To ask school for a refund that said non refundable?

[Dithercats]

High school teen.
Letter came home for a geography trip to X country. Dc interested in geography so I paid the deposit online in a first come first serve situation.
A week later a letter comes home to apply for DC dream holiday as a student exchange to Y country including language lessons which are not normally offered.
Dc is bilingual and loves Y country so hoping to go. DC had to write a submission paragraph with reasons to go - and to my surprise has been picked.
Deposit must be paid - but I now realise the Y trip returns the day before the X trip leaves, so there is no way a student can do both!
Aibu to ask school to return the non refundable deposit? To my mind school should have sent the letters out together so this issue was clear before parents paid a deposit ??

I don't see why the school is to blame

You can only ask! They might say yes in the circumstances.

There’s not actually an overlap so why can’t she do both if you can afford both that it is ?

Yes, and also that, why is there no way they can do both?

If the language trip gets back the day before the geograph trip leaves, the student could do both.
If the issue is money, that's a different story, but there's not actually a clash.

So are you saying that it’s the school refusing to allow him to do both trips and that they didn’t make this clear to you in any terms before you paid the deposit?

The school is absolutely to blame in this specific situation!! What on earth were they doing sending out letters about trips a week apart having said the first was first come, first served? It was inevitable that some would pay the deposit for the first and then prefer to go on the second and can’t go on both, even if money is not an issue, because the dates clash.

I’ve run study trips chris for years and occasionally we run two a year. Students are given all the details of both well in advance. There is no way I would go this.

If the school was offered the opportunity by a third party to run the second trip, and it’s not a case of bad planning, then they must offer to release the deposits and transfer them to the second trip.

I’d just go In and have a word, I don’t think it’s unreasonable at all.
I’m sure that someone else has emailed in about the geography trip saying that if anyone cancels can they please be considered.
It is a shame that the information for both trips wasn’t put out together so that people could be aware of both.

Correction - there is no actual overlap, but it might be tricky to get laundry done in time for students to set off on the second one.

Definitely ask, there may well be a waiting list for the first trip in which case someone else can take your child’s place.

It's strange that they didn't give the information about both at once (and with plenty of notice) to enable parents to make an informed decision.

Our school doesn't have 'overlapping" residentials in the same year though, so you make a decision early on about whether you want to sign up for the Y6 or Y7 trip (limited space and a lot of lower-income families) and/or the Y8 one.

In a situation like yours though, I'm surprised the school didn't give a clearer overview beforehand but maybe details were only confirmed last minute - it's a nightmare organising school trips.

I think you could ask - it may be they have loads of take-up so will still sell the place - but they are within their rights to say no I'm afraid.

I’d ask. Students obviously can’t do both trips concurrently. I agree they should have been more organised here.

I certainly don't think it would hurt to ask, in the circumstances. You can be fairly confident that the people who deal with the admin in school will probably be annoyed that nobody thought there might be an overlap in interest for the two trips!

I'd guess the geography trip would be more popular than a languages trip (wider audience) so more likely to find someone to take the place.

I now realise the Y trip returns the day before the X trip leaves, so there is no way a student can do both!

They can do both though? There is no overlap in the trips and whilst it would be busy and hectic to do both they have no need to refund the deposit because it is possible for a student to do both.

this Idea sounds expensive!

I don’t think this is a case of being disorganised, but I’m probably biased as I am responsible for running some school trips for my subject. The school probably has a calendar that trips have to be approved and entered onto before they can send out any details to parents. These visits do not overlap, so no problem there. The two trips will be being organised by two different people (two different heads of department - languages and geography) and they will send out the letter once they have the price set and that might not be at the same time. It’s already a massive pain organising these trips, I’m not going to add another layer by waiting to coordinate with a different department to send our letter at the same time - especially when neither of these are likely to involve large numbers of people.

Last May my son had three residential trips within two weeks - he got back from one at 7pm and had to be at the coach at 4am the following morning for the next one. We were just organised in advance so he was ready.

However, having said all that, I think the school are likely to refund you the deposit at this stage, assuming it’s literally only the week or two you suggest as they probably haven’t finalised the booking with the tour company yet. We will always refund whatever we can if a parent needs to cancel a trip for any reason - we can’t refund what’s already been paid over to another company or refund a share of e.g. the coach cost, but we will always refund anything we can. State schools have strict rules to follow about how they charge for trips and are not allowed to make any profit on them - so if they haven’t spent your money yet, they can’t keep the deposit. (I suspect this probably doesn’t apply to independent schools! But I imagine they’ll want to keep parents happy.) Just make sure you ask as soon as possible.

Trip Y is more than 12 hours flight, then travel back from international airport. So realistically travelling for almost a day.
Then X is an early start to get to school for coach to airport.
No way could a teenager manage both.

If we knew the dates upfront we would have only applied for Y.

There will be kids disappointed they didn't get X trip so the school wont loose money.

The sports trips dates were all given out in September together, but the other trips just come out as & when.

You're definitely not unreasonable here. Even if they can in theory do both, that would be absolutely exhausting even for an adult and the cost would be a barrier too. I'd ask, sounds like a communication issue within the school.

On the basis that it might be likely someone else will want the place for the first trip, it’s certainly worth the ask

You can always ask. Plenty of time to fill the spot. But I guess the pedantic argument would be, why did you put yourself forward for the second trip when you’d already committed.

On a personal note I think first come first serve basis is awful.

Our school would have refunded the deposit if someone else took up the place. As you are well
ahead and they may have a wait list, it is definitely worth asking.

As others have said, there’s nothing to lose by asking. If there is a wait list and the place can be filled it’d be unreasonable of the school not to refund the deposit.

This.

It’s pretty clear from her OP. The second trip is of more specific value to her DC, and she also didn’t realise the travel times etc meant that it wouldn’t be realistic for him to do both.

They might have a waiting list for the first trip.