To think you either organise a fun school trip for the whole of year 7, or for none of them?

[BretonStripe]

Ds is in Yr7 in a large state secondary - circa 1700 pupils inc 6th Form.

The other week parents were asked to fill out an expression of interest form for an upcoming end-of-year enrichment trip to a fun place not far away. Ds and all his friends all wanted to go, so I duly completed the form.

We found out last week that it was oversubscribed and only most of the kids got a space. The rest, inc ds who was gutted not to get a place, have to stay at school where teachers "have worked hard to come up with some engaging enrichment activities" for them there.

Apparently names were chosen at random, and no, those who wanted to go who didn't get a place won't be given priority on future trips. I think the school should have booked somewhere where all 300 kids could go, split over two days like other local schools I know, rather than disappoint a load of 11 and 12 year old children.

AIBU? What do other schools do?

Had exactly the same at DD's school. This year (according to her, no communication from school) there's the same trip fully funded by school as a reward for attendance, but not enough spaces for all students with high attendance so there's a draw for that one as well. Not a fan of attendance awards but if you're going to use them surely they should all get the reward 🤷🏻‍♀️

That's really crap. Fancy telling children that they are eligible for a reward but actually they can't have it.

But often house points are pretty arbitrarily dished out

My quiet always hard working son gets far fewer than my chatterbox of a daughter, because the teachers always notice it she works hard whereas they take it for granted he will

Doing it based on attendance is awful anyway as it penalises children with health conditions

And very teacher dependent and it's pot luck if you'll get a generous teacher or one who thinks they are nonsense.

They should've made it plain that it was first come first served and there weren't enough places for absolutely everyone.

But really it does seem unfair and if they've paid/said they can or it's not a paid activity then they should add on an extra session for those who lost out.

Hi. I'm a teacher. Communication has been awful in this instance. However, saying all kids or no kids ... With a ratio of 1:15 you'd be looking at 20 teachers. To release each teacher costs about £200 a day, so there's a hidden cost of £4k. That's why it's not all kids.

Not sure what other places do, but we log attendance on extra curricula to ensure some kids don't get more opportunities than other kids.

As I say, communication was terrible in this instance. I sit there with all the forms and email the unsuccessful (with an explanation) the day before opening up the payment portal. Should be noted I do this in my own time and depending how many I have to email (obviously BCC) it can take 1 hour - 90 minutes - that I'm not paid for and am doing in my own time / voluntarily.

Exactly!

They don't do first come first served any more, which is good I think as they tend to send emails during the school and work day. So it penalises working parents, particularly ones like teachers or healthcare staff who may not be able to check their phones whilst at work and respond to emails quickly (besides, you have to have a chat with your child first to check if they actually want to go).

Agree.

It does not as authorised absence should be different from unauthorised absence.

I actually agree with this and l am strict with attendance.

Honestly my daughters school used to this about 20 years ago , its terrible l just let her stay at home and have her friends round to watch dvds and eat pizza
There were so many things they had to do to get trip to theme park, no arguing, no fighting,no being late.honestly it taught them nothing, they were just young kids finding thier way at secondary school. Funnily enough they now about 30 with university degrees and jobs, just seemed cruel not to let them on a day out because they had a bad day in the term previously.

You sound like a very compassionate and thoughtful teacher - thank you for all you do in your spare time. I did say to the school in my email if the families who had disappointed, upset children at home had received an email with an explanation beforehand, and a bit of info regarding what the alternative will look like, it probably would have saved some tears (and emails of complaint).

DS is ND and struggles with anxiety sometimes. He likes to know roughly what a day will look like. And of course all his friends going off for an adventure without him, through no fault of his own, has hurt him.

If the school emails acknowledged the child's feelings and perspective even a little, it would go a long way imo.

When children have medical appointments at our school you send in proof and it's down as authorised but it's still taken into account for their overall attendance percentage!
And if you were poorly it would be down as authorised yes but it obviously affects your attendance percentage

So yes it would penalise children with health conditions

Love this. Completely agree. Teaches them nothing. I have found one friend who also isn't going (but wanted to), so I'm going to suggest to his mum we treat them to a sleepover with Domino's or something.

I’m shocked by this! My girls are off to a theme park and all 200 students will be going. School is massively letting dc down with two tier experience. How to demotivate 12 year olds in 5 minutes - make an unfair decision and announce it.

This isn’t new. This happened when I was in middle school year (whats
now) year 4-7 for a residential trip.

everybody got a chance to express interest. Names drawn from a hat.

We’re all in our 40’s now over 3 decades later and I don’t think it ruined anyone’s life!

If the school managed to send an email out to all parents with the 'expression of interest' form they could send another email (to everyone) saying "Tomorrow we will send out details of ParentPay to all those successful in getting a place on the trip. If you don't get that email unfortunately your child didn't get a space."

I would take my child out and do something fun instead. Are any of his friends also excluded? Could you team up?

Yes, but there will be a number of children who get positive points for remembering to bring their textbook or whatever the modern equivalent is. So the number earned won't necessarily be proportional to the quality of work/behaviour.

Oh no 😢 that's so mean. Why can't the school give those not selected priority for next trips? I don't get the logic behind refusing this.

Ah ok that's fair enough. In which case it should still say clearly limited spaces and successful ones will be drawn out of a hat or however they do it. And say clearly the deadline to enter it.

I don't know why they can't simply finalise the number of kids coming with the provider by a certain timeframe.

My son is at a massive school 1k year 7, 1k year 8, all the way to year 11.
They have given us the option of PGL for 3 nights (for those with less than 5 repair points and more than 100 merits), or Cheshire oaks on one day, Cadbury world another day or Alton Towers. Anyone who has more than 100 merits can apply (unless they have over 50 repair points) for any one of the trips. They run the 3 trips across all 3 days that PGL runs - mon/tues/weds and they will all go to their first choice of trip.
This means all of year 7 will be out on Monday, around 20% will be back in school on Tuesday for LifeSkills lessons (which appear to be things like building go carts) and then 40% will be back in school on Wednesday for LifeSkills.
Thursday when everyone’s back, they have the ColourRun and Friday it’s ColourWars, Capture the Flag and a “handoff” where the ex year 11 pupils give their old school tie to their year 7 mentee and a little advice book.
To me, my son’s school has got it right - everyone gets to go on the trips as long as you behave and you get to do other fun stuff too. Your sons school sounds really shitty!

I think it should be all kids

I appreciate you are starting a new job but I would see if a friend who had missed out parent could have them for diverging fun and you then do a sleepover/fun thing at weekend for them. I think the school have messed up