Kids excluded from free trip

[AbiGabi]

Some of the kids at my dc’s school were selected to be allowed to go on an outward bound/activity trip where they had a great time staying in huts, having campfires, petting animals and doing some exciting and amusing team activities and sport.

The activity was free, and it wasn’t advertised to all parents in the year - only those who had been picked.

I only found out about it when I saw the school newsletter saying what a truly fabulous time the kids had had, and about 3 pages of photos showing them all havi nt fun. The school newsletter then banged on about how amazing it was that the school was to be able to provide this trip totally free to the kids who went, because the outward bound centre provided facilities for free so the school only had to pay for food and the coach to transport all the kids. Coaches are NOT cheap!

last month the school came begging for contributions to buy classroom equipment and I gave the school £50 not realising they were spaffing money on trips my dc wasn’t invited to!

Aibu to feel this is sharp practice by the school and unfair?

I would see if you can edit your OP, because there's going to be dozens more posts about how this is probably pupil premium.

From your update, I'd say it still depends on whether it was something to do with relative disadvantage or not. If it was, there may well have been other sources of funding. Probably not so if it were a rewards trip, or taking the GCSE geography class away to spend a few hours studying erosion and the rest of it doing fun activities in the Welsh hills.

@JustAnotherWhinger according to the newsletter nothing mentioned about pupil premium. And stated all the school had to pay for was the coach so we were able to make this free.

I guess though they may have sub-sub-selected so that only the pupil premium kids in the sub group were invited. That thought makes me feel a bit better!

I wouldn’t usually have minded at all it just struck a nerve since it was hot on the heels of another begging letter for money, the “can we kindly remind you we have only reached 15% of our fundraising target and please , if you weren’t able to donate last month please.”

Schools get SEN funding to spend on SEN kids, so that's fair. Now if the selection criteria was something stupid like 100% attendance and paid from the core school budget, that's different.

I was going to say, the only thing I can think of that I'd be against is it as an award for 100% attendance.

Yes I do agree that coursework trips are provided for free and that’s not handed oht evenly.

This trip didn’t seem very necessary or educational - just fun.

I am probably being unreasonable and happy to be told that.

Do they still do coursework trips? I thought coursework had mostly gone. Was thinking of that as an example of something that took the piss a bit! But yeah, not so much if they did need to be there.

I work in a school, I concur with previous posters, it was most likely paid for by PP funding for PP kids. I wouldn't begrudge kids having fun. They can't take everyone and school budgets are up shits creek. I'd like to add after seeing your other posts, the school are unlikely to advertise it was selecting PP kids. No one wants kids stigmatised the same with SEN.

I’m slightly concerned that your donating to school building fund is seen as a semi direct investment in your child. It’s actually a charitable donation to the school building fund and if yours is anything like the majority they are all in great need. Government money for buildings in particular is risible.

Our school sends youngsters to Outward Bound for 5 days but the school have no say in the number of students as I know it is our Council (education dept ?) that hire Outward Bound for the duration and allocate x no. of youngsters from several schools in the Council catchment to fill the whole centre. The youngsters get to meet the other schools while there and interact.. Our school pay nothing towards it as youngsters asked to pay their transport there themselves. A wonderful opportunity.

As an aside, and what a previous poster said, I used to work at a remote hostel. Older youngsters from a large city would come for a week to stay - many had never been out the city, seen the beach / water / hill walked etc. The change in these young people over a week (language included) was amazing. They will never forget the experience.

Where I teach schools have to fund all extra
curriculars and not allowed to ask for contributions so all trips are cheap nearly free.

the criteria for going on the trip was nothing to do with financial hardship or pupil premium. The newsletter did disclose the selection criteria but I don’t want to mention here as it could be outing.

I find it hard to believe that this criteria is so outing but equally was mentioned in a public newsletter.

If you knew the criteria then surely you would have mentioned that in your first post.

Given how tight school budgets are, and the fact that a good number of parents will react like you (and actually there’s likely to be several that react with shouting and grief) very, very few schools will pay for a coach from general school funds with no pupil premium funding covering the bulk of it or with no specific reasons for the selections that might just not be instantly obvious.

ok - so that would make sense. Thank you I did not think about it from the budget “pot” point of view.

Thinking about it, there are different pots for all sorts of things, aren’t there.

I wish when I sent my cash donations to school I could nominate a “pot”.

”Please put this in the pot for calculators, colouring pencils and repairs to the school gate.”

There will be a very good reason it was selected students.
Underprivileged kids is a possibility but they dont just pick kids at random.Yabu.

When I was still working in a school, we had parents who complained because their children weren't included in a 'First Chances' initiative at the local university. It was supposed to be limited to children who came from households where neither parent had the experience of a tertiary education.

You sound like like the woman I sat next to once in assembly, moaning about The Kids Who Went Rollerskating in school time. I reminded her that a) my son was in That Group & b) would you prefer he was in your golden childs English group mucking about at the back and spoiling the lesson for him??
Sometimes kids get to do other things - its not all about YOU and YOURS

Because that pot if money must be spent on the SEN kids its intended for, it cannot be used on anything else.
The school might decide to find the SEN trip knowing full well families may not be able to facilitate this themselves - mostly because of the childs needs often not because of money - although disabled kids and their carer parents are financially vulnerable on our society.

Thanks - I think you’re right, they just didn’t explain it, probably because the risk of poverty-shaming the kids who went on the trip.

I hate the concept of poverty shaming. I grew up relatively poor, I was teased at secondary school about it by some of my wealthier classmates (the usual stuff - council house kid, wrong trainers, hair cut at home by my mum, walked instead of paying for the bus). I wish being poor and accepting financial support was part of normal conversation not kept as a dirty secret that has to be hidden away - it makes children think they have to hide who they really are.

Pupil premium kids I would imagine. I’d be happy for them!

Ok Im satisfied! IABU.

This was probably a load of pupil premium kids from within the sub-group and the stupid school didn’t mention it because being poor is still considered unmentionable. Glad I did this thread as I would probably not have sent in a donation next time, but now I probably will.

Oh for goodness sake just ask them.

But happy to take money from OP and others. Moral of the story STOP funding schools. I wish you well OP.

As I understand it schools aren’t allowed to actively fundraise for school equipment like pencils and calculators. They are only allowed to fund raise for things that are extra, like play equipment for the playground.

What is the criteria that is so outing? Only children who live on a certain road, only children who have a surname in the second half of the alphabet?

i don’t totally understand the post, but I’m not a complete idiot. I know that different groups of kids get to do different things. My point was in the context of the school begging for money why aren’t parents being asked to pay travel costs for trips that are not an educational requirement.