Comprehensive school trips

[Ifonlyoneday]

My children are just completing year 7. Their year 6 class went to 2 local comprehensives, the ones my twins are at and another one. I bumped into a parent whose children went to the other comprehensive school and whilst chatting she said their school did not offer many school trips, which got me thinking. What does your average comprehensive school offer for school trips? Please post away. Do you have sports trips, history, geography, RE, English and what types of duration and costs?

Forgot to add, please state trips assuming non covid circumstances.
our school has 1 outward bound PGL like trip, french and history combined trip, skiing trip, odd English theatre trips. They generally give us plenty of advanced warning and split the trip costs over several preceding months. There appears to be one super expensive trip in year 10 which they have to fundraiser for and some sports residentials.

My youngest is just finishing year 8 and because of covid there haven't been any trips for the last two years. She is due to skiing in January though. However my eldest is 19 and went to the same comprehensive school and their usual trip rota is as follows

Yr 7 - trip to euro Disney (3 nights) and an end of year trip to a theme park in July.

Yr 8 - multiple day trips for geography and history and then a 3 night break to the German Christmas markets. Theme park visit at end of year

Yr 9 - skiing trip for a week and then theme park at end of year plus occasional day trips

Yr 10 - depends on options for GCSEs - my daughter did history and they had a week in Italy - mainly in Rome and surrounding areas plus day trips for other subjects.

Yr 11 - she was offered a trip to Washington DC but it just wasn't in the budget - was super expensive. Luckily none of her friends went either so she wasn't too upset about it!

Yr 12/13 - a levels - she took history and there was supposed to be a trip to Russia, again super expensive but they gave us lists of notice and time to save but eventually it was cancelled due to covid.

This is a normal state secondary. Hoping now covid restrictions are relaxing my youngest will get to go a few more trips as she hasn't experienced any residential trips yet due to covid!

Euro Disney, wow. Like the sound of the Rome trip.

Y7 Paris 2 nights
Y8 history to ww1 battlefields
Mfl Nice y10/11
Mfl Barcelona y10/11 if sufficient demand
Geography Iceland y10/y11
Y11 leavers Kenya
Ski trip
Watersports trip
Drama day trips to see London or local performances
Possibly others.

Biggest trip is y7 Paris but only 90/250.

er hardly any. My son is in Y10.
Y7 Lake District
Y8 could have gone on ski trip but didnt
Y9 outward bound to Wales didnt happen cos of Covid
Y10 no trips this academic year
y11 none been mentioned.

I think it's dreadful. My son is sporty and I've never heard about a trip for sport either.

This is one thing that makes me feel quite sad - the number of things kids have missed due to covid. Our school usually does a trip abroad in yr 7 and 8 but anything after that is subject related. So the year 9 kids have not been anywhere.

DD did a past paper for French writing, and told us that she'd told the truth except for the bullet point about describing a school trip she'd been on recently!

Like the sound of the water sports trip

It is a real shame. School trips are some of your best memories.

Sorry to hear there are no sports trips for you.
I have just learnt ours have a sports residential in year 9 but I think you have to have played for school team to be eligible.

Year 7 no overnight trips
Year 8 week in Cornwall PGL type, three day xmas market in Germany trip (but very limited on places)
Year 9 short trip to Ypres
Year 10 French/German/Spanish exchange trips Year 11 no residentials
They also do a ski trip open to all every year and apparently an India exchange (might be 6th form)

Otherwise there are various theatre trips, day trips etc (never known them to do theme parks though which my (private) school did every year.

Exchange trips, that brings back memories! I don’t think they have those at the twins school.

do they still write letters? Or is it texts these days?

I'm a parent and a governor at a secondary school. We have an "icebreaker" trip to an outdoor centre at the very start of year 7 and a camping trip later in year 7. In addition, every department organises trips aimed at different year groups, varying from local day trips to museums, theatres etc to residential foreign trips. They are just now ramping up again following Covid. Next year there will be trips to Berlin (history), Paris (science), Austria (skiing, PE department), Spain (language department). The school also runs the Duke of Edinburgh scheme, so there are camping trips for that.

Some schools may think that foreign trips are divisive because not everyone can afford them. My personal view is that some families are not able to take their children abroad themselves for financial or other reasons, or else only go on beach holidays, so school trips can be a way of giving children the cultural capital they would otherwise miss out on. Its obviously cheaper to send one child on a skiing trip than for a whole family to go.

Mine went to different schools by 14, one it was London, Yorkshire sculpture park and Alton towers, the other school offered skiing in Banff, Borneo and sailing across the Atlantic ... which was in the more expensive suburb ... mine didn't go on any trips

Wow some of this trips are ££££

We had yr 7 - no trip covid
Yr 8 "activities week" vould choose from 2 different 3 day residential and some day trips. No subject ones across the school this year I know of. Pre covid they did

Also an orchestra trip but thats only a handful from the lower years.

Ive been thinking about this because it would be useful to know whay might be coming up to budget. They have a 3yr gcse so it would be subject specific but suppose there is a history trip and an orchestra one wed have to choose!

All the residential trips are in the school holidays and not everybody goes - not just for financial reasons, but because they might have other plans.

I don't think our secondary school does any trips unless maybe connected with attending a team sport?
I haven't heard about any so that's my assumption. 🤷🏻‍♀️
Only the rich kids got to do after school clubs or attend school trips in my day, so I don't think they're that important.

The skiing trip and another trip to Iceland (Geography) were ££££, the other foreign trips at our school are £££ as they are only short - around 3-4 days.

Wow amazed at these trips. We went to one trip to Alton towers.

Year 7 - Spanish activity holiday
Year 8 - Skiing
Year 10 - South Africa

and a few shorter breaks/weekends over the years

My DC have gone on the following trips at secondary school/local comprehensive:-

Both did an outward bound adventure holiday in year 7.

One went to Germany the other France, this was linked to languages being studied.

One went skiing

One went to Iceland

One went on a world challenge to Africa, the other was cancelled due to covid.

One did geography field trip.

DofE until gold

There were theatre trips, theme parks and Harry Potter world as local trips.

@BigSandyBalls2015 is that private? If not how much of the year actually went?

@cremdella do your parents know about the Big Trips planned for the following year. As in as a yr 9 student do they know about the ones you've listed/ started to save up or is it just that the school know?

My daughter has left school now, but her state school offered a fair bit.

Year 7 - 2 night PGL trip in Sept.
Year 8 - short Language / Culture trip to country of language studied. So France / Germany / Spain.
Year 8/9 - a week's PGL in Spain
Year 9 - History Battlefields trip
Year 10 - Language exchange for those studying languages
Year 12/13 - Holocaust trip to Poland

Plus:
All years - A week's retreat studying music
Year 9+ Skiing trip. Mostly to the Alps. Occasionally to Canada.
Year 10+ Sports tour. Usually to Australia or NZ.
And various day trips such as to the theatre to watch plays, musicals etc...

Governors have to approve the residential trips, and then parents get to hear about them very shortly afterwards. Tour companies need deposits months in advance, and payments are usually in installments. It can be problematic if trips are arranged very shortly before the deposit deadline, so parents only get a few days notice for the first payment - we've had some cases like that this year, but its due to the Covid effect - staff are out of routine and only just getting used to the idea of planning trips again - they will hopefully be more organised next year, especially for repeat trips.