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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think the school should not be organising an art trip to New Bleedin' York?

122 replies

BitOfFun · 24/09/2009 17:47

The latest from dss (14)- "Dad, can I go on a trip with the Art class to New York next year?"...at an approximate cost of £800

The teachers have apparently said they expect him to sign up for it as his dad is an artist...

Incidentally, he is also going on a school ski trip at a similar cost, and has more holidays than Alan Whicker as it is (although his dad and I haven't been away for three years).

AIBU to think that as we live in a city with an amazing galleries, including the greatest collection of Pre-Raphaelite Art probably in Europe, not to mention a superb branch of the Tate, that the school is taking the bleeding piss?

Who dreams up these crazy ideas?

If they want a jolly for the Department, what's wrong with Paris, even?

Blimey...

OP posts:

MollieO · 24/09/2009 21:47

I assume they must have a particular interest in modern art. New York is fab for that. I used to live there and loved visiting all the different galleries. Expensive but I am utterly gobsmacked at £3500 for Namibia. It is an incredibly cheap country to visit. I've been twice - one in style at a cost of £1500 and one camping trip for £500 including flights.

babybarrister · 24/09/2009 21:47

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster

BitOfFun · 24/09/2009 21:53

Hehehe- any exchange might get their eyes opened round here as well, babybarrister

Washington Square, eh? I only know that from Henry James' novella- I guess it's gone downhill then?

OP posts:

teamcullen · 24/09/2009 21:53

Whats wrong with Colomendy these days.

Pencil scetch of Moel Famau

Water colour of devil's gorge

Oil painting of colomeny farm

Modern art expodition of the shit and mud encrusted suitcase of washing DCs come home with

Personally, I think forign trips are great but I think schools should come to a decision on only organising trips that families can realisticly afford.

DD went to spain in y5 which cost less than £200. 2 weeks later she asked if she could go sking for £530... er NO!

1dilemma · 24/09/2009 21:54

YANBU

some of the stuff I read about on here is mad

Original poster

BitOfFun · 24/09/2009 21:56

Colomendy- eh, them were the days! I remember being convinced I was going to drown in the swimming baths there and screaming hysterically. I had a rubber ring round me and had floated into the deep end. It suddenly occured to me that if I let myself slip out I was a gonner

OP posts:

paisleyleaf · 24/09/2009 22:11

I went on a school trip to America (we visited New York) when I was 14.
That was in the 80s though, and the cost was around £350
I got a paper round and paid a fair chunk of the money myself.
I had the time of my life.

teamcullen · 24/09/2009 22:14

colomendy only cost £30 if your parents worked and £9 if if you were entitled to free school dinners. (in the 80s)

Our school used to take us in august so it was a holiday and not a working week

The worst part was the cows milk on your cornflakes.

katiestar · 24/09/2009 22:17

Whose milk do you normally put on your cornflakes ?

Original poster

BitOfFun · 24/09/2009 22:19

It was before MN, so it wasn't breastmilk...

OP posts:

Fruitbeard · 24/09/2009 22:29

I went to school on the Wirral and the most we got offered by the Art department was a trip to London to see the Rodin exhibition, cost about £20 in 1981 (and my parents couldn't afford it).

I'm horrified by the cost of these trips and can only thank God that DD is never going to her cousin's school, where their cricket tour is going to St Lucia next year (cost £2k+) and the school trip is China - they were given a year's notice to save up the £4k it was going to cost...

Original poster

BitOfFun · 24/09/2009 22:33

That is quite the most PREPOSTEROUS thing I have ever heard on MN, Fruitbeard

OP posts:

teamcullen · 24/09/2009 22:35

Katiestar it was straight from the cow...still warm, not pasturised and just tasted wrong.

And with one eye on the birds flying round the canteen incase they shat in your breakfast it wasnt the best start to the day even if it did only cost £9 for the week!!

MollieO · 24/09/2009 22:49

Fruitbeard that must be a private school surely? £4000 for a school trip? How long are they going for - a year?

Katisha · 24/09/2009 22:49

Even if the children are doing paper rounds and badgering for sponsorship to raise the funds I think it puts enormous pressure on families. Much better to go to these places when they are older.
I went to Vienna on an orchestra trip when I was 15 and can hardly remember a thing about it.
Couldn't afford to go on the 6th form history trip to Florence and Venice and still got an A. (this was a long time ago when A's were relatively scarce...) But felt pretty fed up that I couldn't go and about the implication that my parents were visibly less well off. (They were teachers, ironically)

TheCrackFox · 24/09/2009 22:54

I'd need 20 years notice to save up £4000.

IMO St Lucia is a bit of a holiday of a lifetime (honeymoon etc) and should not be wasted on a poxy cricket tour.

theworldsgoneDMmad · 24/09/2009 23:19

As his (very talented! ) dad is an artist, I wouldn't have thought the school would consider him to be one of their pupils most in need of exposure to art

At the start of my art degree, we were informed that there would be a trip to New York organised for 800 quid. Those who wished to go would have to stump up 800 quid in fresher's week before anyone's loan had been paid

It was optional, which was just as well because it got cancelled due to lack of interest, funnily enough...

Fruitbeard · 24/09/2009 23:36

However did you guess it was a private school?

I agree, it's madness. I don't think they're sending him to China, but as he's a star player on the cricket team they're 'having' to do it... (I'm with you on that one, Crackfox, if anyone in my family was going to St Lucia it'd be me, and not for some school thing!)

mamas12 · 25/09/2009 22:38

If it is deemed essential quote all the kids on here reported 'we have to go it's part of the cours' Well why doesn't the school pay?
If school can't afford it they can't go.
An essential lesson in money management and greed I think.

MollieO · 26/09/2009 22:11

I guessed it was a private school as the affordability of the trip wouldn't occur to a lot of parents with dcs at private school. Of course some people do sacrifice everything to send their dcs to private school but quite a few don't so wouldn't baulk at the cost of something perceived to have 'educational value'.

The senior school attached to ds's prep school does fund raising for their sports trips to St Lucia, South Africa so the cost is reduced. £1500 rings a bell, and lots of warning (potential to save).

To contrast though the chess tours seem to always be to Butlins type places which has proven to a bit of an eye-opener for some of the accompanying parents .

ClaudiaSchiffer · 26/09/2009 23:27

YANBU, these things are absurd.

In the Upper 6th of my rather prim all-girls school we went on an art trip to Amsterdam with the local Art College. It was BLOODY FANTASTIC, I spent 5 days being educated in all sorts of splendid ways - mainly in sex and drugs, but being a right ponce art lover I did manage to squeeze in a quick shufty at the Van Goghs and Rembrandts before heading back to the cafes.

Should you really be denying your dss these life enhancing experiences?

Quattrocento · 26/09/2009 23:32

YABU I think. I'd like my children to go to NYC without me.

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