Most expensive school trip yet?

[TheSecondOfHerName]

We have just received a letter offering DS1 the chance to go on a school trip in the summer of 2017. The cost will be £3980. This is a state school.

The trip does sound amazing (4 weeks trekking in Borneo with Camps International). But £3980?

Agreed Shanghai, if money for things like building went to local communities, rather than to pay for six British kids to fly over, it would go a lot further, add to the local economy and build lasting skills.

But building an orphanage makes you sound like a "good person" for life.

These are vanity trips.

It's all for the ego of the first world visitors.

I absolutely agree Babyganoush

Our most expensive offering is just under £3k for a sixth form trip to South Africa (state comp) but DS intends to leave after yr11 so we haven't signed up. He is currently in yr10 so we have been given plenty of notice and a lot of time to pay should we have wanted him to go.
He has done trips at £500-£1,100 each.

I struggle slightly with the fundraising element people talk about. Fine with kids using money from Saturday jobs etc but if I'm asked to sponsor someone I'd much rather it was going to a proper charity rather than to fund someone's holiday.

So expensive. Some of these trips are just ridiculous.

I interview graduates for my firm's scheme and I totally discount these "volunteering" experiences on their CVs. It's not impressive that a child from an independent boarding school spent a month "rescuing" turtles in the Galapagos. It's far more impressive that any child from any background worked in a supermarket during every school/uni holiday for four or five years.

In my view that shows initiative, commitment, reliability and a work ethic that many of our recruits lack these days (we pay very well so attract highly qualified applicants but expect a lot from them in return, which too often seems to come as a surprise)

Yes they may well take jobs away from people in big city type projects but , if the kids who are participating doing this didn't fund the project there wouldn't be any nursery in the area , as the community there building it for wouldn't have the funds and the children would just continue to go out to the fields with there parents .
There is a trust set up to fund teachers/ cooks / and an experience builder as the building is being built in an earthquake zone , so the building is going to be built to there requirements , not what these kids will be doing . They be doing the heavy moving of the foundations , so digging as no heavy equipment available , clearing the rubble ,etc . They will still be playing and interacting with the villagers children , teaching English , playing games with them .
And yes I expect my son to get stuff out of it as well , mostly the ability to believe in himself / be less reliant on others / realise his own decision making skill aren't as bad as he is constantly lead to believe ( due to his difficulties ) . Also to take him out his comfort zone .
People have pre conserved ideas about what autistic kids can do , the thing is they are all individuals , the company that organised the trip where also a bit funny with the idea , it was the school and staff who pushed for his inclusion when he decided to but his name down on the list to participate . This is a state / free school in a challenging area of a major town in the north.
To just say you wouldn't look at this on a child cv because you thing it's not worth anything says much more about you than the child , who might not be able to get a Saturday job , or be able to give the time away from there studies , trying to make the most of opertunities that are available to them . It's no mean feet to raise the amount of money required , especially in these times when nobody has security within there working lives .

Homework, your child's circumstances sound exceptional and I really hope that he enjoys and benefits from the trip. If I received his CV looked at the type of school he attended and the difficulties he has had to overcome I would take all of that context into account.

I still believe however that the ability to find and hold a Saturday or holiday job is generally more impressive in a youngster than participating in an organised volunteer trip (again j understand this may not be possible for your son). Also, as many here have said, local projects could be funded via fundraising efforts here spent on employing and training local people who will then use their new found skills on other local projects without the need for 'first world' teenagers to be accommodated and looked after.

Y8 DD's comp does world challenge trips every other year which have costs in that ball-park. I'm not best pleased because I expect DD will really want to go and I expect to be saying no.

DD would be signing up for it and starting on the fund-raising in Y10 and going on it around her summer-born's 16th birthday after sitting her GCSEs. That's those new-improved rigorous GCSEs that are likely to be much more important for university applications given the deprecation of AS-levels. It's also in a school which is already over 12 months behind teaching her anything much in a couple of core academic subjects courtesy of staff absences and shortages. DD might get it over before this all kicks off, but if not there will also be an overlap with working quite hard for a piano G8. The only way a trip like that is likely to be genuinely 'life-changing' is if she diverts too much time trying to raise the funds she'll need to raise and messes up some of the above.

Where I have a significant advantage over most who will find rounding up that kind of money a bit difficult is that our idea of a good family holiday involves very serious (but much cheaper) outdoors-stuff, so I might be able to persuade DD that these pre-packaged adventures are not worth it because they're a significant cut below some of the things she's done for years now. Failing that there's always the hope that some really annoying (to her) children will be going.

Apart from the hyperbolic "once in a lifetime" (why?) adventures and ski-trips we also have that steady flow of holidays very thinly disguised as a grave and serious subject trip. It's out of hand and I really think state schools need to step back and take a long hard look at their crocky, hypocritical morality in this specific area. Sadly, I doubt anything much will change until something goes badly wrong somewhere and a bunch of children die. I mean, stop the holidays and perhaps you won't get so many of the brighter children from the right-side of the tracks who help with the league tables etc.

Our school (state) does world challenge every couple of years at a cost of about £4000. They get around arguments of devisiveness by saying the children can fund raise.Yes, they can but it has to be underwritten by parents.They throw in a few days 'voluntary' work in the 3 day trip so people can use that as an angle for their fundraising for what is essentially a holiday for rich kids.At our school about 50% of kids do it over their school career. I have 4DC so no way are mine doing it!

Young people can only fund raise thousands of £££ from people who actually have spare cash. A few £ here and there is not much good and it would take a lot of Saturday jobs to get a serious total too! These trips are firmly pitched at the rich few who like to think they are helping people less fortunate than themselves. I guess they are but I think state schools should not be involved. Plenty of private firms/charities run these trips and they should not sell them through schools. If schools want to help, they can raise money for charity in the normal way and young people can raise money and give what they can afford.

I think young people do like having trips with others their age. Sometimes parents should be out of the equation even if they offer a "better" experience. Going away with your peers is exciting and should be facilitated for all pupils but a hugely expensive trip is not necessary.

I do get peeved about all these "educational" trips. I put the emphasis on educational be caused if they are that important then they would be available to all. I try not to get too hung up about them as a parent who is a carer to our childs other disabled parent we can't afford the trip to France or Germany or the skiing trip and had to ask assistance for the 3 day residential our son went on to help cement secondary relationships. He hasn't even gone through year 7 yet!

My things have changed since I was at school (GPDST) One week French exchange and adventurous training in N Wales and that was it.

Young people can only fund raise thousands of £££ from people who actually have spare cash
I would have a problem with my children 'fundraising' for their holiday, from other people.They have their own children/grandchildren to support

and how much realistically can an under-16 yo raise in a year?

My only child, DD is about (3 wks time) to go on a school trip to Fiji (yes you read it right) at a trip cost of £4,275 plus full equipment, injections etc probably another £1k total. 20 months ago when it was proposed, DD made the most enormous fuss insisting she was desperate to go, her friends were all going, she'd do anything please please, etc. Yet throughout, all fundraising opportunities for her trip group came to nothing (surprise, huh?). Eventually I got her three different jobs so she could save up half the money herself, while I and ex-H pay the other half, which certainly hasn't been easy (I'm fulltime working single parent.) She now refuses to do any sensible practice using her boots, rucksack, equipment, planning with her trip group, etc. I keep asking why she doesn't seem enthusiastic - is it the group members? Is something wrong? But every conversation I try to have results in her storming off; she says I'm having a go at her, nagging her, basically she's picking a fight with me. gets furious, storms off. I honestly don't know what to do - she's in front of the TV every night watching crap instead of doing anything useful towards this so-called trip of a lifetime and acts like i'm a intrusion asking unwanted questions. If she doesn't get in some serious practice she'll spend the trip with very sore feet and back; and while they're her feet and she'll be the one suffering, myself having put so much time, effort and money into it I seriously resent that waste.

But most of all, I truly resent what I see as her selfishness, laziness and battleground-making that are infesting and spoiling this pre-trip stage and making it a horrible thing instead of a wonderful thing. For what it's worth, I'd pass on to others to think extremely carefully about supporting and funding this sort of outrageously expensive school scheme. Supposedly supporting independence and providing a trip of a lifetime, it is actually proving a nightmare. Any advice?

Perhaps she is feeling anxious now that the trip is so close. That would explain the head-in-the-sand attitude towards preparation (if she doesn't think about the challenges then they don't exist) and her attitude towards you (she is worried about going, and it must be your fault). The bits in brackets are a guess at what she might be thinking.

Geography field trip to Norfolk*, Duke of Edinburgh expedition on Dartmoor, that should be the limit IMO.

*or local equivalent

You could well be right Secondofhername. That's why I started with "Is something wrong? Are you not sure you want to do this? Is anything going on with the trip group?" But I get back such a blank wall of sullenness or fight-picking that I just feel I can't get through; and then I feel angry that this is how she thinks she can treat me in return for all my support. 2 or 3 previous (albeit less expensive) school trips she got like this in the run-up, which is why I feel you could well be right, and then I swore "no more school trips". But she still convinced me this would be different. More fool me for believing it.

Fully recognise this is largely about my feelings of frustration in dealing with a sullen ungrateful teenager and also that I'm not alone in finding it hideous! But how do I get through to her to even try and uncover the pre-trip issue(s)?

A question for those of you who's children went on one of these trips.... Can anyone tell me how they think the pressure on their child of raising the funds for the trip effected their GCSE's. I'm asking because our son wants to go to Ecuador in 2018 which we are happy for him to go and will help him financially but we have told him he must make some serious effort himself to raise the funds but we are worried that this extra pressure will effect the outcome of his GCSE's