School trip £600!!!!!!!!!

solodanceparty

The amazing thing about this is....


It's not compulsory therefore you don't have to pay. If you can't afford it, that's your problem. But there will be children who do go and who do have fun. Leave it to them.

What a concept.

solodanceparty

heretolearn wrote: »

is it the parents' faults now? Is it the media and advertising frenzies now aimed at kiddies right from babyhood? How did we end up with a society that has such skewed values that families are being emotionally blackmailed (all the other kids are going so of course you will feel bad if yours don't) into forking out large sums of money on stupid school trips?

Last time I checked, it's PARENTS who spend the money in the households. It's PARENTS who buy computers for their kids and send them on holidays. It's PARENTS who should be in charge of their kids instead o letting tv raise them. If you as a parent would say no, there wouldn't be this problem.

It's amazing how many parents refuse to take responsibility in raising their kids and just love to blame everyone else. You cannot blame commercials if you CHOOSE to spend excessive money on things for your kids.

Indie_Kid

solodanceparty wrote: »

It's not compulsory therefore you don't have to pay.

When I was in 6th form, there was a trip to London. The letter said nothing about it being compulsory; but according to the head of 6th form (who hadn't even organised the trip) claimed it was and said that I had to go. My dad's response was "well, if they want you to go, then they can pay for it"

solodanceparty

sh1305 wrote: »

When I was in 6th form, there was a trip to London. The letter said nothing about it being compulsory; but according to the head of 6th form (who hadn't even organised the trip) claimed it was and said that I had to go. My dad's response was "well, if they want you to go, then they can pay for it"

See, that's fair. But not all trips are. If it's not. Don't pay. Simple.

POPPYOSCAR

devildog wrote: »

I guess the other thing that has to be factored in is how many pupils are going and how many people are required to supervise them(as whatever you pay also pays for their escorts) The battlefields trip appears to take place most years and I have noticed a huge price difference between the local grammar school and local secondary school (grammar charges more for less days)
As far as I am aware too, the collective passports are still being used(if someone can be bothered to do it )

They don't do this at my DD school. She went on a day trip to belgium last year and we had to get her a passport, by the time we had paid for everything, photos, cost of passports etc it ended up costing us over £150.00 just for the one day.

My niece is a teacher in a private school and she is surprised at the cost of the trips as at her school they are cheaper!!. Perhaps they shop around for the best deals?

POPPYOSCAR

Shelldean wrote: »

It's amazing how different schools have such differing costs??

One of the twins has just brought home a letter about next years GSCE history trip ( can't recall where off top of head but Germany is springing to mind) They're going for 4 nights and it costs £315 thats a big difference to your cost.
They're not going until July 2011 so we can pay installments, but they wanted a £65 deposit which i simply couldn;t find by the date. So called the finance office to ask for time to pay, not a discount. But they've given me £25 off and they'll use that as the deposit. Just got to find the other £290 now


My DD goes to the local girls grammar, and about 4 yrs ago they did the battlefields trip. They did it over 2 days ( just one night in hotel) and really crammed it in. Cost £200 appox, and the school said they couldn't get a collective passport for the girls, according to them they are no longer used. Luckly DD already had a passport. Then 3 years later the twins did the same trip with their school. But they took four nights to complete the trip so less rushed. Collective passport used ( funny how this school could get them) And the cost was £200 appox. And this was 3 yrs after DD trip.

Now that is a very reasonable price and one I would be happy to pay but even so I still think it is unfair as some parents would not be able to afford this/ dont want to afford this and then the kids miss out on what is not a holiday but related to their History GCSE course.

brettcta

King_Nothing wrote: »

I think £600 isn't that bad for 5 day school trip to Berlin, assuming it's actually 5 days in Berlin. You're never going to be able to compare it with a family holiday, purely because it isn't.

it's no where close to being 'not bad' - that price is massively overpriced. my sister went to berlin with school last year and paid £280 (which is still expensive) for travel and accommodation. public transport in the city is dirt cheap (a few euros for a day ticket). i went at christmas in 2008 and paid £290 for me and the girlfriend for flights and a hotel for 6 nights over xmas (21st - 27th december) and spending money is very little because berlin just isn't that expensive. most of the sights that you study about at GCSE are free to visit (b.burg gate, holocaust memorial, reichstag, checkpoint charlie, berlin wall, luftwaffe HQ etc.) and the walking tour around berlin (maybe a little long for a big school group, but really worth doing) is free aswell (apart from tips at the end).

£600 is silly money.

brettcta

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

Now that is a very reasonable price and one I would be happy to pay but even so I still think it is unfair as some parents would not be able to afford this/ dont want to afford this and then the kids miss out on what is not a holiday but related to their History GCSE course.

it's probably been suggested already, but if you can take your kid over for a long weekend at some point, flights and decent accommodation are both cheap enough, the walking tours are free (as i just said in my previous post) and give you a comprehensive 3-4 hour tour of the city, taking you to all the important historical sites, aswell as viewing all of the beautiful architecture the place has to offer.

including spending money, the pair of you could have a good break together for a fair bit less than £600

GentleGiant_2

brettcta wrote: »

it's no where close to being 'not bad' - that price is massively overpriced. my sister went to berlin with school last year and paid £280 (which is still expensive) for travel and accommodation. public transport in the city is dirt cheap (a few euros for a day ticket). i went at christmas in 2008 and paid £290 for me and the girlfriend for flights and a hotel for 6 nights over xmas (21st - 27th december) and spending money is very little because berlin just isn't that expensive. most of the sights that you study about at GCSE are free to visit (b.burg gate, holocaust memorial, reichstag, checkpoint charlie, berlin wall, luftwaffe HQ etc.) and the walking tour around berlin (maybe a little long for a big school group, but really worth doing) is free aswell (apart from tips at the end).

£600 is silly money.

Agree. Let us not forget most of these trips are run by commercial holiday / travel companies - with the schools no doubt getting a 'donation'. Sure the teachers run it on the ground, but most are still run for profit, whereas if we take a holiday we take it at cost price.

Shelldean

devildog wrote: »

I guess the other thing that has to be factored in is how many pupils are going and how many people are required to supervise them(as whatever you pay also pays for their escorts) The battlefields trip appears to take place most years and I have noticed a huge price difference between the local grammar school and local secondary school (grammar charges more for less days)
As far as I am aware too, the collective passports are still being used(if someone can be bothered to do it )

totally agree with this,
DD grammar school two days/one night no collective passport
Twins comp school five days/four nights collective passport
similar costs, which I found amazing as twins went three yrs after DD, so surely with inflation etc their costs should've been more??