A school trip too far?

[scary mum]

Ours is a Bucks GS in one of the more deprived areas

[quasimodo]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-33047817" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A Caribbean adventure?

[mike1880]

Mike,would you feel able to say how much it costs?

No mention of the finances in the email, I don't think they'll know until they find out how many people are prepared to fund their nice little holiday. I won't be going to the meeting so I won't find out. However, I suspect that indie notwithstanding there are quite possibly going to be more staff signing up to go than pupils...

Name and shame these schools ... it's immoral when so many are struggling.

King Edward VI High School for Girls, Birmingham. Shame is the right word, it's only a few weeks since we all had a letter intimating that we might want to cough up to finance more assisted places, I hardly think this ludicrous snouts-in-the-trough staff freebie is consistent with that message.

[Proud_Dad]

I was sort of guessing they would be freebies. I well know the responsibility and appreciate the work involved for staff but never the less feel that if you are taking a trip then a Mexican island is probably higher up the wish list than a converted gravel pit in Lancashire ( for scuba diving lessons). There always seems to be a waiting list of staff to go on certain trips where the free holiday outweighs the hassle.

I guess if parents are willing to spend the money on such extravagance then that is their choice.

Perhaps it is the less extreme but still more expensive than strictly necessary trips that are more central to mainstream school experiences that we should be more concerned about. Geography field trips have been discussed at length I believe but also sports team tours to the Caribbean or Africa and D of E expeditions to south america..... Clearly these are not part of the curriculum but they do exclude children who would have been part of the "team'' up until that point.

Yes I agree. This is basically just an expensive holiday with no connection to the curriculum so its parents choice whether they pay for their kids to go on it. You could argue that its not fair or inclusive to children from less well off families but then this is an independent school who by definition isn't inclusive to most average families in the first place when it comes to basic education, never mind exotic holidays!

More concerning are the field trips with some academic slant which parents feel more obliged to pay out for. These should always be affordable to everyone IMO but recently even these seem to be getting worryingly expensive.

In my day a school trip was often a more affordable way for parents to allow their children to go somewhere different and exciting, whereas these days they seem to cost almost as much as it would be for the whole family to go away to the same place!

BTW if your daughter is interested in learning to SCUBA there are plenty of affordable clubs in the UK where she can learn in the safety of a swimming pool. Or alternatively if its something the whole family fancy trying in a warmer climate, travel companies like Neilson offer reasonably affordable learn-to-dive holidays in places like Turkey and Egypt.

[loobylou]

This was on the BBC news website tonight.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-33047817" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[hermanmunster]

King Edward VI High School for Girls, Birmingham. Shame is the right word, it's only a few weeks since we all had a letter intimating that we might want to cough up to finance more assisted places,.

Got an invite to the launch of some do related to this, no doubt would be expected to donate as well. I think they miss the point that most of the Old Girls are still educating their own kids!

[Tolstoy]

More concerning are the field trips with some academic slant which parents feel more obliged to pay out for. These should always be affordable to everyone IMO but recently even these seem to be getting worryingly expensive.

In my day a school trip was often a more affordable way for parents to allow their children to go somewhere different and exciting, whereas these days they seem to cost almost as much as it would be for the whole family to go away to the same place.

Very true. My parents, limited income, were able to fund a school ski trip for each of us DC at different times during our school life. They would never have been able to take us themselves. DS brought a letter home for one at his school recently, not only was it far more expensive than when we go as a family but we were given very little time to make a decision. Thankfully along with his mates they decided it was too large a sum of money to expect DP to agree to without time to discuss and they have all opted not to go. They will be 16 and I suggested they organise their own trip if they want to go independently which would be cheaper.

It isn't just big trips though that cause financial hardship. There is the constant drip, drip demand for daytrips, supplementing school equipment, charity support, fundraising activities, mufti days, swimming buses, music lessons..... Many of these are worthwhile on an individual basis but none the less they are an added burden for parents on low income with more than one DC. State education should be just that, it is funded through taxes and parents should not be expected to fund it on an individual basis.

[Yamin151]

This isn't an abroad trip, but we've just had one for a few activities towards the end of term which total £77. Includes a trip to London with a show. All vey nice, but again, it's the drip drip more money please feeling. If we can't pay then you can write to the headmaster, how embarrassing and actually it's not that we can't afford it, but it is yet another expense in an expensive month that has you sighing over your cornflakes a bit. If we say no then Ds has the humiliation of probably being the only one left in school that day, unlike an expensive trip abroad where there will always be a good proportion who don't go.
I just don't see why things can't be local, restricted money wise to maybe £20 for a school trip, and that schools cut their cloth to fit their budget. I've no doubt DS will enjoy himself and it will feel like a lovely treat, but so would a more local trip.
In GS you do tend to get a dmographic that is fairly middle class and many are fairly comfortably off. I don't blame the GS for milking that cash cow particularly, so long as they are things you can comfortably and non publicly just not take part in if your cash is pulled elsewhere, like extra curricular money raising evenings. But school trips introduce a pressure on parents that does involve disappointment or head scratching, when there is no need for it to, as these trips are not even adding to the coffers of the school.

[Snowdrops]

After reading this the other day I realised dd hadn't been on any extended (longer than a day out) trips, since year 8. This was despite being told (whilst choosing gcse's - a lure, perhaps ? ) that certain subjects had usually taken certain trips at certain times. How lucky I felt to have gotten away with the extra exoense of it all. Dd is now in lower sixth and they're all full on with the final push for A levels.



How wrong could I have been?

First of all yesterday, I got pinged by Parentpay to request £8 to visit Leeds uni (which I thought a bit strange. Leeds uni is just down the road and an £8 charge. Newcastle uni is further away and no charge is being made. Huh? How do they work that out? Then dd comes home to tell me oh, by the way, there's a trip to Rome and Sorrento this year (RE) and another to Berlin (history). They do say things come in threes!

[scary mum]

DS1 has been offered several trips in the last year or so - Africa (changed from somewhere with Ebola to Morocco), New Zealand and now Malaysia - all over £3000. If he was to do geography there would be the very expensive 3 or 4 day trip to Iceland. As mentioned above, this school is not in an affluent area.