To think £110 for this Activity Week is too much?

[Eastie77Returns]

DD’s school has a Y6 Activity Week in the Summer term. It costs £110 and comprises:-

A movie and popcorn afternoon
Visit to the local the park (park is 2 mins from the school)
A day at a local beach
Visit to a theme park (entry is £23 per child)
An afternoon of tech design in the school

I cannot for the life of me work out how this can possibly cost £110. The school will receive almost £10k across the 3 form entry year. I’m a bit baffled??

I don’t think coaches are that expensive judging by the recent trips we’ve had. Year 6 have been on the tube and these kids are not from London so would be more difficult to manage than those more used to it. Honestly I think that’s an awful lot of money for what you’re getting and unreasonable if it’s in school time

@Eastie77Returns

You agree to differ?

People have explained valid reasons why the school may not be able to use the tube. There may not be just one child in the class who cannot travel on the tube. Their parents may be unable to transport them to an event themselves. The school may decide they want to make the trip equal for all. Try and look past yourself and your own life.

I agree, coaches are bloody expensive and you'd obviously need one for the theme park and one for the beach.
Because of the huge cost, my school hires rickety double decker buses now! 🙈
30 minutes to 2 hours on one of them with 60 hyper kids is a fricking nightmare!!! 🤣

What’s wrong with agreeing to differ?😂

I’ve heard all the reasons and I just don’t think they are valid. I’m speaking from my personal experience of living in London my entire life and having DC at a previous school where class trips on the tube were the norm.

If a child is anxious about the tube and you think a reasonable solution is to reinforce the anxiety by avoiding it altogether and putting an entire class on a coach for a short trip into London (resulting in parents having to pay ££ for their kids to go to a free museum to cover coach costs) then yes, we will have to agree to differ.

Oh goodness, those rickety double deckers are the devils work🫣

In fairness, the coaches the school use seem quite nice. This thread has been an eye opener as I didn’t realise they were so expensive and naively always thought schools got some kind of funding or discount for transport hire!

Sadly this is increasingly what is wrong with schools. School staff explain things and give valid reasons based on why they have chosen Plan B based on what is appropriate for a whole class of children and parents pop up and say, well my child can cope with Plan A so why aren't you doing that? Sigh. It's really wearing.

£22 a day is a bargain.

Staffing costs, insurance, risk assessment, administrative, transportation. Tech supplies. M

A bargain

£22 per day doesn't seem excessive for that programme, as others have said the transport costs for the two days out will be massive.

I have just paid 180euro for an overnight stay half an hour away for one child to an activity centre so I would jump at that for the week!

I don’t think it’s reasonable for the school to spend ££££ on coaches into London because one child in the class suffers from anxiety. I know I’ll be flamed but I would have exactly the same opinion if it was my child who was anxious. The child doesn’t have to miss out. If it was mine, I’d take him to museum myself by another method and meet the school there

Which is why its a good job YOU aren't planning these events. Because you HAVE to consider the needs of EVERY child. Even if it will cost extra. Not every parent/carer can make the trip themselves, that may have been considered as an option but the parent/carer couldn't or wouldn't (because they felt it singled their child out and made them look different, might make them a bullying target etc) take them

And what is the big deal about travelling in rush anyway. It’s the tube in London, not a dangerous freight train in a war zone.

Rush hour can be horrendous. Getting on as a couple can be impossible, getting a group of 30 children through the crowds, not losing one as you get on the tube, making sure they can all fit on etc would be even worse

What terrorist level??!

There's a terror level for London which rises and falls depending on what's going on. Its something schools and groups have to consider and RA for when travelling into London

Another reason could be that the school has previously used the tube but there was an incident such as a child getting left on the platform and so the school is being more cautious now.

Sorry

The threat level is for the whole country. But obviously, with London being the capital, it's considered a high chance of being a target

https://www.mi5.gov.uk/threat-levels

Dozens of schools take 30 odd children on trips via the tube every day without incident. Of course there is a risk a child might wander of or get lost but that’s life…there are small risks involved in most activities. If a child was left on a platform then obviously that’s a serious incident but even if that did happen there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to ban future travel on the tube.

A school coach crashed and multiple children were killed year last year. Should coach travel be banned as well? You simply can’t stop doing certain things because x,y or z might happen.

I stand by my view that one child’s inability to do something shouldn’t mean the entire class misses out. Where do you draw the line with that kind of policy?! If one child suffers from debilitating travel sickness and can’t go via the coach, what then? The entire class walks to central London?

The likelihood of a terrorist attack on the tube is really quite low. At the height of IRA attacks my primary school took us on the underground all the time. There are children in London who take the tube to school every single day along with millions of commuters.

It's a good job OP doesn't plan these events if they think it's ok that a child wanders off!

And they don't seem to understand what a risk assessment is

£21 a day seems fair esp as needs to pay for travel costs - insurance and teachers /cover

£22 fat fingers

My kids school (zone 2) take the kids loads of places on local buses and tube. As young as Year 1. Why would you teach them that private transport is better when it’s slower, more expensive and less environmentally conscious. Schools need to risk manage it.

My kids school (zone 2) take the kids loads of places on local buses and tube. As young as Year 1. Why would you teach them that private transport is better when it’s slower, more expensive and less environmentally conscious. Schools need to risk manage it.

OK, so in your Yr 1 class you've got one child in a wheelchair and another with his leg in plaster and no lift at either your home station or your destination station, or both. Another child who is scared of escalators. Another who is likely to become overwhelmed by noise, crowds, etc, and might bolt or have a meltdown on the platform. Two more who have just arrived in the UK, have minimal English and can't follow instructions because they don't understand them. Oh, and the class teacher is eight months pregnant. How would you risk manage that?

Schools do risk manage, that’s why they pick the best option for the trip on the balance of it.

i am going on a school trip this week and we are using public transport. We are going on another trip in a few months and using a coach. The different trips have different locations and situations meaning different things are appropriate.

I don’t think some people realise the amount of planning that goes into these trips.

Risk management means your conclusion might be that private hire transport is the safest and best option

Risk management can take into account previous incidents. So they did lose Little Johnny on the platform last time and it took 30 minutes to find him, whilst trying to contain the other 29 children in the class, 10 of whom want to wander off, 3 are crying because Little Johnny is lost and obviously he's never going to be seen again, 5 of them have started getting their lunch out and you're starting to get in the way of the notoriously impatient London commuters.

What is the likelihood of all of those scenarios occurring within a single class😂

The kid with a leg in plaster wouldn’t be going on a school trip, even on a coach. I already mentioned in DD’s class there was a child with mobility issues. Step free access (lifts) is a thing in London Underground.

Why is a pregnant teacher a risk? You know pregnant women use the tube everyday right..?

Kids who have minimal English should 100% be encouraged to use the Tube and get used to our public transport system. They are not at risk and of course they can follow instructions. Do you think they are learning impaired and more likely to jump in front of a train because they are not native English speakers?

Plenty of kids are a bit nervous of escalators but there’s no reason for them to avoid the underground completely.

The melodrama and doomsday scenarios from some people over a simple 30 minute trip on the tube😭

I think some people do find it hard to realise that for some children, for a multitude of reasons, the only way they experience some things is when schools are able to offer them.

We have a DC in a specialist school and he gets absolutely none of these educational visits or even fun trips - or any on-site enrichment (because they let him choose to play computer games during his weekly enrichment session so he doesn't choose anything else).

We take him to the beach, the theatre, the cinema, swimming, climbing etc. but there is absolutely no requirement or any will AFAICS to provide this for any child who "doesn't want to" aka is too nervous or who will take an easy option when given the choice.

They don't have any clubs of any variety, music, choir, sports, hobbies, nothing like that.

In his last school (a PRU) they had external providers for music and sport and he did engage a bit with them but he wasn't allowed to go swimming with school and they provided nothing at all other than that. His first school was on the same road and they took children for simple walks, as well as coach trips to the panto, to see Father Christmas etc.
And no, "but risk assessment" isn't an excuse. He was fine with a 1:1 on all the trips he took in his first school, and they had 1:1s for all the children who needed them. If children are never taken out, they will become anxious about going out. This, in itself, is a risk.

Given that children in poverty are massively over-represented in specialist schools, I think this is shameful.

The melodrama and doomsday scenarios from some people over a simple 30 minute trip on the tube😭

Thus spake the person who has never had to do a Risk Assessment

Yet you’ve been unable to tell me why a pregnant teacher or a non native English speaking child is ‘at risk’ when travelling on the tube.

I think it’s pretty shocking that the school is allowed to do this😣

I agree that if a child is nervous about trying something it can make the situation worse if you avoid introducing the activity altogether.