School Ski Trips

stooby68

Shortchanged - some can't go so lets ban it for all of them...c'mon. Paying 900GBP for your kid to experience something spectacular, rather than having to take 4000 to take a family of 4 when 3 of the family don't want to do it.
The point about these trips is that is offers something out of ordinary for kids - yep it is hard on those that can't afford it but in reality they can deal with it...

Shall we ban Christmas too because some people in the country can't afford that either...

814man

Totally agree with you stooby68, school trips like this will give kids a fantastic experience with their friends they will always remember. I've never regretted spending money on my kids for this.

shortchanged_2

814man wrote: »

Totally agree with you stooby68, school trips like this will give kids a fantastic experience with their friends they will always remember. I've never regretted spending money on my kids for this.

That's fine if you can afford it. However, there are thousands of kids out there though whose parents can't afford to send their kids on such trips and I'm afraid I see that as unfair on those children.

exup

814man wrote: »

Totally agree with you stooby68, school trips like this will give kids a fantastic experience with their friends they will always remember. I've never regretted spending money on my kids for this.

if you have the money to send your kids that is - what if you don't? allow them to get singled out by the kids who's parent's can afford it? If the teachers are going for free then it should be stopped as I have more a feeling the trips are being organised for the teachers benefit rather than the kids
recession?
Theres plenty of indoor ski slopes with real snow in this country -and what about Scotland ? sorry but these sound like a nice perk for teachers and a bragging right for the kids that go

*pinkie*

bankrupt_parent wrote: »

£995 for a week in Kitzbuhl travelling by coach, are they serious ?, my wife thinks it's reasonable, but strikes me as outrageous, OK everything is included but I was expecting c£750, would welcome any views.

The school i work for offers it for £750, but don't think that includes hiring equipment or ski passes.

When i was at school - 10 yrs ago or so - i think it was about £460.

stooby68

"if you have the money to send your kids that is - what if you don't? allow them to get singled out by the kids who's parent's can afford it? If the teachers are going for free then it should be stopped as I have more a feeling the trips are being organised for the teachers benefit rather than the kids
recession?
Theres plenty of indoor ski slopes with real snow in this country -and what about Scotland ? sorry but these sound like a nice perk for teachers and a bragging right for the kids that go"
EXUP...

Congratulations on demonstrating a complete lack of understanding of what it takes to take a group of students away - nice perk?! I guess if you class having total legal and pastoral responsibility for a large group of students 24 hours a day normally for a week, in a foreign country, in your own time is an easy job, then yes it is a nice perk... Skiing holidays are not just about getting on the slopes but about the whole travel experience. Are there any other sweeping statements you'd like to throw out there? "teachers holidays are too long", "school's not like used to be", "I was hit as a child and it didn't do me any harm"...

What is it with this country that we feel that because some people can't afford things we shouldn't offer them. I am not rich, I don't have money coming out of my ears and sometimes I can't afford to do things I would like to do - does that mean others shouldn't be able to?
In reality ski trips in schools involve the minority of kids - the majority don't go, either because they don't want to or they can't afford it..such is life, the amount of hassle kids get because they're not going on a ski trip is minimal compared to the hassle teenagers give each other for not having the 'right' kind of clothes, haircut, attitude to life. Time for a reality check and a)recognise that staff organise these kind of things for the students and not for themselves and b) life isn't fair and we need to stop sugar coating things and pretending to our kids that it is.

geelamch

both my kids have been on these skiing trips and i have to say they did enjoy themselves,however i agree with the statements on costing.the cost of their trip was £740 each plus equipment which was £160 each.they also had 140 euros personal money as advised by school.
total £1000 plus each
i have to say that i agree it is a unique experience and opportunity to travel to breath taking sights but my reservation was more about the teacher issue.
the pta ask parents on numerous outings and weekend trips for volunteers especially if they have any qualifications relevant to activityto tag along (we have did this on occasions).we advised that we both had skiing qualifications and instructor certs,only to be told that the teaching staff had over subscribed to volunteer.
we were aware that we would pay our own costs similar to kids and had no truck with this but the pta in its wisdom decided to send 11 teaching staff with 38 pupils.
i imagine this contributed around £10000 plus to the cost.
funny how the teaching staff always find the willingness to volunteer to rather higher grade trips when a trip to alton towers etc is 80% parent coverage.
after consulting the previous trips this has happened on several occasions and is now recurring on a trip to new york.
come on teachers it is a job you do not a free ride

stooby68

Geelamch - I can't comment on the specific situation although it does sound particularly poor effort by the members of staff in your school. My only question would be on the timing. If the individual day trips are during school time the senior management would prefer teaching staff to stay in otherwise they end up paying 250GBP plus to cover them with supply teachers - therefore there will be a push to staff those with a skeleton staff and parental helpers to keep the school's cost down. Ski-trips et al are usually in holiday times therefore this is not an issue and speaking from experience I would prefer to have an established member of staff on my trip team purely because students normally respond better to a member of staff and that member of staff is contractually obligated to the school so there are clear guidelines they follow. The other issue regarding residential school trips is that some insurance companies do not recognise parental helpers as members of staff for insurance purposes. Having stated this a ratio of 11 to 38 is rather excessive! As in any business there are always some employees that look for a free ride, my point above to 'exup' was that you cannot tarnish all teachers taking these kind of trips as free-loaders neither should we take the opportunity away from students because some might not be able to afford it...

Cate1976

Unless it's changed, Kitzbuhl is more expensive than other ski resorts. OH & I have twin girls who are 1 year old and I've already said that if they want to go on school trips, we'll do our best to work out finances so they can go. I went on 2 ski trips when I was at school and loved both (1st was Saalbach but only one slope for beginners so we skied at Zell am See the last 3 days, 2nd trip was to Saas Grund, again only 1 slope for beginners so skied at Saas Fee). I don't think it's fair for ski trips to be banned completely due to some families not being able to afford them although I can understand the frustration that parents on low incomes have if their children want to go. Even if they don't brag, the kids who go will be easily identified when they get home as they're very likely to have tanned faces apart from a big patch under where their goggles have been.

skilikethewind

One of the best experiences I ever had was my first ski trip with my old school. The prices have gone up, but I would not have ever skied had it not been for that first trip to a little resort in Austria.
I'm not usre a trip Kitz is a good choice and probably more a teachers opportunity to go to a top expensive resort for free (no offence meant). But what do you expect these days, when the whole Gov and system is out to get what they can all the time. It's a selfish mentality these days I'm afraid.

Kids wil remember this trip for life, I'm sure, but ask yourself one thing....would you spend 995 on your own trip. If so, fine, if not then is it really a good deal....