School trips costing £1,000 (state school)

[DarthVader]

Colleague said her 14 yr old is going on a school trip to USA costing in excess of £1,000.

I was amazed this kind of trip is run at state schools. She says it is normal and loads of kids go on them. I feel shocked at this! Is it really so? My dd is in primary so am I in for a shock?

Its normal. But bonkers, unnecessary, and potentially divisive IMO.

Disneyland, skiing, adventure courses, a week in bloody space....

I have single mum friends with teenage kids who are paying for these kind of trips three years in advance, so that their kids are not left out.

you must be joking
but how do folk afford this?

The flight could easily be over £400, so it's easy to imagine the cost of accommodation, entrance fees, insurance, food and domestic travel adding up.

I would say that big trips like this are the subject of much fundraising (at well heeled places too)

Well it is easy for me to see how a 1 week field trip to the USA would cost over £1,000.

What I don't get is how this kind of trip has any place in a state secondary school? At my school there was a 4 day field trip to Lulworth Cove (and that was at a top private girls school).

My colleague has a family income in excess of £100k so this is affordable for her, but I fail to see how it is affordable for a family on an average income???

ds went on adventure week last year in yr5. cost 240
yr six always do week in france,last year cost about seven hundred ish. this year they have cancelled it in favour of a day trip to bolougne or someplace. i am extremely annoyed about this. fortunatley we are not on the breadline, but would still have to budget for this trip. but i would rather fork out for a week long school trip like this, than endless video games/plastic tat for christmas and birthdays etc.

so yes, ds would defintily go on a trip of this sort. even if it meant tesco value range for a while.

Pukka, are you talking PRIMARY trips at £700?

I had NO IDEA.

Our local primary had short inexpensive trips say £120 for 3 days. DD in secondary and going skiing via coach to France £740. Some trips cost more.

I really think this has no place in state education. I wonder what proportion of kids miss out on this stuff?

I remember when I was at school, there were ski trips and all sorts.

My parents could never afford it. I felt a bit miffed, but there were loads of us, so I never felt singled out, iyswim. However, now I am a mum, I can imagine how truly inadequate my parents felt each time I brought a letter home and they had to say no.

But, it hasn't killed me and I don't lie awake at night thinking about it, so ho hum, such is life.

Hekate, can you afford these trips for your kids?

Most of DD's friends are going on the ski trip except one in the group as her parents drew the line. I wouldnt take her skiing but have made it clear its a one off. If she goes again she works to pay for it herself. Some kids go every year.

What percentage of the class can afford it though?

The most expensive trip we have had is a £900 trip to Iceland. It was directly related to the curriculum and so fab that we were happy for DS to go. We would have loved all to go, so it was cheaper for just DS rather than the whole family.

We have found that most trips are around £250 for a week (4 nights), but these don't involve air travel.

I don't have a problem turning down trips, and don't feel jealous of those who can easily afford them.

If it is not educational then they are optional and don't take place in term time. (At our schools anyway)

Dd1 (yr11) going to Russia in Feb half-term for 1 week - £1000. She really wanted to go and I agreed because we will never go there as a family.

Dd2 (yr8) going to Cyprus at Whitsun on a netball tour - £700. I can't remember why I agreed to this . A week after saying she could go on this we had another letter home about a skiing trip at Easter - £700! She was a bit shocked when I said no.

My school also had v expensive trips - I blame it on the boom in the 80's (you know, just before the recession)

Seems like the trend has continued.

Does that make a difference Darth?

Yes. I could now. For the last 2 years, I wouldn't have been able to though.

The school I teach at (comprehensive in Yorkshire) runs annual & v. popular skiing trips to the USA or Canada @ c. £1k a go.

Lots of parents pay over 2-3 years.

My own kids would have to be pretty damn keen before I'd sign up to sending them, tbh, but there's no problem filling the places.

What does it cost to take a family of 4, say, skiing? I suppose if there's only one keen skier in the family it might be a more sensible option? Obviously there'd need to be a heck of a quid pro quo in washing up & room tidying

I'd say about 40%. Some of the parents are quite wealthy, in business etc. I'm a single mum only of 1 DC but had to save.

Oh yes - obligatory annual ski trip in my school too.

well my kids don't have endless video games and pieces of plastic tat, and tesco is our staple all the time, not just for a few weeks, and I still couldn't afford this sort of price for a trip.

Apart from anything else, if I ahd £1000 to spend on a holiday, I would want us to spend it together as a family, not just one member of the family getting such a great trip. It's different if you've got loads of money and have lots of family holidays anyway, but otherwise, I don't feel comfortable with the idea of just one of the children getting the only holiday in five years.

Not appropriate imo. If they want to do trips like this, then they should do them on the basis of fundraising for them, so that the kids actually earn the money for them. (I went to an uber-posh firework night at a private school recently and all the posh teenage girls were selling biscuits and cakes and stuff they'd made themselves to fund-raise.)

Oh & these are entirely out of term time, optional jollies.

If it's related to the curriculum it can't exclude those who can't pay - there's various assistance arrangements available (which in practice means we're talking day trips to York, not a week in the Rockies).

Hekate, just wondering how you would feel if your kids wanted to go and you had to say no to them because the cost was too high.

I find it interesting that mumsnetters who have replied see no issue with these trips and have no problem affording them.

For us, £1,000 is more than our entire family holiday budget for the year - so if my dd wanted to go on a trip we would not have a family holiday at all. And I have only 1 child, so 2 kids going on trips would be unaffordable for me. Both dp and I work, so we are hardly on the breadline.

Hekate, just wondering how you would feel if your kids wanted to go and you had to say no to them because the cost was too high.

I find it interesting that mumsnetters who have replied see no issue with these trips and have no problem affording them.

For us, £1,000 is more than our entire family holiday budget for the year - so if my dd wanted to go on a trip we would not have a family holiday at all. And I have only 1 child, so 2 kids going on trips would be unaffordable for me. Both dp and I work, so we are hardly on the breadline.

Hekate, just wondering how you would feel if your kids wanted to go and you had to say no to them because the cost was too high.

I find it interesting that mumsnetters who have replied see no issue with these trips and have no problem affording them.

For us, £1,000 is more than our entire family holiday budget for the year - so if my dd wanted to go on a trip we would not have a family holiday at all. And I have only 1 child, so 2 kids going on trips would be unaffordable for me. Both dp and I work, so we are hardly on the breadline.