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!

*easter 2024

We regularly get complaints that we don't offer residential trips. We don't because the costs are prohibitive now.
And then when we do offer trips, we get complaints about the cost, the destination, the timing....

It's extortionate. Most children won't be going at that price! If you can afford it I would be tempted to book for you and your child and offer to take a friend (friend paying) as it will be cheaper than £3k for the two of you!

The school offers and as a parent who has taken one up - because I couldn't offer it for the entire family. DD14 this year will go to India with school - a twinned school at an Ashram. It isn't a trip I could arrange or afford for the entire family. The benefits to her are clear and to me the benefits to the community she is visiting are clear. It is expensive - she isn't going on the various other school trips. I appreciate that not every family can afford but at the same time I massively appreciate school making the opportunities for trips a family may not be able to do but can afford for 1.

One of the better state schools round here seems to go on a foreign trip for every GCSE subject. It does worry me with three who might go to that school!

What's the purpose of taking them to NY?

Aside from the teachers wanting to go somewhere exciting.

I’ve no skin in the game as it were but I’ve read posts here that if you book privately the costs are lower. Most schools use a provider or travel company that will typically take up to 30% profit. The trouble is that if a school organises a visit like this on its own it is liable to repay parents for any costs if either all or part of the trip doesn’t happen. If a provider is used such costs will fall to them. However think of the opportunities and benefits your child will have from doing this kind of thing if you can afford it.

@ILJ28 there won't be much of a breakdown. The school will be using a tour operator that specialises in educational groups. So the amount will basically be a package. The breakdown might show how much is the cost of the teachers' going (I'm sure you know that they don't get any extra pay, but of course the cost of their flights and accommodation has to be met). But I don't think you'll get any more level of detail. The day trips, transfers etc won't show separately.

Our state school have a trip in June that is costing £4.5k!! That doesn't include spending money or any of the equipment they need to buy for the 2 weeks.

What are the benefits to the community she is visiting?

I was going to say where is it as I just spent that cash on a trip to nyc! I don’t think I’d be allowing my child going on that hol to be honest. Don’t think it’s a hols for school trip but more something to do in family.

they should really look for cheaper and more affordable options. I might be wrong but I can only think you live in a wealthy area of the country and that’s why they think parents won’t mind sending their kids (but again I might be wrong on this)

What’s wrong with the school offering? Most won’t go on them. For us the ski trip is great as we don’t go as a family so it’s more cost effective for a child to go with school.

But that’s extortionate. I was going to come on and say that they do need expensive trips sometimes.
DS went to the states for a week In October with school at that was just over a grand, DD is skiing with school in April which is £1,300 so I don’t understand how it’s so expensive,

It's ridiculous but if anyone asked me to PAY to go to new York with children in my holidays they'd get a very quick 'no'.

The few teachers I know hate this kind of trips as it’s a big responsibility to them so they don’t really enjoy even when it’s somewhere exciting

So my DD did a US trip - loosely history/politics themed - NY, washington and I think Philadelphia? 8 days all the sites (empire state building a couple of the museums, capital hill, the white house etc. Less than £1500, but just before covid. Appreciate that prices have risen, but she was at a private school too. The school agreed with the PTA years ago that ridiculously expensive holidays were not fair on parents scrimping to pay school fees or environmentally friendly. It was fab, they stay in Youth hostels or 3star hotels, ate at MuckyD’s.
That said, a friend’s daughter is fund raising for a £3500 10 day tour to New Zealand with the regional choir, so maybe they expect the kids to try and raise the money too?

It is so unfair to send those letters home with the kids - they should email parents only so that expectations are not built.

That seems extortionate and not something we could afford (squeezed middle!). But as is always the case, you'll find people can afford if ok. Mind boggling.

Yeah orangesandsatsumas, it's nearly Options time for DS1. He'd quite like to do history and geography, and I'm like "Well that's great love, but that means two foreign trips 😱."

It usually seems to be the Naples area for geography and Berlin for history, and I rather fear he might have to pick the one...

This is brought up again and again. The teachers are working and responsible for a bunch of kids in an unfamiliar place 24)7 for eight days. Marshalling then through airports, dealing with illness and accidents and teenagers generally being teenagers. They are not having a holiday.

That's outrageous, even in an affluent area. The school must be very aware that most children won't be able to attend and that they will be dividing the year group into wealth brackets, and that's not very sensible. £300 would have been a lot for a group trip for teens, never mind ten times that! Do they all get their own separate hotel and concierge for the week?

I can think of a lot more exciting things to do than be responsible for other people's kids in NY for 8 days!

We did a week in New York last year for £3500, for two us, premium flights and all excursions. So no, I wouldn’t be paying that for 1 child to go.

I’d imagine a high portion of that cost is the insurance.

... And if course if this trip is happening in the school holidays, the staff are losing their time off. With no pay.

I didn't say it wasn't extortionate, although I rather suspect that it's the going rate for something organised externally these days.

I went on ski trips to America with my school which now I think about it must have cost a lot - obviously I didn't pay for it myself, so don't know what they actually cost. Most students didn't go, so there wasn't any sense of exclusion, but it was lovely for those who could and did, and in my case it meant I got to go skiing when I wouldn't ever have done otherwise, as it wasn't a thing in my family. I guess you can just see it as a way for parents to give their children extra experiences, with their peers, and without the cost and faff of planning a trip themselves - so, if there's appetite for it, why not do it? The potential downside is if there are only a few kids who can't go, so feel left out, but at that price surely the ones who go are going to be in the minority rather than vice versa. And that's not really any different to the fact that there's always some kids who get to go on more, and fancier, holidays than others, whatever happens.