would be better.

Yes awful way of doing it. So unfair to those with working parents. Names out of a hat is much fairer if they can’t take everyone.

I mean, that’s basically what happened in the OP? Demand outstripped supply.

And you’ll still have someone’s mum phoning up to say Jimmy was off school on sign up day so it wasn’t fair that he couldn’t go on the list.

Normally I would disagree with you op, you can't please everyone..
However since your sons year group has not had any enrichment trips since he started because of Covid then yr9 should be prioritised over yr8.

Perhaps you can ask for your DS to be first refusal for any cancellations on the day and set some money aside?

It is shit though.

You can make it fairer by giving everyone a shot and not releasing the slots during the core 9-5 working day!!!

I think 6pm with a day's notice would have been fairer.

Awful way of doing things. If it’s going to go live at a certain time, and be first come first served, parents need to have notice of when that time will be. And it should be outside of usual working hours.

@Meetingonthehill I can appreciate that there needs to be a limit on numbers for planning purposes. Our school is far from perfect but we get told what day and time trips with limited numbers will be opened for payment via parentpay.

This is usually a random evening about a week after we’re notified, at about 7pm when I assume the majority of kids who want to go will have had chance to inform their parents/guardians and who will have a responsible adult at home who could make the payment.

there will never be a one size fits all solution but this feels reasonable. The approach that your ds’s school took doesn’t.

And yeah the kids who haven't been on a trip should get first dibs on this trip. COVID has decimated their education

Random draw would be better but I don't think I would complain over it tbh.

That sounds much better a week gives people time to think if they can afford it

I empathise with both sides. But I do see how people who work full time/entire working days miss out on parents eve slots, trip windows etc because they tend to go live during normal office hours. I think to make it more fair, for more people, schools could give at least 24 hrs notice so that working parents can get someone else to help them out with booking on if they wish.

Im not full time. I can have my phone on me at all times. I (and my kids) definitely get the edge over other working parents so I get why people feel aggrieved.

life isn’t fair though. when I was in yr 8, there were two trips - one was a week long camp and the other a few days in France. Each was express your interest then a lucky dip. That seems more fair? However, in my case I got neither when several other kids got to go on both. That really didn’t seem right!

We had a similar situation once. A load of DC signed up without checking at home if they could make the date. Then dropped out so loads of places went unfilled, with a number of DC were told no places left so turned away. All very bizarre. Empty coaches and disappointed DC.

Yes OP I agree - we used to do first come first served - crucially after a certain point - so the letter would go out on Wednesday and we would say "you can book from Saturday morning" and there are xx places. Seemed more fair tbh and gave ppl a chance to make sure they had the money.

My kid's school does a lottery for oversubscribed trips. Much fairer.

Also, a cheap local trip with space for everyone is much better than a theme park for 50%

Lottery is inherently more fair than first come first served and no more difficult to administer. Why wouldn’t schools do that?

I’m struggling to see how enrichment is a theme park visit (misses point of thread). Regardless it’s a completely unfair system, lottery much fairer if it’s over subscribed. Totally ridiculous.

I’m wondering how a trip to a theme park can be described as enrichment.

People still moan when a lottery is drawn though.

If you have to do a lottery you have to give everyone time to sign up, then deal with the people who “forgot” the deadline and ask to be included after the deadline.

Then you have to randomise your results so you can pick who is going. Then you have to tell the lucky people they’ve got a spot and after that you have to tell everyone who didn’t get a spot that they’ve not been successful - followed by at least a weeks worth of bitching and moaning that their child deserves a space more/would gain more from the opportunity/ poor Fenella has never been away before/I thought we were signing up to go not to express interest so I’ve already bought a full wardrobe of camping gear.

If it’s first come first served then it’s really bloody clear to everyone from the start.