Expensive school trip - why do schools do it?!

[Beach1983]

Cut a long story short, letter has come home with school trip for 8 days that is approx £2500 that doesn’t include food/spending money so guessing £500 extra for that, so all in roughly 3k.

Am I wildly out of touch for thinking that £3000 for a school trip for one child is ridiculous? (This is regular state school not private btw).

I feel annoyed with the school for putting parents in this position as obviously the kids want to go and (they say) all their friends are going so parents feel hugely guilt tripped into these things even if financially it’s a struggle!

Just needed to vent really and see if people share my views!

Lots of schools are expected to cover the cost of pupil premium/ free school meal places. They don’t have funding for this.
Most of the overseas trips haven’t gone ahead at my son’s state school due to lack of uptake.
The local private school trips are a lot cheaper per head, as everyone is expected to pay.
Additionally the insurance costs are astronomical now.
Risk assessments are the thickness of an encyclopaedia. I’m surprised any teachers at all are willing to undertake trips abroad.

Im not suggesting for one minute that FSM kids shouldn’t have access to trips. When I was at school 11 billion years ago, the trips reflected the demographic area and were overwhelmingly to Youth hostels etc ( low cost) so most pupils could take part.
The odd expensive trip ( skiing) was for minute numbers of rich kids as there was no financial assistance.

So send none....

It's not difficult..

Honestly just say no. If it's new York then your child will need much more than £500 spending money. Everything is so expensive in America! Unless they're eating crappy fast food of course.

Wow ! That’s ridiculous

This is obviously very expensive for a school trip. I remember going skiing with school (also a state secondary) and think that was expensive at the time but there were still a really good turn out for it. I cannot remember the cost of that.

It’s not true that the cost of the trip covers the pupil premium students. Yes they get a discount but that is covered by the school, we don’t charge the other parents.

Schools also aren’t allowed to charge parents for the cost of covering lessons. This is why so many trips are at least partly over a weekend or half term. It’s also why we’re encouraged to take support staff as the extra adults rather than taking all teachers.

Yes, technically you are paying for the teachers’ place, but this is built into the cost from the travel company. I am organising a trip at the moment, for every 10 students we get one free staff place.

For my trip the price we give to parents is literally the price given by the travel company + a contingency fee (which I use for things like buying them an ice cream, buying staff a coffee, and for any unexpected costs). For my current trip the contingency is £25 per student and this also includes a meal on the return journey.

It is true that booking through a school travel company might make the trip more expensive than booking flights, hotels etc separately, but teachers are doing this in their free time. The admin involved in a trip is already ridiculous. It also means that if, for example, we miss our flight because the coach is delayed, then the travel company will sort it out.

On the OP, I do agree the cost is ridiculous, but it is for 8 days- I don’t normally run trips for more than 4!

I can only think back to when I was at school and my parents could not afford any of these trips (or would not - they soon found the money when my older sister wanted to go to Paris for a week with the school). The shame I felt was awful - I was the only child who didn’t go on the residential in the last year of primary and just had to spend the week sitting with the year below while they had their lessons. The pressure on parents is awful, yes, but the pressure on the poor kids is immeasurably worse. The parents don’t have to put up with daily teasing and bullying when they can’t afford it. It’s a terrible onus for families, especially when there’s a cost of living crisis going on. Schools should be more sensitive and not promoting trips that only the very well-off can afford.

I agree that it is wrong to offer trips like this. They should focus on affordable outings that more can benefit from.

Totally agree with the above comments.

Every other aspect of school is always about including as many people as possible in every activity. By setting a trip at that huge price, you are appealing only to the absolute minority of wealthy in the school. No other school activity that I can think of is aimed at only the richest few kids.

Surely it would be better to shorten the trip at least to 4 days and to somewhere less expensive to open it up to more students? I’ve never heard of anyone spending 8 days in NY (3/4 days seems more of the norm).

That is a ridiculous amount - that’s a family holiday for everyone! How could that be justified for a school trip for one child?

I agree, the price is insane. When I clicked on the thread I was assuming you were going to say 600 pounds or something... but 3K? An 8 day trip to pretty much anywhere in the world can be organised for less than that so something very fishy is going on. It has to have been planned by the least competent project manager available...

Most schools use a tour operator.
It would be useful if OP would say which tour operator the school was using, then maybe the details would be more transparent.
I have not been able to find a New York trip online for schools that costs as much as this.

This is an example of a much shorter, cheaper trip to New York

I am now nearly 74 and agree with you entirely. These are trips for rich kids. 62 years ago my school offered trip abroad for 300 pounds. An anormous amount at that time.
In 1988 2.800 pounds each...USA. We were a normal working class family with no chance either time. Cuckoo land.

OPs school is a state school. Yes, some children may benefit, but what if the children who may benefit are the ones from families that can't afford the trip....so they miss out. Our education system will never realistically be fair but at least a school should try.

@LarkspurLane that's an interesting link. Even the longer trips are £1249.

'Giving up 8 days?'😂Oh puh-lease, no one is forcing school trips on the teachers, they're the ones who make these ridiculous propositions. I wonder how many would happily spend that sort of money on a one week holidays for one member of their family, or if they'd even consider the trip if they had to pay for themselves?

You're right..nobody is forcing these trips on the teachers. They are volunteering to take a group away on a trip of a lifetime. One which, I know from experience, will be a treasured memory for years to come. The responsibility of looking after other people's kids 24/7 is immense believe me but without teachers offering to run trips there wouldn't be any, would that be better?

@Commonsense22 it isn't fishy at all...I have run a similar trip over 15 years ago and it was £1500 at that time . Insurance for school trips plus entry into places and private coach travel etc is huge. Schools book through specialist companies for an itinerary/peace of mind so it's likely to be more than if you or I were booking something similar ourselves.

Actually, there is pressure to offer them. Parents complain if 'they've only been on a day trip to The Globe' whilst x school went skiing or playing rugby in South Africa. Successful trips can be appraisal objectives, widening participation can be objectives, raising the school profile and making it more appealing to prospective applicants can be an objective. There's foreign language homestays expected by parents and leadership to ensure that language attainment is high as possible, effective use of pupil premium over and above uniform, free visits during the day... there are many ways that staff are put under pressure to facilitate them

@NeverDropYourMooncup never in my experience has there been a single bit of pressure from management to offer trips. Not once....maybe different in Scotland

If they had to pay for themselves, the trips probably wouldn't happen, no. But there we go.

Some trips might still happen though. I know when I was a Girl Guide leader, leaders paid for major trips and still took kids away - took them to DLP, Switzerland etc. always had to give up annual leave and pay towards them.

@BloomingViolets load of rubbish. At my school a lot of teachers don’t want to go on trips as residential can’t be in term
time anymore. This means teachers have to give up their own holidays to be on a trip and forego family responsibilities etc. not reasonable.

Giving up 8 days?'😂Oh puh-lease, no one is forcing school trips on the teachers, they're the ones who make these ridiculous propositions. I wonder how many would happily spend that sort of money on a one week holidays for one member of their family, or if they'd even consider the trip if they had to pay for themselves?
Why would anyone give up a large amount of their wages to pay for the privilege going to work on days they are not actually paid to be at work and where they're on call 24/7 for other people's children?

There's no winning on trips. It's a topic like the nativity/end of year play: whatever is done will have someone moaning. If you run them, people complain . If you run a big trip, people complain. If you don't run big trips, people complain because another school does so why aren't you? If you don't run enrichment trips at all, people complain that their DC are missing out on opportunities.

I would never underestimating the immense responsibility incurred in looking after a group of children 24/7.
But this is not the point. Of course it's really nice that teachers are willing, but there must be ways to organise memorable but not wildly expensive trips, I can think of a few.
It's not the place of the school to organise 'trips of a lifetime', isn't it a little patronising? hopefully the kids have yet to peak after they leave school.
Anyone who has that sort of budget to spend on one person won't need the school to organise nice trips and it's wrong to put those who are not so financially comfortable under so much pressure.

I don't - I'm not a teacher any more.

I thought they were a great idea and assumed the risky elements from the first trip were bad luck. When the next trip was similar, I was more reluctant to go on another.

Either I 'volunteered' to go, or I lost my job. And frankly, I knew who would go in my place and felt the children would be safer with me there. So I went on a third trip. And that was enough! I left the school and (for other reasons) left teaching.

Having said that, I also volunteered on a couple of outdoorsy type trips in the UK, and although they were physically uncomfortable and very hard work, they were well run, safe (as can reasonably be expected), and of clear benefit to the children. And they were fairly inexpensive.