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 haven't tried.

Pregnant women have to have their own RA.

They can have medical conditions which are made worse via their pregnancy. At 8 months she might go into labour early. She might require more chance to sit down. Stress isn't good for aa pregnant woman and losing a child on a trip is stressful. In likelihood this would be mitigated by having extra staff/volunteers there if the teacher HAS to go

Non-native speaker with minimal English - doesn't understand the teacher's directions on which train to get on, cannot read the signs to know where they are, unable to communicate with other members of the public if they get lost, cannot follow the instructions from the station if there was a problem which required Evacuation, could even be they are overwhelmed by the crowds or being underground if they are here because they fled a war for example

How many Y1s can read the signs on the tube? And yet schools take them on the train/tube all the time.

I took Rainbows, Brownies and Guides on a train trip to go ice skating. Changed trains (both ways). Walked from the train station to the ice rink. Lost nobody - everyone had their small group to take charge of. Had a phone link system for when we (inevitably) missed our connection on the way back. All happy.

The Pupil Premium will cover the cost for parents' who can't afford the £110. The rest will just have to enjoy being rinsed to give some teachers a week off.

It is worth bearing in mind that when schools take kids - particularly of primary school age - on trips via the tube they are not going at rush hour. They would set off after the morning rush is over and return before the evening rush so being too busy is rarely an issue - and if one comes and is busy you wait for the next.

Also kids whose schools are walking distance to a tube station will likely be relatively used to going on the tube, they are not (generally) going to be awestruck by the District Line. In my child’s (outer London) primary school, parents would be baffled at the idea of hiring a coach to go to a central London museum. As opposed to using the tube which most families have 1-2 parents commuting to work on daily.

Yes sure schools need to do risk assessments and sometimes on the specifics the risks may be too high to do a specific trip with a specific group. But honestly the way London transport gets described sometimes on Mumsnet generally you’d swear it eats children daily like a Doctor Who plot and has a terrorist lurking around every corner.

So the non English speaking child observes their entire class boarding a train. Their teacher is also waving them on but they might not understand “the instructions” and so just remain on the platform.

Do you think a child lacks basic cognitive processing skills just because English isn’t their mother tongue?

And they also mustn’t use the tube in case the station is evacuated??

The 8 months pregnant teacher. I just can’t 😭

Anyway, I’ll leave it there as this is all a bit silly and unrelated to my original post.

this bus chat is making me laugh.

Our S London primary school took children on the tube all the time! I went as a volunteer taking reception year to the Museum of transport (which tbh I did think was bonkers as they barely understood what was going on) - we got buses and tubes across london!

We never used a coach for any of our trips.

That included SEN children.

I think it's fine to go on the Tube with 30 six year olds if you're going along one line with no changes. Imagine trying to get from Shepherd's Bush Market to Waterloo - what a nightmare!

YANBU to suggest that it's a bit steep price-wise, but I guess everything has increased exponentially in recent years. You should ask for a breakdown of costs, OP. It'll be interesting, I'm sure.

Overtime for teachers! Are you joking?

Hahaha I think some people do actually think teachers get paid extra for doing extra. If only - I'd be rolling in it!

I thought that seemed cheap!

The comments on this thread around the ‘risks’ of taking children on the underground are truly baffling.