school trips ,anyone else feel real pressure to send their kids?

[brimfull]

dd is in yr 10 and so far has been on quite a few school trips,france,london ,iow all residential so not cheap.There's a history trip to Berlin in March ,it costs £350.We initially said no because it's a lot of money for us and she said she wants to go on the Barcelona trip in yr 11 which will no doubt be expensive.
If money was no object I'd say yes to both .She came home today saying her teacher has said it's a shame she's not going as she'd learn loads etc.She's one of only two in the class not going.Dh feels it's ridiculous to put such pressure on us.
What would you do?

I am a true Biologist then... hated ecology with a passion!

LOL at the 'good stuff'

We argue who is going to teach 'The plant shit'

I lost out and have to teach sucession next week. Boo Hiss! Mount St helens here I come

I was seriously pssed off when I found out that Human Biology A Level still had an element of plant sht to it.

I did miss out though... they wanted me to sit some extra higher paper thing (s-level???) and I couldn't because it had plants and things and went straight over my head

Not that any of this has anything to do with trips

I'm teaching sucession to the Human Biologists! They have the same reponse that you have!

I also have to teach them about farming, the carbon cycle and the nitrogen cycle!

Bloody hate all of it!

Still, I have DNA to teach the lower sixth biologists and will enjoy that . As will they, once they get over their shock at how complex it all is

Its conversations like this that make me so that I didn't go to uni. I wanna learn again

I like doing photosynthesis (well, not photosynthesising myself obviously, teaching it I mean). Does that count as "plant shit"?!

What do you want to do?
(now totaly off topic )

I'm doing an OU degree at the moment. Never too late to start. Or start again for that matter!

Oh no, photosynthesis is real biochemistry!

But not as 'real' as the kreb's cycle

I love teaching DNA-> RNA-> protien, all the gentics stuff, meiosis and mitosis and my all time fave, the neuroanatomy/physiology

Prefer photosynthesis to respiration, but that's probably because I spent four years researching a glycolytic enzyme, so ....

LOVE the "biological basis of behaviour" model that we did. Action potential, synapses - fab, fab, fab!

module rather...

Yes, the kids love it too. And I was a neurobiologist, so it is my 'thing'

I have to like the krebs cycle because my phd supervisor did her phs with Hans Krebs! Si I tell all the kids they have to get it right because they are the Great Man's academic Great Grand childen!

In college I loved the genetics side of it. I was meant to be doing A-Level Applied and Human Biology, intending to focus on the genetics at Aston in 2000, but depression got in the way and I talked myself out of going

I started to sign up for OU this year, but again, things got in the way at every stage of the application, and I got to the stage of if I couldn't even managed to get the application completed, how was I going to manage to study?

DH has agreed to me doing some sort of learning when DS starts school (he's 7 months), but I am thinking I'd like to be doing it sooner than that, with the hopes of doing something with it later on iyswim.

No idea what I would want to do with it. I was offerred a medical lab biochemistry course place when I was working in the lab, but the thought of doing hospital blood tests for years really doesn't appeal!

Sorry for rambling... I get all emotional about it

How about doing an OU openings course to get back in the swing of things? Or an A level at evening class?

I've gotta do something soon... my brain is melting and I am getting so frustrated.

Sorry about all that... suddenly needed to get it all out.

I'll see what available round here

Or even a GCSE in something you didn't study at school.....jsut to get you back into the swing of things.

If you ever do any more biology I would always be happy to help if I could

Im doing my Human Biology AS level and have to say at first glance, it looks bloody hard. So much harder than GCSE (I know, it's meant to be), but in GCSE a cell is basically 3 or 4 parts, now I find it's a whole little world with so much going on in there and I am supposed to learn and remember it all!!!!! what the hell was I thinking?

Mine are still in primary and so far the most we've had to fork out is £105 for a weeks outdoors pursuits course next September. But a local secondary school was asking nearly £700 for a ski-ing trip a few years ago. The stupid thing was that it was in the US - why? You can ski nearer home in Europe which presumably would have cut the cost and you'd also have the benefit of the different culture and language.

We can barely manage a family holiday TBH so if I have to pay for big school trips for all 3 of mine we wouldn't get one

yes the skiing trip i mentioned earlier that was £1200 was in the US. A letter did come home explaining why they chose the states over europe (can't remember why now but they were trying to convince the parents) Apart from the money I wouldn't travel to the US for a week (5 days skiing) and probably suffer from jetlag for the first 4 days. It seems ridiculous to me!

1200!!! WTF! We wouldn't spend that for all 5 of us. Different world.....

She who never dusts (great name BTW) which board are you doing? If it is OCR I can help you as I am teaching oCR human Biology at AS.

Let me know if I can help you

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If we can afford for her to go then she will go (if she wants to).

I don't think that they should be subsidised - sorry but if you can't afford something then you shouldn't have it. I also feel the same way about people who take children out of school just to get cheaper holidays that they couldn't afford in school holidays.

Joelalie, if you go to chilton they were charging over £500 fr an exchange back in oooh, let's see- I'm 33 now- 1988?

Exactly