School trip: is this a rip-off? (X-posted to family branch)

Voyager2002

My son (13) came home from school all excited. After trying his best to be good for the evening, he gave me a letter about a forthcoming "residential". It is a trip to Spain, Barcelona in fact, which is odd because they do not learn Spanish in his year. In fact the trip is offered by the Design and Technology department, and so includes tours of a Chocolate factory and a Pasta factory. As well as this "educational" content there is a visit to a theme park and a city tour.

My first reaction is that it is a terrible waste to take them to Barcelona without spending a significant amount of time on the art and architecture there. It really seems to be just a holiday with a tiny educational content as an excuse. And considered as a holiday I find it really expensive -- about 330 pounds for four nights (half board). But my son is really excited at the thought of going away with his friends, and thinks that Spain sounds exciting (he has never been there, although he has been to places like China, USA and the Philippines).

Any comments?

C_Ronaldo

you can do the chocolate factory bit here, but what has a pasta factory got to with design and technology,

go4it

Please don't treat this as a holiday, residential trips are highly educational for all pupils. There are various skills - living away from home, learning to live with others - the benefits are enormous.

I would think that taking children around Barcelona could be a logisitical problem, what happened if one got lost etc. At least on supervised trips and theme park trip they are contained.

With regards to deisgn and technology, they could be look at the rides at the theme park, how they are made, design and structure.

blue_haddock

go4it wrote:

With regards to deisgn and technology, they could be look at the rides at the theme park, how they are made, design and structure.

They could but i very much doubt they will!

To me it just seems a bit of a jolly for them - i wonder if the school make anything from it?

C_Ronaldo

Why dont you ask a teacher what will they expect to learn from going

springchicken

My 13 old daughter has brought home a letter today for a 5 night residential trip to Spain for her Spanish course (half board )for £555 :eek:
So in comparison £330 for your sons trip seems reasonable.
Ive been let off the hook though as DD wont go without her best friend going!
Seriously though I would have wanted her to go ,you cant put a price on the culture and independence they experience from these trips.

hammy_the_hammer

it used to be so easy and i don't know what's changed ....you just say "sorry you can't go"

gentlepurr

my sons off to athens for 5 days, 4 nights, in february, £400, and i dont begrudge him a penny of it. theres probably very little of any constructive use for gcse's, but you cant put a price on the experience this gives any child in his life. as other posters have said, learning to be away from home, understand and respect other people and cultures, learning to get along with their peers, the benefits are endless. as a single parent, its not easy to find this sort of money, but i would gladly have one bean on toast every night if it meant giving him opportunity.

xx

Tappy

gentlepurr wrote:

my sons off to athens for 5 days, 4 nights, in february, £400, and i dont begrudge him a penny of it. theres probably very little of any constructive use for gcse's, but you cant put a price on the experience this gives any child in his life. as other posters have said, learning to be away from home, understand and respect other people and cultures, learning to get along with their peers, the benefits are endless. as a single parent, its not easy to find this sort of money, but i would gladly have one bean on toast every night if it meant giving him opportunity.

xx

That is beyond sweet. My mum put herself out to send me to Canada whilst I was at school. It wasn't educational, it was just a ski trip. That week was one of the best of my life and I'll never forget it. Although it was expensive, the experience was priceless.

ajbrynoffa

My son is going to Barca in May for 9 nights(albeit travelling by coach)so 7 nights in Resort,to play football.They are staying in Lorett and its costing £380.

gravitytolls

Sounds like pretty good value to me. My daughter is going to Yorkshire in June next year. She will gone for three days, these three days include the travelling to and from the school. She will stay in a youth hostel, and the excursions will involve walking up the can't remember their name waterfalls and the White Scar Caves (which are beautiful).

For what I consider to be only two days of trip, as half a day of each of the threee is travelling, two nights youth hostel, and grub, we will pay the princely sum of £180.00.

Of course, we don't begrudge her one bit, and she will have a lovely time, but it seems pretty excessive to me.

Next year, DD2 will have a 2 night stay in a nearby activity centre. It is 20 miles away, and will cost £165. The reason for the high cost? The coach fare, yet it hasn't occurred to anyone to suggest that parents could drop and collect their childrn at teh centre, thus saving considerable money.