School trip £600!!!!!!!!!

coolmumh

I would just like to add in the defense of some of us so called "scroungers"

I am a single mum with 3 children still at home who is on benefits but I am actively seeking work which when you have been at home bringing at children is no easy task.

I have paid the full amount for each school trip my children have gone on as I do not believe its down to others to pay for them and in fact my oldest two's school as far as I am aware do not do "discount for benefits" I have saved each and every time for my kids!

So please stop lumping us all in the same basket please.

I am only claiming because my husband left me and as soon as I can get a job will be signing off!

Evilm

rev_henry wrote: »

My school trips have been similar in cost, but NEVER compulsory, or made to feel compulsory. Last I went on was a week in Greece which was £675 I think. Its all very well for me I guess, as my parents can generally afford it, but when I went to private school about 10 years ago they never could. Having said that some of my best foreign school trips have involved variations on exchanges, which have always been very cheap - I went to Hungary for a week 18 months ago and all we had to pay for was the flights and for [STRIKE]beer and vodka[/STRIKE] souvenirs and the odd snack etc.
Its all very well for some trips to be expensive, but I think its totally objectionable if the school start pressurising the pupils into going for 'educational purposes.'

Even when I was in school back in the 90's the kids whose parents couldn't afford to pay for the trips were made to feel bad for that. We had one trip that I couldn't go on since my father was unemployed at the time and there were about 4 of us left. It made that year very uncomfortable for the 4 of us because the other kids couldn't understand why we didn't go.

frannyann

Currently saving £400 for a three day trip to France for my 13 year old daughter, if I don't pay she'd be the only one of her class not to go, and I feel that I have to send her. Thankfully although a single parent, I do have a reasonably paid full time job, but it is not easy!

**curlywurly**

Well I take my hat off to teachers who run school trips and in particular during the holidays, taking other people's children. I know for sure I wouldn't do it. (And no, I am not a teacher and I am not a particular fan of the teaching profession generally.). however, what I would like to know is HOW they justify the prices they charge. Ski trip £700 for five days skiing. They are flying Easyjet. No coach in England involved. Not sure about the other end. Staying in a hostel. How on earth do they make that into £700? I understand the insurance is expensive, and that the teachers' places have to be bought. Perhaps the teachers who arrange the trips are in need of some MSE advice? Any teachers on here who could give us an approximate breakdown of the cost?

pollypenny

£600 is a ridiculous amount for a school trip and I doubt very much if it would be essential to the GCSE in History.

I could have organised a trip to Verona and Venice when teaching Romeo & Juliet, Othello and The merchant of Venice.

However, to suggest that teachers pay is mad. A school trip, usually in half term means being with pupils from 7am to 11pm, then on duty as the little devils have been known to mess about in the night.

jamespir

you could have 3 weeks in spain for that much

heretolearn_2

I think kids are just generally getting greedy these days (and I'm not talking about yours OP, it's just a general comment). Toys and computers and stuff coming out of their ears every Christmas and birthday. Loads of treats. No wonder they think it's normal to go on £600 holidays just for themselves. I can't believe how much money people spend on their kids - like £100s and £100s! Why? You can't buy love. I'm not saying let's go back to an orange and a walnut in a sock, but all perspective seems to have flown out the window. It just makes the kids greedy, not appreciate the value of anything, and be ungrateful.

My school used to run lots of very expensive trips (skiing and the like) back in the late 70s and 80s, and I never even brought the info home as I knew it would be unreasonable to ask to go, and I didn't mind not going. Only a minority of children did. It's not like my family were on the breadline or anything, but I still had the sense not to expect that sort of thing. I was perfectly content. Kids don't seem to live in the real world these days...

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?

heretolearn_2

oh, and yes, coaches DO cost that much. Often more than whatever is at the end of the journey.

I volunteer at an educational project (school trip thing - extremely educational) in summer and numbers of visiting schools have dropped because they can't afford it any more; not our entry fee but the cost of the coach, which has increased massively in last few years. Schools can't hire some cheapo 30 year old ex-bus any more, like they did when we were kids.

Renya

School trips are so expensive now, I went to Austria on a skiing trip in February and it cost nearly £800 for 5 days, but included practically everything.
When I did GCSE Geography we had to go on a trip to Norfolk for the weekend to collect data on the beaches for our coursework, I think that was about £200 and we were told it was compulsory! I didn't enjoy it very much

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Poorer families have always been marginalised by the cost of school trips.

Those screeching about the people who have saved from their benefits to send children on such trips would do well to consider that the school has probably received an additional grant from somewhere specifically due to the number of children receiving free school dinners and, were it not for this grant, the cost of the trip would be even higher - the discount is never applied only to the FSD children, but a proportion is set against the whole group, so as to help parents who are not in the position to qualify.

It may be cheaper to take the whole family to Benalmadena or something, but there won't be the educational opportunities, the experience of travelling away from the parents, experiencing a foreign culture without being handheld by Mum, etc, etc. And there are plenty of people who have never travelled abroad and aren't likely to without these opportunities.

I think a lot of people get angry about the cost when they either just don't want to think their children could enjoy themselves and learn from being away with friends and teachers, or it is just plain jealousy that they could have something their parents didn't.

When my DD brings home her forms, I will try my hardest to afford it, because school trips are experiences you don't get a second chance at.