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?

Oh dear. At least I have a clue what to expect...
I was complete unaware of these trips and theis prices... Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear.

Oh dear. At least I have a clue what to expect...
I was complete unaware of these trips... Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear.

I have no problems saying no, DV. My kids accept it when I say no.

We don't all have to wear sack cloth and ashes in sympathy, ya know.

and I posted it twice too. With typos. I am in shock

DS2's state secondary school has arranged a World Challenge trip which will cost around £2300. It is organised around 2 years in advance so that the students can raise much of the cash themselves - trip is for Y11 and Y12 i.e. 15-17 year olds. Otherwise there is an annual trip to Iceland (as well as cheaper places such as France) which always is booked out immediately and ski trips when there are teachers willing to organise them. Our area is relatively affluent and those who can't afford such trips do have the chance to go on a sailing barge trip for free (or very very little).

Me too starfish2

I triple posted

DS1 went on a trip to New York/Washington in Y13 - that cost about £800 - but he was studying Politics and there was a political element to the trip (although a large part of it seemed to be shopping ) He paid half. £1000 for a 14-yr-old does seem OTT.

DS2 went on a 6-day food trip to Venice last month; that cost about £500, but most of them were doing Food Tech and they had lots of relevant excursions. He paid half of that too. (Earlier there had been a 3-day football trip to Valencia which also cost about £500 - I put my foot down about that!)

He will be going on exchange trips to France and German next year; those are about £330 each, and of course we get a French and a German student staying here in exchange (lucky us )

None of these trips are compulsory and missing them doesn't matter; having expensive primary trips is just wrong. (Esp if you have twins; custardo has justifiably kicked off about this on several occasions)

Not convinced it's 'not appropriate'.

Believe me, a couple of colleagues of mine go to a lot of trouble to organise these ski trips, & give up their own holidays (yeah, OK, they get a free trip. They'll probably get about 3 hours sleep a night).

The kids who go on them have a fantastic time.

It's absolutely fair enough that you should say, as a parent, that you'd rather spend the holiday budget in other ways. Me too.

I'm not convinced this means that schools should just bin the idea of offering these trips - it's for parents to decide if they're willing to send their children on a particular holiday.

I couldn't afford a visit at 1k, but have no problem with kids going who can.

Often though money is put towards trips gradually, there are hardship funds and fundraising.

I would prefer schools offered a range of life chances & visits rather than none at all.

It's life and it's sometimes unfair.

Thought my mumsnet was playing up all the duplicate posts . I dont think you shold worry too much if you cannot afford the trips. Its up to the parents, perhaps with one child you may allow one trip. There was a Europe 5 days for £300 also this year. So some are more affordable than others.

I thought state education was about equal access for all.

I would have no problem with other organisations or indeed private schools running holidays for kids for those whose parents can afford them. But how is it the place of state schools to offer benefits to those whose parents are better off to the detriment of those whose parents are not?

I'd be gutted Darth. Of course I would. Like I said in my post --- "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."

It's not that I don't understand what it's like to have no money........I was for 2 years in a situation where I had to find a way to feed a family of 4 and cats and buy all toiletries and household stuff on max £25 a week, so you can imagine how little money was coming in. I had to have an ebay christmas one year, and one year friends were kind enough to give me stuff. so I know how it kills a parent to not be able to afford what they think their child needs/wants.

But that's the parental perspective. Like I said before, I also remember that, as a child whose parents couldn't afford trips, it wasn't the end of the world and it hasn't damaged me.

Now, 15 years with no toilet roll in the house - that's damaged me. If I get down to less than 30 rolls in the cupboard, I panic!

I think the difference is that schools are facilitating bonding between groups of friends, from whcih some children are inevitably going to be excluded because of their family finances and / or priorities.

The importance of these trips isn't really the travel / culture experience imo. It's the bonding that's done, which at that teenage stage is so intense. And it just seems very wrong to me that schools should encourage that bonding knowing that some kids will be excluded from it. It's not their job to do that. If a couple of families together decide to go on holiday, that's one thing, but for schools to do it? Just doesn't seem right to me.

I'm appalled that state schools are doing this - esp. primaries . For a system that's supposed to be about inclusion it appears to be utterly divisive. Fortunately neither of my DC's primary schools offer these trip - I would imagine (and hope) that there would be an outcry.

If you have that sort of money to spend on one child, then lucky old you, but why on earth should other parents be put in this position? It's utter nonsense.

it all depends on what you see your dc getting out of the school trip.
ds's school trip to the activity centre thing which cost us 240. he spent an entire week on his own, without parents. he had to be a lot more responsible for himself than he had ever been. he experienced sharing a room with three other boys, and all that goes withit. he learnt how to make a bed. keep the room clean. tolerate other people. look out for other people in a way that they would never ever experience in normal day to day life.
independance. all those intangible things

out of seventy children, only four didnt go. one of whom because she has quite severe diabetes, and her parents felt she wouldnt be able to cope with her medication on her own. EVERYBODY budgeted for it, but as i said earlier, we are not on the breadline.
we dont do family holidays like most people in the uk seem to do. i have never flown anywhere with dh for a'holdiay' the way a lot of other people here seem to. never ever had a package holiday etc etc. this is something that we b udget for. and if that means doing it over three or four years, then so be it.

As a child who was friends with "The Ski Trip Lot", as we called them .... kids don't get left out if they can't afford to go. Proportionately, very few kids go.

I suppose because it's not part of the education bit of what the school does, Darth Vader.

It's an opt-in, holiday activity, run in their own time by teachers with an interest in the activity - & it does offer something to a family who have one child with an interest (skiing, football) that would bore the whatsits off everyone else - a chance to go away minus parents but with mates & trusted adults.

It doesn't take anything away from what the school's doing in term time.

We had a letter home from (state) school last year for a cruise costing over £800

Needless to say DS did not go.

Agree LittleBella - why is organising exclusive, divisive and expensive trips the role of the state education system?

in a secondary school, i once organised a day trip that cost four pounds. i remember being shockedand incredibly saddened that some of the childrens parents couldnt afford it. i had visions of oliver twist like poverty. and felt bad for judging when i met their mothers later on and found out they were smokers. (surely giving up one packet would have been possilble?) but everyone has different priorities, and just because i choose to budget for something, doesnt meant that it has the same importance in other peoples lives

I'm pretty bemused by the number of threads here in the past few days that are actively dumbing down their children's education for ideological reasons.

The more expensive trips are during the school holidays so less if a chance of feeling left out. I can understand how a parent would feel if they simply dont have the money but is that a reason to scrap school trips altogether? These trips are often the first chance a child has to be away from their parents and can help them grow up, esp in secondary.

yes but surely it is not the role of state schools to penalise children because of their parents' choices in life

Take your point about trips held during the holidays to cater for specific interests, but I don't think this is what the OP meant (although I could be wrong). What I find so depressing is that schools think it's appropriate to ask all parents to stump up £1k for a trip to America or wherever during term time - and then tough luck to those who can't afford it.

By that logic, DV, we would never teach children to read because some parents are non readers.