The cost of school trips

[Snowdrops]

*wibble* *wibble*

DD announces today that RS (that which I encouraged her to choice as a GCSE option ) are planning a trip to New York in 5th year - well, I expect that'll cost more than £500 then

[Amber]

*wibble* *wibble*

DD announces today that RS (that which I encouraged her to choice as a GCSE option ) are planning a trip to New York in 5th year - well, I expect that'll cost more than £500 then

Interesting choice of destination for an RS trip...doesn't necessarily spring to mind when one thinks of Great Religious Destinations of the World. Mind you, most of the latter seem to be in war zones, so perhaps that explains it. It could absolutely not be that the teachers fancy a jolly, could it?


My kids don't even bother bringing the letters about foreign trips home, such a harridan am I. I am deeply cynical about the value of most of them and they cost ludicrous amounts of money IMHO.Bah humbug.

[DenDe]

I too feel "bah humbug" about the whole thing Amber. You've all made me feel much better about my own school trip misgivings.

To be honest I'd rather we had lovely family trips than for the DC going off on separate trips with school.

(Mike 1880 - thanks for your advice.)

[Amber]

I too feel "bah humbug" about the whole thing Amber. You've all made me feel much better about my own school trip misgivings.

To be honest I'd rather we had lovely family trips than for the DC going off on separate trips with school.

School trips are now big business- a whole industry has sprung up around them, from 'old faithfuls' like the 'Battlefields Experience' to the more adventurous trekking around the Amazon, or saving tribes from extinction while building a school and 'helping local peasant' experiences (lots of experiences, I have noticed). Dozens of companies vie for the lucrative business generated by schools; teachers like it because they are saved the hassle of organising the nitty gritty bits themselves, and packages always include 'one adult for x children' deals. In all seriousness you and your children are probably better off with your 'lovely family trips' DenDe...if you can resist the marketing hype from the companies insisting that 'your child will have the experience of a lifetime'; the school's insistence that 'this trip will enrich your child's learning of sub-Saharan African culture' or whatever; and of course your child's insistence that 'everyone else is going and I will fail my GCSE African Studies exam if I don't go'.

Cynical, moi?

[magwich2]

I have told all my children that when they can draw me a freehand map of the british isles complete with major cities and river systems from memory, then and only then will I even consider overpriced foreign jollies.
I remember Miss Magwich thinking in year 9 that wales was situated in east anglia. Still she got her A* for geography because she knew a LOT about global warming!!

[yoyo123]

I Still she got her A* for geography because she knew a LOT about global warming!!

presumably from travelling backwards and forwards, east to west,trying to find Swansea next to Great Yarmouth?

[Snowdrops]

*wibble* *wibble*

DD announces today that RS (that which I encouraged her to choice as a GCSE option ) are planning a trip to New York in 5th year - well, I expect that'll cost more than £500 then

Interesting choice of destination for an RS trip...doesn't necessarily spring to mind when one thinks of Great Religious Destinations of the World. Mind you, most of the latter seem to be in war zones, so perhaps that explains it. It could absolutely not be that the teachers fancy a jolly, could it?

Yes, my thoughts too!!

Actually, I think maybe ground force zero might be a bit of a pull and there's an awaful lot of cultural mixes in New York going on, so perhaps that's it?

It's one place I've never been attracted to visiting (America in general, especially New York). I suppose it's cheaper to send just her on a trip rather than the whole family though

[Amber]

there's an awaful lot of cultural mixes in New York going on, so perhaps that's it?:

Ditto Bradford,London, Birmingham.

It's one place I've never been attracted to visiting (America in general, especially New York

Agree. Have been to former and briefly to latter..but don't really 'get' the fuss. I think there are complex reasons why it is considered necessary for UK citizens to profess love of the place (and I am not denying there are attractions) and equally complex ones why saying 'use some imagination and go somewhere else' is frowned upon. Just look at the excess of places in the English-speaking world which feature in those silly 'Places to visit before you die' (preferable and easier than visiting afterwards, I suppose) guides...do all the good places really sit between the Grand Canyon and Manhattan? Token mention of Australia, New Zealand and where's this? Somewhere they speak Arabic? Oooh no.
You've started me off now Snowdrops. Sorry.

[um]

I do feel worried about a few recent tragedies on school trips abroad. My heart really goes out to the families who lost children in the latest disaster

However, on money alone, I feel I have to have a limit, and that will vary depending on whether it is a fun ski trip, for example, or one which has educational benefit.

As a child I was very fortunate to travel widely throughout Europe - including Scandinavia, as well as the Middle East, and lived in both LA and Philadelphia for short times when I was growing up. Later in life, I lived in the Far East for a while when dh worked there and also travelled some more. The only disadvantage, to me, of having a large family, is that it is too crazily difficult and expensive to really travel much with them - we now tend to stick to the UK (within at least 10 miles of a Tesco ).

I had hoped that school trips would provide a more 'affordable' ways for dcs to see the world without the entire family in tow.
However, when ds1 wanted to attend a £1000 ski trip to Europe I refused, as that cost -for one child to go for less than a week is more than a cottage holiday (in a very nice cottage ) right by the sea for the 7 of us, in summer. It was just too extravagant.
We now have a letter about a possible other ski trip to the US next year, inviting us to a parent's meeting. I told ds1 I would not be going on the grounds that it would probably be much more than the £1000 for the European one - even though I would love for him to visit the US one day.

Ds1 is at least attending a German exchange, which, as obviously accommodation doesn't cost, is relatively inexpensive. Will keep looking out and hoping for more (budget) opportunities..

[aargh]

Well my family don't even have passports and we cannot afford to buy them, let alone pay out for the trips.

I'm afraid there is not even a debate in our household, we do not earn enough to be forking out £300 for a trip.

We are struggling to find a way to go to the Isle of Man (DH is Manx) as it has long been promised to the DCs.
Our last holiday abroad was when DD was 6 months old. We went to Pompeii and Hurculanium.

When I was a kid, we had no foreign trips from my secondary school. I wonder why it is considered so vital now?