Okay to miss school for residential trips but nothing else

[Ghloey]

Context - DD is Y8, local secondary school, not grammar or private. The intake is varied lots of middle class kids but two large and known to be deprived council estates in the catchment too.

Her school offer lots of residential trips over the years. Generally I'd say this is a good thing.

Every year it's a different subjects turn. MFL in Y7, English in Y8, Science in Y9 and Geography/History in Y10. In addition to this Y8-10 can go skiing.
Well this week we learnt about a new trip which is a week surfing in July for Y8-10. Only 30 spots on the trip, to be allocated first come first serve. Second last week of school, for the Y8s this is just 2 weeks after they will have been out of school for the London English trip.
Now DDs friend is going on all 3 trips, her parents have already given the deposit in for surfing and paid fully for the other 2. She went on the Y7 MFL trip too.

All in she will have missed 15 days of school to go surfing, skiing or visit Shakespeares globe and the Harry Potter experience.

AIBU to think it's a bit odd that the school and government are forever on about attendance but no one is blinking an eye at her missing the equivalent of 3 weeks for activities which while they will be fun and maybe helpful will generally be not that useful on a curriculum level?

At our school things like the skiing trip are outside of term time as they aren't educational.

Its counted as Educated Offsite.

Its hypocritical really. They have to catch up on missed work... but youbdo the same if your ill or if indeed your parents take you on holiday.

Just shows how out of step government is with reality.

That sounds ridiculous. What’s done to help them catch up?

I agree, it's not acceptable. School trips should not be limited to those who can afford to go, or for those with parents with sharp elbows.

Moreover, it's the obsession with overseas and/or London based trips over local/regional trips which is also a problem.

Back in the day we went on some great local or regional day trips, with the odd 'overnight', but that was very unusual.

Skiing and surfing ... FFS, this is unacceptable in school time.

I've never come across a school that has scheduled trips like those during term time - skiing and surfing definitely not. Are you sure those are on regular school days and not feb half term/may bank week?
London trip is different as id bet the trip is heavily focused on shakespeare with plenty of educational content.

Skiing, which we saved up for three times in anticipation it was coming in Year 10, was in the Christmas or Feb half-term holidays. Good value and a good experience for them, as we were never going to go as a family.

I couldn't afford the school skiing trip to the US, one school place was the same as four in Bulgaria. We went the same week, mine had at least 50% more ski time but I got fined.

So OP I agree.

At my DDs school they would never so much as consider doing a trip in the school holidays, teachers wouldn't want to give it up and generally it would be more expensive excluding more kids.
Skiing was always for Y8-10 and classed as a PE trip. They'd go in January usually. I remember one of Dads teachers saying this was really annoying as it was right in the middle of teaching time and not enough kids went to justify slowing the whole class for the week.
Surfing/Water-sports etc. would be the very last week of the summer term. Usually that week on the Wednesday all the kids would go and do a fun trip and the Thursday and Friday would be films etc. so they were maybe losing a single day or two of teaching at the start of that week but it was all consolidation work of what they had already learnt.
Curriculum trips like CERN, Belgium/France battlefields etc. were highly encouraged; about half of the kids would do these (school would help fund the spots for kids who couldn't afford it) and for that week the learning for the whole class would slow down.

It does seem unfair to an extent but I imagine it will be a small handful who go on all 3 and those kids won't be allowed to go if they school doesn't think they will be able to catch up.

I taught in a school where they did a termtime ski trip. The rationale was that they would not get enough takers to run it at half-term prices, even though it was being offered to all year groups. Why do it at all? Well, these kids' families were never going to afford a family skiing trip, but might run to sending the kids once each, so it was an experience most of them would never get otherwise. (Of course, you could debate whether it makes sense to give them a taste of something they might never afford to do again - but maybe it would give them incentive to work towards a better-paid job.)

We did work around the trip - we avoided any GCSE coursework and tests the week they were away.

It will be wrapped up as increasing Cultural Capital and exposure to different careers.

It's a pain in the backside but its easier for teachers to plan for known trips rather than ad hoc family holidays, you can rearrange lessons so that nothing too crucial is missed. Whereas having different students out at different times is quite difficult to manage.

Plenty of students live in families where they can afford to send one child on a trip but couldn't manage to financially do the same trip as a family. Or students with physically or otherwise disabled parents or siblings who don't get to go on holiday due to the limitations on the family.

I actually don’t have an issue with these sorts of trips in term time. I think it’s wonderful for children (who may not otherwise have these opportunities) to get a chance to travel and gain some extra independence. I think it’s probably more valuable overall than spending those five days in school.

BUT one child shouldn’t be going on 3 trips. Unless they were desperate to fill the places so that the trips could run. These spots should be distributed a bit more equitably and there should be some funding available to support some students for whom it just wouldn’t be financially possible. Those kids need big life experiences too.

YABU - there are lots of ways to learn. School trips provide interesting and enriching experiences a classroom won't.

The penultimate week of summer terms isn't exactly crammed with essential learning most of the time anyway.

Are you sure they're all in term time. Only short, UK based, educational residentials can be in term time where I teach (with the exception of the Y7 French trip which is essential to the curriculum). All the international and 'enrichment' trips are in holiday time. And there's definitely no issue getting teachers to go on them - some of them are extremely competitive and it's about 'who you know'. Due to trips, I've been to Italy, Netherlands, Jersey and Normandy for free. Haven't managed to wangle my way onto Skiing, Iceland or Barbados yet but I'd be up for an excuse to do so if I could find one.

If they are all term time then YANBU. Especially if not many children go. It means that individual families wanting to take their children on ski breaks etc should be allowed too.

I went on a skiing trip in the Easter holiday.
I went on a trip to the Normandy beaches after the end of GCSE exams with year 11.
My grandson went skiing in February half term.
My granddaughter went to Spain and Berlin in term time, as part of the Spanish and History GCSE course.

YANBU. I think it’s very divisive and drives a further wedge between rich and poor no matter how much people pretend otherwise.

I went to a bog standard Comp in the 70’s and it was only the kids from wealthy families that went on school trips or even attended after school activities such as dance, music lessons, skating etc. in my day.

I remember desperately wanting to go to gymnastics classes but we had no money for non essentials despite both of my parents working. I left school at 15 and my first holiday abroad was when I was 18 and had saved up for a week in France and went with my mate.

Our school has a 2 week part term time/part holiday trip to Costa Rica coming up. Plus a term timing skiing trip.

That one child can cost more than a family trip though. I took 2 of my kids on a trip to NYC flights and hotel and NYC passes for £1100 for a week. The school wanted to take DD2 on a 3 day trip staying in youth hostel and we're asking £1250. She didn't go.