Meeting for trip abroad, how important is it that we go?

[BossyBanana]

DS (year7) is going on a trip abroad next month with school.
There is a meeting this week about the trip but it clashes with other plans.

When I receive the email about the meeting this morning I replied to say I won’t be able to make it but could they please forward any information,
the reply was that I should try to attend the meeting as all parents and students are expected to attend.

How essential is it that we attend this meeting?
I know I should try to attend but I’d rather not change my plans if they are just going to be telling me information we already know and going over the itinerary.
We already have a pretty detailed itinerary for the trip and they have given us a lot of information about it.

The meeting is supposed to be 45 minutes long.

Has anyone been to one of these?
How essential is it?

Well yes because now I have the different opinions of several people who have experiences of this type of meeting.

I’ve never had a child go on this type of trip, as he is only in his first year at secondary school, so getting the opinions of people who have been involved in these kind of meetings does help me get a better idea of what the meeting will most likely be like.

Do the plans with which this meeting would interfere involve your DS as well? If not, could he at least ask to go with one of his friends and their parents? Then one of you would know what the extra information was.

Presumably your DS's year group doesn't have a parents' Facebook page or WhatsApp group?

So I used to run a year 7 trip and we used the meeting to get parents to hand in passports and ERIC'S, raised any issues over consent forms, pick up a medicines form. We also went through the itinerary and answered questions - eg how much money to take, will it be hot, what shoes to bring, do we need a towel (yes) and what sort of swimming trunk do boys have to wear in France (!).

If you think you don't need that kind of info don't go. It's poor if you've only had a days notice. What are your other plans?

I don’t know any of the parents of other children going and we don’t live in the town where the school is so DS would need to get dropped off.

I’ve decided we aren’t going.
I do feel guilty about it but I really don’t think it’s going to be essential enough to cancel my plans.

I’m going to email them again and suggest I pop in for a 1-2-1 if it’s essential.

Thanks for that info @clary

I would have liked to have gone but it’s short notice.

Hopefully they won’t mind just emailing me the information.

Passports, ehic’s and medical forms have all been sorted out and the school have them already.

By all means don't go if you feel your other plans are more important but suggesting a teacher give up (yet more of) their free time to give you a 2-1-2 strikes me as fairly inconsiderate.

Last one one of us went to was 15 minutes and totally pointless.

If they've already got passports and ehic cards and paperwork signed, and have given you, what, maximum of 3 days notice? Then no, I wouldn't go.

I’m going to email them again and suggest I pop in for a 1-2-1 if it’s essential.

So you can't be arsed to go, even when told it's important, yet you expect a teacher to give up his/her time for a bit of a chat. I hope they tell you to piss off. I would. Either go (as you should) or accept things may go wrong because you weren't there.

I’m going to email them again and suggest I pop in for a 1-2-1 if it’s essential.

Don't do this.

Tell your dd that she needs to get the information from her friends that are going. Get her to text a friend. Ask the friend to get dd a copy of any hand outs and to tell dd if there is anything that she needs to know.

I think you are ok not to go. Apologise profusely! No need to say why you cannot go. In my experience attending isn’t a huge deal but it is a chance for parents to clarify arrangements.

From experience, parents ask about taking phones, phoning home, parents not phoning DC to tell them all the gossip at home. You get the drift. More questions will be about what happens if DC is sick, doesn’t like the food, allergies, stranger danger, sleeping arrangements, and what happens if DC wants to come home. What happens if transport home is delayed. How will you know about a revised pick up time?

Teachers will expect exemplary behaviour, parents to support their decisions and ensure they don’t keep contacting DC! They will also talk about behaviour and safety and DC doing what they are told. If you don’t have any worries at all, then it’s fine not to go. If you want to ask a question, most schools understand not all parents are available all the time. Email the lead teacher with any important query. If you don’t gave one, great.

It will also contain the

"if you children breaks x,y and z rule you will be expected to make arrangements for them to return home"

I didn’t mean that I expect a teacher to give up time to give me a private meeting.

I’d prefer them to just email me any essential information, that’s what I have asked.

I only suggest I pop in for a 1-2-1 if they insist that there is essential information I need to be told in person, I would never request that as I’d rather not have to do it as it would be inconvenient for both of us.

I just wanted to update.

We didn’t go to the meeting but received an email ‘summary’ last night which was pretty much exactly what clary said.

Thank you all for your advice.

Glad you didn't go, imho and ime you miss very little by not attending such meetings.