This Stoke school's teacher training in Marbella...

[WendyWeber]

...it does actually sound like v good value for money, if you happen to agree that it's really important for them to go overnight for bonding purposes - for 80 of them it's only £56 per night each & I can imagine a British hotel would cost a lot more than that even without flights.

However why couldn't they just have done it on-site? (Which they are doing now anyway, but the school will probably lose the £18 grand as well!!!. Mad.)

Why didn't they do it at the end of the school holidays instead of shutting the school for 2 days in term time? Will the head be disciplined? I am fascinated

What year did you leave school, I left in 1990.

Did I tell you that DH was not well enough to work at V this year?

Jetgirl - this was a conference though, rather than inset training, and no supply staff as they've closed the school for two days.

I left Birches Head in 1990 then onto 6th form.

I'm a good ten years ahead of you.

ureb - dh may well be working there in the future. dd wants to go and there's no way he'll let her unless he's very close by. Won't be for a couple ( or ten!) years though.

I left School long before you two! (but not quite as long ago as Saggars .

DS2 does music prac at Birches Head.

I went to 6th form for a year but didn't like it much, so I left and went to Newcastle College.

Thankfully mine are a bit too young to start thinking about going yet, saggars.

I went to Newcastle College too but after my A levels I had a change of mind about which uni course I wanted to do so did an extra year.

Dh went to Newcastle during that time too.

I did my A levels at Newcastle and then went to Staffs Uni

I worked, briefly, at Staffs Uni (when it was a Poly).

Hi Saggars, have only just seen your reply - glad your DS survived!

Mine had a fine time, thank you - DS2 met Fran Healy (Travis singer) & has a pic of him shaking his hand - he was absolutely thrilled! The girls had a great time too (& they all got through an alarming amount of alcohol )

DS2 left his paint-your-own tent behind though - it was so small & so muddy it almost disappeared. (I think the girls would rather not have brought theirs back either, but it's DH's & it is a very useful tent so they overcame their fastidiousness about it...it was filthy & had to be hosed down once we eventually had a dry enough day to get it all out & air it!)