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!

They wouldn't volunteer to go if it wasn't fun.

It's the crazy length of time that's making it so expensive. Our big trips- NYC and skiing are 1500 and that caused a stir.

Far out!
My eldest is in grade 3 this year, and I kind of knew that camps are a choice/extracurricular expense... but I've been more concerned with how he'll be emotionally/mentally which distracted any thoughts of whether it will be affordable!
Next level of anxiety is now setting in...

Who has a spare 3k laying around though? I mean, if they're expecting parents to pay this amount, they should set up a saving plan from the beginning of prep so that by year 6 the money is available?!

I work in the finance department of a private school with fees of £30k per year. And I would say that is a very expensive school trip. Only one of ours has been that expensive and that was a trip to South Africa. Our New York trip was half that cost.

Insurance will be a big part of the cost.
Also have you found the same flights and accommodation at the exact time for the exact number of people?
Regarding teachers, they have to go subsidised/free otherwise who would want to give up a week of their time looking after a group of kids/teens, and all that entails? It's not a holiday for them, they're working.
It IS pricey but if it's not compulsory, which I doubt it is, then say no.

Yeah our school does this too, my friends daughter went to New York on a school trip. Really unnecessary and puts pressure on parents to spend more than they would on a family holiday

just seen this is New York too. I just don’t understand why they need to go to the US when we are in Europe and there’s so many educational trips within a couple of hours flight. New York is expensive, I’ve been a few times and love it there. But I wouldn’t want my child going on a school trip there. My teens enjoyed it but there’s lots of other places they’d enjoy more. I’d imagine this is a teachers idea. I think these expensive trips should be banned. When my eldest was at secondary there was a skiing trip to US. Why? When we have France next door with great skiing.

Would you find it fun being responsible for a large group of teenagers in New York?

It's not a holiday for the teachers.

They go because they want to give the kids the experience/ for their CV and career development/ for the extra pay. Not for fun!

The teachers are also being paid their day rate and a certain number will be on call during the night as well. They are working, they're not doing it for free.

I’d say they’re taking the piss. We’re going to NY at Easter - flying BA and staying in a 4 star hotel in Times Square for less than that for a family of 3. Albeit for 4 nights but it’s the flights that cost I would expect school to be charging around 1500-2000 for a school trip to NY. I think that would be perfectly acceptable

I've never been paid while taking a school trip, because we have to do them in holiday times.
Hence why I no longer run any trips, especially not trips abroad. I'm the mug who has missed time with my own children, paid through the nose for childcare for them, to take other people's children away, who aren't grateful or thankful for the experience.
Op, 3.5k is obscene and I would contact the school to say that. I don't think anyone is profiting (except the travel company!), but even so, it's far too expensive a price to offer.

Relative's daughter in school sport's team is going to South Africa in summer for only one week! Not just to one city either - has to go as in that team! Not only expensive but exhausting too!

I've run trips, been on trips run by colleagues, and paid for my own DC to be on them (although nothing THAT expensive!)

It is fun... but it's also very hard work. The two aren't entirely exclusive. Teachers don't mainly do it for the fun (they might have a couple of afternoons or evenings 'off duty' depending on staffing ratios) but, as PP have said, for experience and CV/promotion prospects. No extra pay is involved.

It's getting harder and harder to find staff willing to go on trips at my place.

@Whatsinthebag2 That's awful that you weren't paid anything extra for giving up your time to take kids away in the holidays.

I can't believe the things that teachers do, they are so undervalued 💛

Just fyi. Op we did New York in October, for a week, family of five. We flew premium economy, stayed in Times Square and did all usual trips etc. including meals it came to £5,500.

My parents sent my siblings and I on these nuts school trips.

As a result we have no problem saying no to them as we are confident our kids aren't missing out on anything much.

Skip 40 years into the future... My DD is confidently posting on a similar MN thread about how she WILL send her kids on these school trips because her tight arse parents never let her go on one and the FOMO scarred her for life 😆😆😆

For that money I could go to my favourite place in France for a MONTH!

I haven't looked into the costs recently, but with a trip to the US, a lot of it will go on decent medical insurance for the group. That's been soaring lately. If you're travelling as a family you probably either haven't thought about this much, or are relying on your own existing travel cover. There's no way that schools could afford to pay US medical bills if worst came to worst and the whole trip is hospitalised by an accident.

I work as a private tutor (in Hong Kong mind but I think it's a similar situation) and I hear a lot of complaints about this. I also know a bit about travelling and costs and so forth.

I don't consider myself to be overthinking it or being paranoid, when I think these trips are a shakedown, and the schools siphon off a healthy profit.

I wouldn't go. I'd sit down with the nippers and tell them you've sorted out a holiday for the family instead.

I doubt many people will be going. Even if your child's friends are going, that still does not mean your child should go. I'm sure we have all said no or had it said to us. The price of everything has rocketed. There will be some free teacher places attached to the trip, depending on the amount of participants. There are some schools that make the cost of covering for absent teachers be taken into account and factored into the cost. There are some schools that will not allow such trips to take place during term time. During school holidays, the trips will be more expensive, there is also the issue of having difficulty with staffing. It is unreasonable to expect, IMO, staff to give up their holidays, for what is a work trip. Finally if no doesn't work on its own, explain how far 3k would go towards a family holiday. I remember.being told 40yrs ago I could not go on school trip to Bulgaria as parents could not afford for all my siblings to ho kn a comparable. If ur child has any savings and can cover the cost, why not use those?

They wouldn't volunteer to go if it wasn't fun.
Teachers volunteer to do many things that aren't fun because it's providing opportunities to children. That's why there's revision sessions, sports matches and competitions, trips to see the same play at the theatre for the 5th year running, extra curricular clubs.

Some teachers, especially primary, feel they're under a huge amount of pressure to "volunteer" for the residential trips in Key Stage 2, because parents come to be expect a certain trip in year 5 and the big one in year 6.

Some trips can be nice to do in my experience. It's interesting to visit the places. It's not fun though.

I stopped volunteering for trips in the end. Too much extra work, there's always someone that's not happy with something and then I had DC and I'm not giving up family time.

DC’s school trip to Canada was almost 3k for 10 days.

I really really dislike this. Our first and second teams for most sports do Big Expensive Foreign Tours fairly regularly, and I've never been more glad that neither of my DC were on those teams. The pressure to go is insane, especially if you're the star player, and not every parent has a few spare grand lying around. Especially if they have multiple sporty kids!

But then again a lot of parents choose the school precisely because of all the sport including tours.

I'm sure the other kids are not all going. What subject is it for? Normally there is a language trip, perhaps an Iceland trip for geography, Switzerland for physics etc.

Sports tours are also a very different beast from the staff point of view. Still hard work, but the students tend to be confined in one place for long periods of time where you can see them all at once!