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.

I see; thank you, I missed that.

School trips are by their nature restrictive.

He’s taken time to point out that he does “get it” somewhat as snowboarding is much harder?
Just to make sure we all know how talented his lovely DD is!

"It’s about 50/60 kids a year but I don’t know how many are in the lessons."

You're saying that 50/60 kids from the school go on this skiing trip every year?

That seems a huge number to me. Where I come from only about 10 or 15 ever went on a skiing trip. That is from a school with around 1,700 pupils. I imagined it was something similar, but 50-60 is a huge number.

If you've got 50-60 kids going on the trip then there are clearly going to be very different levels and there are going to be multiple different groups for lessons.

In that situation I would be surprised if snowboarding was not an option.

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

That’s never been the case with any of our trips - you get dropped off with your ski instructor and then are free until dinner time at 6pm. Which is how all the high jinks happen (buying alcohol in the supermarket in Andorra aged 14, etc).

He does realize that his Olympic level snow boarding daughter will be stuck in snow board school with a bunch of beginners?

I did a school trip once doing the one sport I was actually good at. I thought it would be amazing and finally my moment to shine. Actually it was shit as I was so bored and of course everything was constrained to be as safe as possible.

I never ever made that mistake again. School trips are not like family holidays.

But none of the staff can board, so who is going to accompany her? Or is the dad offering to train a teacher up to an adequate level for his DD, before they head off?

I would expect all kids to be in lessons , even advanced.

But as a skier, when you hear “skiing trip” or “ski holiday” you don’t assume snowboarding is not available. He is behaving like an absolute dick, but his assumption that snowboarding would be available isn’t unreasonable.

150 kids per year, the trip is for Y8,9&10. Apparently it’s always the same kids who go every year though so maybe only 25-30 kids from each year will ever go on the school ski trip, just 20 of those will go every year for example:

OK I understand if a teacher has to accompany the lessons and they have no snowboarding teacher. It is a shame though as it means that children who would are trying it for the first time are having a restricted experience. I suppose as someone who can both ski and snowboard I wonder why the default offering is always skiing. Especially when snowboarding is so much easier and more fun.

He’s an entitled twat and I feel sorry for the teachers. Trips are a nightmare to organise and really the school can offer what they see fit and what’s practical with the resort, staff and cohort. That’s why I’m not on big school WhatsApp groups - with my kids. I’m a secondary teacher myself and concerned I might say EXACTLY what I think of his complaints. What an utter prick.

It is when it was mentioned in the initial letter that due to staffing only skiing would be offered. I appreciate this want mentioned until somewhere in the middle of the thread though.

His daughter being a competent snowboarder is not showing off per se. That could also be a fact.

Some kids can do both. And have a preference for one over the other. Personally I think he should have read the notice that was sent- which should have given the details.

If the school is only doing skiing, but he is asking parents if they could get a group of kids who want to board, to board- then good luck to him. No harm in asking.

@edwinbear no need to be sarcastic. 🤦‍♀️

But it’s now significantly in decline, especially amongst kids so I can see if there aren’t many other kids clamouring to do it why they’re not offering it.

Hahaha nope. I do both (lived in Canada, more than happy skiing backcountry, split board snowboard touring, and down double diamond runs in resorts) and no, snowboarding is way easier.

You do need stronger legs to make the turns snowboarding, which is why toddlers start off on skis, but it definitely isn’t harder.

And buying alcohol at 14yo is probably why schools have tightened up their risk assessments and safe guarding.

I'm guessing french ski instructors don't have a dbs? They might have a french equivalent but have the school seen sight of them all or are they trusting esf or whoever? Imagine if some solo 13yo school kid was packed off on her own with an instructor who sexually assaulted her?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not some hysterical helicopter parent who think this is likely. DD had an amazing week once at 9yo when she was the only kid at her level on our Esprit holiday and got a whole week of solo ski tuition when we paid for group lessons. She spent the whole day trailing the instructor around to go see his mates at various drag lifts and drink hot chocolate. She loved it and I wasn't scared for her safety. But schools have to be very cautious.

Maybe some schools still pack the kids off without teachers but I'd be amazed to be honest.

From what I can tell beginner snowboarding was never offered.
Another parent showed a letter from a previous ski trip and when you were asked to indicate your child’s experience and preferences it was

• Total Beginner Skiing
• Upper Beginner Skiing
• Intermediate Skiing
• Advanced Skiing
• Intermediate or Advanced Snowboarding

Each one had a list of skills attached.

Similar, I used to sail and we were going to do some sailing on out school trip ( outward bound activity centres, never been skiing or similar didn't know it was so common in schools!) Anyway I was looking forward to being able to show that I was good at something and show of to the boy I fancied. But we ended up all sitting in big sailing boat while an old man let everyone old the tiller for a minute rather than being being able to sail around in a dinghy on my own. Definitely lesson in humility learned!! And with hindsight very glad I didn't get the opportunity to be such a shoe off bore!

Apparently mum filled the letter out and never told him - that’s the latest update

It does sound like he's going about things the wrong way (I'd just query it with the school rather than constantly whining on a group chat), but I agree with him that both skiing and snowboarding should be available. I don't understand what the actual issue is - the kids will all be on the same slope and still leaving and returning to their accomodation at the same time. If it's an issue of supervision, I'd ask him to pay for an instructor to be with her at all times, if she's the only one in the entire group who can snowboard.

What are your stats on this as the dry slope snowboarding lessons seem popular.

Who would be a teacher dealing with parents like that. Unbelievable.

Most folks are too polite. Someone needs to tell him that he’s making a total tit of himself.

It’s a skiing trip. Presumably there was never any discussion of snowboarding so he should not have presumed.

"...a letter from a previous ski trip

• Intermediate or Advanced Snowboarding"

????

So on a previous year the school asked for preferences and one of the choices for preference was snowboarding? And not just snowboarding, but intermediate or advanced?

And you are now complaining that he is wanting this to happen?