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.

Our school have done this.

They are no longer running a sports tour or a ski trip due to CoL reason (it was about £1200/child) but invited in a company running a trip to Costa Rica for £5500/child instead.

We are fine financially but no way are my dc going on this.

We could do a long haul trip as a whole family for similar to what it would cost 2 of mine to go.

Sorry but it is utter cringe going on the beg to family and friends to pay for a holiday for your child.

Same at my son’s state school. He did fancy it but as a single parent with 4 children, no way I could afford for him to go.

It’s not as easy as getting a job / fundraising. £6,500 is a lot of money and they pretty much want you to sign up to a payment plan straight away paying hundreds per month. No way I could afford that whilst he looked for work / tried to sell cakes!

My GD's school want to take them to Italy to study volcanos for their Geography GCSE, at a cost of £1500. We don't want her to be left out so we've helped them to pay it but it does seem a huge amount for one small part of one of their GCSE courses.
The Borneo trip is in another league of hugely over-the-top trips though, utterly ridiculous.

I would complain to the school, I am financially comfortable at present but could not afford it and would have to disappoint my child. My family could all go on a nice educational trip for that. I still remember getting the Ski letter at school, looking at the figure and throwing it in bin so my Mum wouldn't see it.
Giving children opportunities to see the world is great, but at that age are they going to really get the benefit, especially as there is so many great things closer to home that they can see that would open their eyes to the wider world, without the ridiculous cost.

Minimum wage for under 18s is something like £8/hour.

So that's your teen studying for their gcses and working 10+ hours most weeks.

I want my teens to be earning enough to cover the things they want day to day and for savings for driving lessons and uni. And using the majority of their time to study and get enough rest to do well.

I cant help but think that these young people are going to get to uni and realise that the money would have covered a year's accommodation.

That’s a good result on both parts - really hope the school takes stock and never holds a marketing exercise like that again. Letters home to parents who can then opt in to a lunch time presentation should be the norm.

A few of our friends children have done this trip over the last few years. It seems to be quite common for it to be offered in some schools now. The children have managed to fund raise the majority of the money themselves by doing bake sales, car washes, sponsored activities (like wax dad!), money tin in the local pub, scratch cards, craft sales, and so many more ways! If she is determined and you’re able to support her in the activities, there’s no reason why she can’t raise most of the money for this trip. And if she gets a Saturday job or Sunday job as well, even better! You don’t need to be rich to be innovative, just have a good imagination and a lot of determination!

It's very distasteful. This amount of money would give the whole family several holidays together. Horrible of the school to put pressure on people.

Those that can afford it should not go. I think they should boycott it all. It's completely OTT.

Even if the young person raises a large part of the cost by fundraising they are basically asking people to pay for their holiday. The charity/volunteer element of these trips is not usually beneficial to the local people

I can't believe that the school is letting an external travel company sell their product in a school setting under the guise of "let us tell you about this country". It's totally inappropriate on so many levels. I feel sorry for both the children and parents who now have to deal with this.

so it's actuallynot a school trip...

Just ridiculous. If it's no longer viable for them to offer the typical sort of few nights in Europe trips, so be it. But just leave it there.

We're reasonably lucky at ours, there's a few of the 3 night Europe trips for £700 type options. Which isn't too badly priced considering you also, understandably, have to cover the costs of supervision as well. But if those stopped being doable, I really don't want them letting external companies in to pitch at impressionable captive audiences!

These things are a big scam! It continues at universities aswell these travel companies that promote poverty tourism at a ridiculous cost. It’s also for lazy people who can’t think up a travel itinerary themselves and pay a ridiculous price for it.
also it’s after she finishes school?! Why not ask her about a country she’d really like to visit and tell her she could do a much cheaper trip then maybe get a car for 6.5k. Shocking that the school are even encouraging this

I wonder how many schools they have gone to as we have had these into my DCs school too for this trip.

They do say it's to be funded through fundraising but it's such a big amount of money and the presentation showed people who had managed really easily which gives kids false hope.

I think there are 3 kids with their names down here but they only have 12 months to fund even though the trip is June 2027 with 4 deadlines in that time.

Oh and to boot the schools annual ski trip needs to be paid at the same time!

My daughter done an African safari when she was 17 through college, it cost £2,500.
Its not just the cost of the trip, its the spending money for food and drinks, specific footwear for walking through the jungle, specific coloured clothing, no colours that will stand out making them visible to predators 🤣🤣
She had an amazing time and made some great friends that she didn’t mix with whilst at college
I do recommend sending her as it’s going to be a trip of a lifetime.
My husband and I are doing a safari and it’s costing us nearly £10,000, but it’s something we’re only going to be doing once in our lifetime

This doesn't make sense. Is the travel agent person a friend of someone on the PTA who is coming in to plug their business? On what planet would any state comprehensive try to flog a £6,500 trip? I highly doubt anyone will sign up to this....

I think the concept is distasteful. It has very white saviour vibes.

What the actual fuck is the school thinking?

My DC go to a London private school. There are some families there (think oligarchs and bankers) to whom 6.5k is a drop in the ocean.

The school wouldn't DREAM of offering a trip that costs this. There would be complete uproar if they did, not just for the cost but the environmental impact. A bunch of teens don't need to go on longhaul flights to see some animals. Ridiculous.

I wondered actually if it were one of those travel MLM things and the travel agent put pressure on an unwitting friend at the school to present their pitch.

I have two friends who have 'started their own mum entrepreneur travel business' and both have independently lobbied me to approach my private school to encourage them to abandon their travel provider and go to their single person dodgy MLM instead. Part of the pitch was that they would come and present travel opportunities to various year levels.

I’m glad you’ve come to a solution and all the friends parents agreed with you. This is shockingly expensive and more than we paid for our family summer holiday for 4.

I’d be telling her to save up for a car for when she is 17. That would benefit her a lot more.

@TrustyRusty68
The children have managed to fund raise the majority of the money themselves by doing bake sales, car washes, sponsored activities (like wax dad!), money tin in the local pub, scratch cards, craft sales, and so many more ways!

Hahaha!
How does that work then?
Bake sales are notorious for costing more for ingredients than you make selling cakes. How many people are actually willing to pay someone else to wash their car, especially in a poor area? (I tried this as a teen and the answer appeared to be almost no one.) Who is going to sponsor a teen or donate to a money tin in the local pub for them to go off on a stupidly expensive jolly, especially in this financial/CoL environment? Craft sales - the sheer amount of time it takes to make stuff compared to what people are willing to pay is a well-known issue - people with actual craft skills will tell you!

Sounds like the teens you refer to were going through the motions whilst (well-off) adults around them indulged them by actually donating or buying stuff they wouldn't really have wanted in other circumstances.

It sounds like world challenge which has been around for years. One of my friends went to I think India back in gosh it must have been 2007 or 2008. The school didn't present it to all pupils when they were selling it to us though. You had to go along to a presentation with your parents after school or something.

@BrendaSmall
She had an amazing time and made some great friends that she didn’t mix with whilst at college
I do recommend sending her as it’s going to be a trip of a lifetime.

It doesn't have to be her only chance.
I didn't go on the similar trip my school arranged, due to the prohibitive cost.
I did, however, spend several chunks of my 20s travelling to similar places, at a fraction of the cost, for far longer. I've seen orangutans in Borneo. I've scuba dived in various brilliant locations. I've trekked/camped in jungles numerous times, slept on white sand beaches on uninhabited islands, watched the sunrise over volcanoes, trekked in the Himalayas... etcetc <drifts off into reminiscence>
£6500 for this trip - what a spectacular rip off!

OP, if your daughter is keen, encourage her to save up and carefully plan an independent trip in her 20s.