School trips

[StarDolphins]

Just opened a letter about a school trip & yet again, it’s the exact same place she went to last year AND the year before & I’m just a bit narked at the lack of variety. AIBU? Do your children go to the same place? My DD does enjoy it but it’s every year. I would love the occasional museum trip or just anywhere different! Just seems to be little to no thought gone into it. And it’s expensive too given she’s been there before at £15. This is meant to be a small contribution too as the PTA has funded most of it!

I will obviously consent to her going & pay the money but I wonder if I should mention it on the yearly feedback form as the years are ticking away but also wondering if this is normal?

What sort of trips do your Y4 kids go on, are they varied?

This is exactly what I would expect! I’d be very happy with this, a mix of things.

I went to Eureka as a kid! These things are lovely, I would love them to go to panto!

No residentials either for her & I would love her to go, I think it’s such a great character building thing to do to get away from me for a night or two!

I think you should definitely query it with the school. If the teachers are going to the effort of organising a trip, it being one the kids have done twice already is a bit of a waste of everyone's time.

Maybe you could phrase it as a question 'are you aware that this year group has done this trip twice already, as maybe it hasn't been communicated between year group teachers, is there a different curriculum focus this time?'

Y2 , visited church for rememberence day, local park for georgraphy trip and day out at a botanical garden also for georgraphy, residential trip to an activity centre (1night), they will probably do something in summer term they are usually quite last minute

y1, walk to church harvest, visit to a zoo, visit to a beach

Agree & it’s so boring doing the same thing.

What are they charging £15 for? The Muslim centre is free.

I want to know where the PPs are getting a coach for £200 for 60 kids....!

Coach travel is very expensive. Train travel is a risk assessment nightmare! Plus most places need a coach to the train so it won't save money.

School sounds unimaginative with trips, have you ever asked why they don't got anywhere se ?

My DC go to a very small village school - the whole school can fit on one coach so it helps with costs. Our Headteacher is very keen on trips & finds money from somewhere to fund them.
Ours do 2-3 trips per term, plus a week long residential for Yrs3-6 every year.
Places they been to include:
Cadbury World
Legoland
The Eden Project
National Marine Aquarium
Roman Baths
The beach (2 different ones)
Zoo
Museums
Farm Park
Theatres
Cinema
Lyme Regis
Kent's Cavern
And probably more I can't remember, & more they'd have gone on if not for COVID. & they rotate the residential locations too.

Definitely complain - the same place 3 years in a row is rubbish.

I get how expensive it must be & I’ve just looked on the open centre website & the different workshops look expensive too. I don’t begrudge paying any amount for trips. It’s the lack of variety. I thought I’d ask on her if it’s normal but seeing all these lovely, varied trips, yes I am going to nicely mention it to the school.

Goodness me! I would love all this for her, What a great school this sounds!

Yes, will definitely mention it & have your list ready as my suggestions!

I’ve just been reading the website & it’s a limited company that have to pay people to come in to do the prayers/talks etc & they have some mon that comes in to do hand hennas that will need paying too & the cost includes a donation as well.

All fine as a one off but once they’ve seen it, they’ve seen it!

Yes I will do this. Thank you.

Are all the trips focused on learning about Islam? If so that’s really odd unless it’s a school specifically catering to Islam pupils which you say it isn’t. Id they’re just using the same venue each time though and doing different workshops with different focuses, that is absolutely fine in my view.

When I opened the letter & told her what it was, I did say “how strange, it’s the centre again & you’ve already been there” thinking in my mind I will say no but she’s said it’s ok & that it’s good. So I feel obliged to just pay it & let her go because I don’t want her to feel like the odd one out at all, I wouldn’t do that to her.

I will speak to the school. All these great places mentioned on here & she’s going to the only place shes ever been to🙄

I'm also the Chair of the PTA - & we have contributed to the cost of trips, but only occasionally. Last year the PTA paid the full cost for the whole school to go to a local theme park.

With the exception of the residentials, we've never paid more than £15 for a trip - usually it's £5-10 & some have been completely free.

Yes it is absolutely fine, it’s just she’s listed them off to me & said that’s what they do there & it’s the same thing of wedding, henna, story & songs. Maybe I will word it to the school like, is it different each time?!

Thanks for this. The school have said it’s subsidised by the PTA but as they have to pay for workshops, they’re asking for a (voluntary) contribution of £15 but it would be cancelled if they didn’t get enough contributions.

Exactly the same at my children’s school. The same trip for year 2, year 3 etc but every cohort passing through the school would experience the full variety of trips. So it was the seaside for y2, Roman museum for y3, Stonehenge for y4, Viking museum for y5, residential trip to France for y6. Repeated year after year, but each child got the opportunity to do all these trips in their school life.

Yr 4 - Roman Baths in Bath

Very odd to go to a religious venue two years in a row.

Our kids seem to go to the British Museum every term (it's only a couple of stops so cheap as chips, but no excitement at all!)

DC Y5 just been to Natural History Museum. Royal Observatory coming up. British Museum last term. Go to visit the residents in local care home. School do small local trips like to the supermarket to practice getting a small shopping list and then make food. Local library and farm. We are in outer London.

Primary teacher here - we have our curriculum trips planned for each year group - most years go out on two trips and have one experience/ workshop in to school. These would never be repeated- confused why they would?! We do residential in y5/6. We also tend to run one trip for everyone that is classed as an experience not directly linked to learning such as last year we went on a whole school trip to the seaside.

Do you have a class WhatsApp group? If all the parents were to say something it could be quite effective!

I think schools are struggling with getting enough contributions in from parents but our school has always done pretty good trips. My 5yo has done a farm park and I think might do an activity day pond dipping this summer. Eldest has done an outdoor activity day at least one a year, a castle, a synagogue, a couple of small, local museums and has a residential coming up.

I suspect coach costs are the limiting factor now. I don’t think any of the years do a trip into London for the big museums which seems a shame. I remember doing a big coach trip to the British museum when I was at school and having an amazing time. It really sparked my interest in history.