Can't afford Dd's very expensive school trip

[Wario54]

My DD is 15 and in year 10 at the moment. We live a deprived part of the North of England. She goes to a local, state comprehensive

My DH has had his hours reduced at work in recent months. I work part time in retail (can't get anymore hours unfortunately - I have asked). Like a lot of families, we're financially struggling to keep our heads above water. But we get by (somehow) and I never take the little things for granted (that we have each other, food on the table and a roof over our heads). We've not told our kids about our financial worries - they know there isn't much spare money but not about the extent of our problems.

Dd has come home tonight with a letter and great excitement about another school trip. They had a guest speaker today (external travel company) in assembly today enthusing them about a trip to Borneo of all places. It's 4 weeks long and the cost is £6,500. Currently planned for June/July 2027 (just after her GCSE'S). They are expected to fundraise some of the cost themselves (bake sales, sponsored walks etc) but we will have to pay the majority if she's to go.

She said today that she'll get a Saturday job to cover some of the cost herself. But even with that, taken into account we just can't afford it. It breaks my heart, because I'd love to give her that opportunity but I know we simply can't.

She's full of excitement about trekking through the jungle and cuddling Orangutans. But how do I tell her when she's already set her heart on it? 😢

I just think the school are being completely ridiculous by offering such an expensive trip in a cost of living crisis.

It is not a holiday to supervise teenagers and take ultimate responsibility for them in a foreign country, 24/7.
Believe me.
You get very little sleep and the stress is off the scale.
So let's just put the "holiday" myth to bed.

Not defending any of it for a minute, its all wrong. But the responsibility of it all....no thanks.

That's ridiculous. I'm all for prioritising trips, and we have paid for one that was nearly a grand before, but I wouldn't even consider that.
I doubt anyone else will be going. You'll just have to explain the value to her.
I would personally offer her the option of seeing if she can earn it herself, but point out it would mean saving basically her entire earnings for 2 years if she manages to get a weekend job. It just doesnt seem worth it.
Get her to work out the hourly rate and how much she would have to work and let her make the decision herself- does she really want to give up that many hours of her time and spend all her money on it?

That’s covered under “extra hours in the school holidays”.

I don’t know what’s it like for kids now, but in the mid to late 2000s, all my friends and I had a Saturday job at that age. We all got good grades, went onto university etc.

I also disagree with all the posters saying the trip is terrible value for money. It’s 4 weeks. £1600/week for an adventure type trip is not unreasonable at all.

Your child would be working to pay for their teacher to go on holiday. Dear God. I bet you're one of those people that thinks teachers have too many holidays too! All that marking and teaching preparation just magically takes place doesn't it!

The cost of that trip is a years salary to some.

It's beyond ridiculous.

All schools do these trips. Hardly anyone goes. My son's school had 180 in his year group and I think one student went, so don't feel bad about it!

That's dreadful of the school. We are financially comfortable and there's no way we would consider this, it's excessive. I'd write to the governors actually, I think the school dangling this in front of kids is outrageous.

No. I won't. Because I am afraid I don't buy that. It is a holiday. It is not teaching. If going abroad is educational, let their parents do it ?
I think if it was that awful they wouldn't be doing it. And would be arguing not to do so. But strangely, they don't. They do it because they get to go away.
Have seen school trips abroad. Teachers were all perfectly happy.
And they certainly should pay for themselves to go. What they think they are doing allowing children to pay for them I do not know.

I don’t think the school is ridiculous for offering it. Some children will be able to go, some won’t. It’s always been the case since I was at school.

Sorry about the typos.

I've never heard of a trip that expensive, parents should have been consulted.

Surely no one can/will go?

We are retired, take multiple holidays a year and don't really have to think too much about the cost, but even I would think twice about doing Borneo for 6.5k.
I hope the local press get to hear of this and shame the school.

We're pretty well off (paid off house, DH earns well into 6 figures) and not a chance would I pay that amount for a school trip. Jesus, we could do a family trip for all 4 of us to Borneo for not much more than that!!

It's absolutely obscene that the school are offering it and I'd make an appointment to speak to the head to let them know exactly how ridiculous they are being.

"take multiple holidays"

I am retired, Oh no I'm not. No chance of a holiday.

That is ridiculous! I doubt many will. It’s unfair to advertise it direct to children. You could complain about that…

I’m always bemused at the idea that untrained school kids can ‘build a school’ or whatever is suggested, when presumably local adults could do it more quickly, efficiently, and a lot more cheaply than the cost of these trips per participant.

Ditto untrained kids going to ‘teach English’….

Having said that, a niece did go on one of these ‘school building’ or whatever trips to Africa, and thoroughly enjoyed it, and by all accounts they did work hard, plus living rough, infrequent cold showers, etc.

However her dad is loaded so there was no expectation of anyone else chipping in, and coming from an extremely privileged background (expensive boarding school etc.) it was a real eye opener for her, to see how ‘the other half’ or rather most of the 3rd world, live.

That’s an insane request. It’s also a trip you can do for a fraction of that cost. Have an honest chat with her about how huge that amount of money is and suggest researching together how much she could do the trip for independently when she’s 18. She could then work towards it over time

A similar type voluntourism company visited my friends school some years ago and very few kids went. I remember feeling somewhat perturbed at the time being asked to sponsor her for this. She came back with some nice photos and no further insight.

I would also wonder if this sum includes flights, visas, vaccinations etc.

And in this company’s trip description to Borneo they mention the students building water storage systems. Now how many 16-17 years old can actually do that?. it’s s con that helps neither the people who live there nor the students.

Take the school to task Op!. They are being fooled too.

20 odd years ago I has the same scenario , its wrong in the way they try and sell it to the kids . My child didn’t go , she believed she could raise the money but I knew she wasn’t pushy enough and we didn’t have a wide circle of friends and contacts, and we didn’t have enough money to pay for it .

That is mad. What is the academic benefit???

Why do they always choose an expensive trip to Borneo?! I say this because when I was 16 in the early 2010’s I was also offered this same trip, off the top of my head it was around half of that cost at the time (and shorter in duration) and when I told my mum she looked at me like I’d lost my mind and said “X I’ve got peeling wallpaper in the hall do I look like I can give you three grand to go on a holiday?” And that was the end of that

Lo and behold, as it was also a state comprehensive in East London, the trip never ended up going ahead as they had virtually nobody sign up as it was a bonkers idea. I would hazard a guess this trip will also meet the same fate.

@Crushed23honestly it’s really expensive - I went to Borneo / Singapore / Malaysia this summer. I paid £3.3k pp that was for 2 weeks. BUT some nights I was paying £250+ a night for hotels - they won’t be staying anywhere like that. The place I stayed that had a similar group I think they were in the longhouses which were £17pppn if I remember rightly. the similar trip I looked up they were camping much of it. Again food is massively cheap out there assuming you eat as locals and not go to the expensive restaurants such as in KK.

"Teachers were all perfectly happy"
You saw them 24 hours a day, did you? When someone was crying/sick/wouldn't eat the food/sauntered off/fell out with everyone/wouldn't get out of bed/went to a nightclub so we had to call the police...etc etc.
Yeah.
It's a perfect holiday. Why don't you volunteer?.

Somehow, I knew this would end up being a "teachers all on a jolly" thread.
Clueless.
OP: she doesn't go. She'll be fine. Good luck 🤞