Residential school trips

[Sparklyglitter]

We've recently changed school and found out after we joined that there is a residential trip coming up. Monies are required to secure the place months before the school plan to share any of the finer details of the trip. At other friends schools and our previous schools we had a lovely presentation of photos etc from staff and children who went the previous year, which frankly made even the parents want to go! But I don't feel comfortable agreeing to pay for something I know little about! Anyone got any experiences of their schools and how they do it? Thanks.

no experience as my kids are too young but I would be expecting to know where they would be going, how long for and roughly what the aims/ideas of the trip were even if finer details were still unavailable.

Yes this was what I was thinking......

I don't think it would be unreasonable to ask some specific questions, you could just act as if you assumed you had missed some info before you joined the school.

Have sought extra information and been given the website address of the place they are going, which looks lovely, but as you can probably imagine is promotional material. I've been given a rough idea of when and an estimate of cost. I asked why the meeting about the trip was not before parents were expected to stump up the deposit and commit to paying for the trip and have been told, that this is the way it has always been done, I'm in the minority in thinking it should be before, they don't need to do the meeting before as all the children go........teacher aggressively goes on about how they all need to go......
But I wondered what other schools are doing?

How old is your DC? That will determine what kind of trip. Usually residential trips start around Y5 but it can be much younger/older.

IME most children go but a there are always 1-2 who stay behind.

Year 4. I'm not worried about the going away as they have already been away with another youth group, so we've jumped that hurdle! :0)
What do they do at your school with regards trip information, is it before you have to pay any money or after? :0)

Our school have two trips, one in Y5 and one in Y6 - they have an information meeting before giving out the application forms.

(If you want to name the place your school goes to, you'll probably find a good few people on Mumsnet whose children have been there, or teachers who have experience of it.)

DS is going on his first next month in Yr 5. We were sent a letter with basic details, url of place etc, about 6 months ago and had to pay £40 deposit, then the full amount by the end of Sept and then there was a presentation/discussion. I didn't think this was odd at all TBH and haven't heard anyone else comment other than to say how excited the DCs are. I did go in and discuss it separately with his teacher early on in the process as DS has SNs, but wouldn't have done otherwise.

For the Yr4 trip (they go right at the beginning, so you are committing and paying in Yr3) and the Yr6 trip, my dcs school have always put on an evening like you describe, showing photos of the previous trips, and drafting out the expected agenda, talking about sleeping arrangements, travel arrangements, etc., and answering parents' concerns before anyone has to commit.
Particularly with younger children, I wouldn't expect many to sign up without this kind of positive approach

Usually just an information evening and then forms go out. Normally the schools will send children to the same place every year so ask parents of older kids?

When our years one and two went away we got a letter. (Open doors to chat, but just a letter.)

I've read many posts on here where the information event has been so slick, parents have felt they have been compelled to say yes for fear of upsetting their own children.

I would play the new parent card. "I missed the information evening." Because surely there was one

We got forms them an information evening. There was only ten parents there from three classes. The school does a lot of these things for parents but virtually no one goes. Maybe some schools give up?

We had detailed written information before the deposit was required then a parents evening for those who want to go. This has been the case in all schools from DD's first residential in year 2. Anybody new parent would get the info and most ask other parents to fill in the gaps. I am sure your school would help with info if you asked.

I don't really understand the problem
What are you concerned about? If it's cost they often let you pay in instalments
If it's information about activities then that will be online

Information up front, with pictures of last year.

Poor form imo to ask for deposit/commitment without reasonable details of likely activities and total cost to within 5%.

But isn't all that on the places website?

Speak to the head teacher

Wow! Thanks for all the responses.

My issue "I think" is that at the end of the day these are my children and I want to be a part of the decision making about what they do along with my husband and children.

I feel it steps beyond the schools remit to demand that a.) A child goes on this trip (which is the case).
b.) Expect a deposit and agreement to pay the balance before you have been to an information evening.
C.) I feel it is a lack of communication, something this school is particularly bad at.

I've looked on-line but the website for the place they go to is a fancy website, which is great for its purpose, but I want to see photos of last years trip, where you will see worts and all! :0)
I'm not particularly going to refuse to send him, but I wanted to have an information evening before I was asked to commit.

I fully expected when we changed school that we would have to learn how the new school works as every school has different ways of working and we have embraced this, but I was not expecting the above!

I thought "Working in Partnership with Parents" "communication" was a universal basic.........

I used to work as an Instructor for two years at two different Centres and am happy to try and answer any Qs you may have! Obviously I wont know what the teachers do in the planning stage.

Hi Hoppity, I wrote to the Head Teacher to ask about when the meeting would be and when they were going to let us know how much for the residential trip.
He passed the letter without even replying to me (to say he had done this) to the Assistant Head, who new to the school this September, just wrote a very basic letter, where she misunderstood several points on my original letter, suspect she didn't read it properly as had a couple of people read mine and they said it was clear....
I wrote back to her as I wanted to clarify my original points.

I then had a meeting with the Head of Year about an upcoming trip, where she quoted items out of my letter as it was not related to this meeting I wasn't quite sure why my letter to the assistant head had been shared with the head of year.......but that's another story! ;0)

Hi MortifiedAdams, that's really kind, but this particular site prides itself on tailoring a programme to each individual school. I've also been on various Scout trips, so have some idea of what generally happens on these trips.
I'm going to ring up the site too, as they will have an idea of what our school usually does.
If anything comes up I'll definitely ask, thank-you :0)