No snowboarding on school ski trip

[Gentillie]

This is so frivolous I know!

My DD is Y8 she has two very close friends and they are all going on the school ski trip in January. Today one of the friends dad has complained in our group chat non stop about how they aren’t allowing his daughter to do any Snowboarding, he claims he’s offered to send her with equipment etc.
Now when it comes to it, it’s because his daughter is better at snowboarding, she’s been going on a trip with her dad every half term since she was a child and always doing private snowboarding lessons. He keeps making it clear she can ski but isn’t as advanced.
He’s now asked a slightly larger group chat of parents 7 kids worth, to join him in complaining to the school as it’s unfair she won’t get to snowboard.
One of the parents has pointed out that it will be because for lessons they will split into ability groups and even if they made a snowboard group she’d probably be too advanced as it would be a small minority who would pick it.
Others have agreed it’s very unfair and will be joining him in complaining.

AIBU to think he’s being very precious and his DD can ski with everyone else for 5 days? Is this normal in your kids school or do they let them ski or snowboard.

"That does seem like the best option for us, our kids and the teachers. Looks like we can remove you from the group chat about this." Add a thumbs up emoji.

Gosh…can’t think why he might be divorced 🤔

Wait till you find out the child had to miss her mothers wedding for a tennis comp - the child was 10 but dad insisted it was her choice!

He's THAT Dad.

It's like telling someone who uses a skate park with a BMX as their go to equipment, that they should only use a skateboard

If there are 59 other kids, most of whom have never set foot on a skateboard or just scooted up and down somebody's garden path a couple of times, all patiently waiting for qualified skateboarding instructors to get them to the stage of possibly doing a couple of turns and maybe a handful doing a 4 inch high Ollie by the end of the session, the last thing they need is somebody's Dad demanding that she gets to tailwhip through the middle of them on a five grand bike.

And getting the supervising teacher out of bed to moderate the inevitable rows started by being over-tired, said by a former teacher who remembers sitting in a cold tent, in the rain, dealing with a few sobbing, arguing 10-11 year olds at 3am!

No, my sons always go on their school ski trips (we are keen skiers and they have been skiing since they were tiny), and it’s made clear they not only have to ski but they have to do the morning ski school lessons. Now obviously my boys don’t go in ski school on our family ski holidays and haven’t ever done as I taught them when they were small, but I don’t complain and tell everyone they are too good for the advanced group. I just tell them to have fun, be well behaved and polite to the instructor. They get to do free skiing in the afternoons, but part of the trip is fitting in with what has been arranged and if I wasn’t happy with that, then I wouldn’t pay for them to go!

It sounds like the man is just trying to boast about how great a snowboarder his daughter is - sure he knew what he was signing up for? I would have thought he’d be pleased she was getting an opportunity to improve her skiing without it taking up their precious snowboarding time on family hols!

What a dick.

He should take her snowboarding. This is a GROUP skiing trip.

My children are too young to go on ski holidays with school yet. But I would he disappointed if they didn't offer snowboarding when my kids are that age.

Yes snowboarders are more likely to break wrists but skiiers are more likely to tear their ACL so I can't think that is the reason. Make wrist guards compulsory and this would pretty much do away with the wrist issue.

Why is it they are offering skiing and not snowboarding. There would be no difference in staff ratios so I don't see why they couldn't have both ski and snowboard lessons. It doesn't make any sense to me.

So one of the parents who has older kids have said that they used to do snowboarding but now none of the teachers want to snowboard. Can see why that’s frustrating.
However someone else added a pic of the initial letter and it did state that only skiing would be offered this year due to staffing.

In that situation though you read the trip information and decide whether or not to send your child.

Not send your child and then moan, complain and threaten until the details of the trip are changed to suit your child.

Well there you go, if there’s no teacher who can board then that explains it. The risk assessment will say a teacher needs to be there. If they did put boarding on the amazing dd would spend her whole week on a nursery slope watching a beginner teacher fall over. 😂

Contrary to my username, I was on skis as soon as I could walk, we went evey year as kids and I've continued to ski regularly as an adult. I still think he's being a dick.

Whether you're an expert skier, or you've never been on skis in your life it shouldn't be too hard to understand that schools, not parents, determine the activities on offer on school trips.

Ultimately he should have clarified the situation before booking.

Oh goody I hope he does

Yes there would be a difference in ratios. The ratio for high risk activities is 1:10 at high school.

20 kids go on the trip. 19 want to ski. 1 wants to snowboard. 2 staff needed.

The ratio is then 1:1 for the snowboarder and 1:19 for the skiers. The ski group are then out of ratio because of the snowboarder.

If she is not as advanced at skiing then this will be an excellent opportunity to advance her skiing skills. I hope the school continue to ignore his request.

Are you a teacher at the school?? They would be heaving a sigh of relief to be rid of his poor daughter and his pretentious gripes.

I'm in this position, in as much as DS is a moderately advanced snowboarder but a beginner skier, and his school trip is skiing only. Sure, it would be great if they were able to accommodate snowboarding, but I completely understand why they don't and I certainly wouldn't complain about it. It's not like it's compulsory!

To be fair to the dad here, if their school has previously always offered snowboarding and it wasn't made clear that this was no longer an option, I'm not surprised he is a bit pissed off IF he has already paid a deposit (or more). It's no excuse for the aggressive language though.

And if they're not yet committed to the trip, he is just being a twat.

Plonker. He can complain all he likes. If he’s signed up to the school ski trip then he needs to accept their itinerary. He’s free to take his daughter himself and the trip’s not compulsory. I’m a teacher and parents like this are a nightmare.

I mean I think if OP put that snowboarding is way easier so she's surprised they don't offer it then this man will probably be OUTRAGED

Yep, even back in the 90s our school trips were about 50/50 skiers and snowboarders. I can do both, but it literally wouldn’t occur to me that you wouldn’t be able to snowboard on a ski trip.

Much higher rate of injuries skiing as well, IME. Lots of knee and ankle injuries.

I’ve been on about 20 ski holidays and I ski and snowboard. Dd has been on a school ski trip and at least one if not two teachers were with every group on the slopes. So if there was only one (or even a few) boarders you’d need extra staff.

Ultimately teachers volunteer for this, if no teacher wants or can board then there is no boarding.

No but he's a penis

I think it's rather restrictive to insist inly skiing can be done. Snowboarding has been around since the '90's fgs.