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?

Yeah it might be ok for only a small percentage to get a place - say less than half - then most of the kids are disappointed but they’re not seeing most of their peers getting to go.

Giving a place to most of them but not all is unfair.

That’s really crap OP!

I get it is it’s a special overseas/residential trip where only limited places can be available, but an end of year reward should be for everyone.

DDs school do it via a rewards system, attendance, behaviour etc… Gold students, basically 100% attendance and zero negatives get first pick of 4/5 options with varying rates of costs for parents, then Silver children.

One of my DDs missed out due to attendance which we are not happy with as her attendance is due to a lifelong medical condition she has no control over and is hard enough for a teenager to live with. the school ignored our messages prior to the release of award levels (hospital visits and stays accounted for) so we have given her the option of a day off to do something. I understand you can’t do that but I would find a way to find something for him.

Id also be making complaints to the school and asking them to rethink how they go about these things. From what I understand enough parents at my DDs school have done this which is why they now have a variety of activities at various costs including free activities for those who can’t afford the big treats like a trip to a theme park.

The points have generally been fair, it's not just on academic ability and my daughter is very quiet and under the radar but got on trip last year.

My daughter's school also does this. In the autumn term, 3/4 of them went to Dearne Valley, we had to apply in the previous summer term and I applied immediately.

Parents were asking them the last application date was and some said, "Phew, just got in."

My daughter missed out and was very upset. I think virtually all of us complained, so they managed to put another one on after Easter. It would at least have made sense to be first come, first served.

This gets more peculiar. A whole year group nearly going on an end of term enrichment day. Then not everyone can go.
Mad. It really is bonkers.

Yeah, we had the same set up at DS’s secondary school. Not enough space, so those that missed out would be left with something “exciting” to do at school.

My biggest frustration was that the school couldn’t find a way to ensure children who missed out on a trip, would be prioritised for the next one. We had one year where there were three trips available for DS over the year - one linked to a subject, one ski trip and the end of year event. We knew of multiple children who got on all trips and some who didn’t get a space on any.

I queried why this was allowed to happen, surely they could have a spreadsheet like system, to ensure it wasn’t always the same children going on the trips and was told it wasn’t possible to do this and it’s simply a case of luck.

Yep. And it's 10 miles down the road and affordable.

School put on things like ski trips but at £1200 per pupil, are out of most people's budgets.

I think this is a common way to run school trips. All the mid year trips that my children's school run are like this apart from compulsory ones relating to GCSEs. They do email you to let you know that your child has been unsuccessful though and you get added to the waiting list if someone drops out.

However when it comes to activities week/enrichment trips at the end of the year absolutely everyone gets to do something. Each department runs a whole week of activities including trips to zoos, theme parks, museums etc as well as things in school. They range in price from free to a few hundred. You apply for your favourite 3 and then everyone gets allocated something.

The good thing about this is that it's very clear from the start what you'll be doing. Often popular activities like go ape appear in more than one departments offering. Not everyone gets the first choice but everyone seems to be happy.

Years 7, 8 & 9 are all mixed together so everyone usually knows a few kids doing the same thing as them but it's unlikely that entire friend group would be doing the same thing

That's awful my son's school do this. They make it clear from the start that you must have

• achieved 300 credits
• have no isolations

They do 5 trips and the kids choose, usually

• theme park
• bowling and cinema
• Zoo and 2 others I can't remember

That is rubbish. My DCs go to a large secondary with about 230 per year group and most year groups have 3 enrichment trips or activities throughout the year. But they split each year group into 3 different bands so that each band has the opportunity to do each trip. It works well.

Locally I know the 2 bigger middle schools and the huge high school (we're 3 tier) do this where not everyone can go on every trip but they make a note of who has had a turn and give priority to those who missed out previously.

DD goes to a smaller middle school and we are really lucky as everyone gets a chance to go for everything and so far all trips have been paid for completely by the school too!

(We havent had a residential yet though and that will cost but be highly subsidised by the school).

Thanks for helping me think I'm not going mad, and it is unfair and poor communication from the school.

Thanks also for sharing what your children's schools do - lots of much better ways of doing things, like a fun activity morning at school, or breaking the trips up to different, smaller ones throughout the year (and keeping track of who has been and who hasn't so that everyone get the chance if they want).

Working in a large secondary we always made sure there were extra staff to join the tutor cohort so all could go. This could've been planned better.

Seen your update about it being 10 miles away and within budget - send your son and his friend - maybe the other parent could drop off and you pick up
schools should be setting better examples - I’m glad my DS 18 has finished and that we had none of these shenanigans

The school I work at either takes everyone on a trip (educational) or at the end of summer term there will be a few options (and at different price points) and children rank what they would like to do. It seems to work well, keep a record of who gets 1st choice etc, so you are unlikely to get 3rd choice two years in a row.

And yet 'bad attendance' can be due to unmet SEND, chaotic family life, poor mental health etc, none of which are under a child's control. School life should be for everyone, not selective so that some children are deliberately excluded.

Teacher's being paid, funding, delegating children between teachers should not become a problem for the children to bare. It's the same as most families do not put their financial problems on their children.

"Sorry you can't go kids, we can't afford to pay your teachers." No - This is an awful excuse.

The children's wellbeing is being completely ignored, they are not protected from disappointment, they have not been protected from all of the other children talking about it while they are penalised for absolutely no reason/fault of their own.

I am absolutely sick to death of this happening. Either they all go, or do not plan the trip at all. We tell people not to live above their means, yet here we have a school living above their pay grade and putting unnecessary stress on families- Stress they did not ask for when times are already tough. I'm betting these teachers also make posts such as, "Be kind. You never know what someone is already going through." Yet! Here we are putting upon families when they might already be at rock bottom and this upset has mind it worse. Utterly mindless and ignorant!

Something needs to be done to prevent this nonsense from continuing. It happens at my own children's school. I actually went to the LEA and local MP who pulled them up on it. They now plan trips close to home/local and make sure all children have a space and organise amongst parents who can help out.

YANBU but its how schools do these trips now.

OP, no advice beyond yanbu.
I have never heard of this.
There would be uproar if this happened in my childrens schools.
So unfair.
For everyone or no one.

I would 100% be complaining and going to the school board.

I also would be giving him the day off and a treat for sure, if you can coordinate with other parents, all the better.

As for having a nice day in school to compensate, my arse. Not a chance i would force him to do this.

I'm responsible for organising school trips in Primary.

I would never, ever offer a trip that could not accommodate the whole year group.

Initial calculations include a price based on full uptake, with a note to parents that costs may rise according to participating numbers.

It would not cross my mind to offer limited places. If for any reason ( staffing, venue, transportation issues) we cannot offer to the whole cohort, then we break things down or rethink the idea. Any children with known economic difficulties can acces help for funding.

I'm also against schools offering expensive trips that are are out of reach of a big percentage of families, but that's another story...I know life out there is unequal and unfair, but not on my watch!!

I am not from the UK originally and my kid is not yet old enough to be at school here but it would have never even occurred to me that this might be a thing at all - absolutely bonkers; I can’t believe anyone accepts this at all at any school. If you can’t take all the kids to the same place on the same day you split it so everyone gets a chance to go to something, end of. You are not being unreasonable at all.

That's the way trips worked when I was at school, and same for my children when they were at school. Back then you added yourself to a sign-up sheet in the school foyer. Sometimes you got lucky, other times you didn't, though we did have a waiting list in case anybody dropped out.

It's also how real life works. If there are X tickets or places for something, not everybody who'd like to participate can. Why aren't we teaching this valuable lesson to our children? We live in a competitive world, and I've not been harmed because I didn't get a place on the ice-skating trip and my boys have survived not getting on the trip to Thorpe Park.

Yanbu. This happened to me when I was in Year 7. It was crap listening to all my mates regaling stories of the fun they had on the trip. I think my folks let me stay off school for the Friday and Monday (weekend trip), would have been rubbish going in without any of my mates. I’d let them have the time off, after all they can’t be missing anything important.

When i was about 10 there were 2 trips away for a week. The coveted one was to the Isle of White and the other was somewhere i cannot remember. They picked names out of a hat and mine wasnt called. They then picked staff names. My mum worked at the school and got picked for the Isle of White. I can remember seeing the photos my mum had taken of my peers while away and it still hurts over 40 years later!

I have just remembered a secondary trip that was done over two days to a water activity lido experience.

People were asked to name two friends and this was how they assembled the two groupings.

They had a great day.
I just can't imagine them saying only a certain number can attend.

As for the possibility of it being linked to fund raising efforts and that you can miss out on multiple trips through bad lottery luck!
Wow.
Extraordinarily unfair.
What a passive community to accept such unfairness.