How do you feel about expensive foreign school trips?

Threebabes

My son (Year 12) had the chance to go to New York, throughout school he has never asked to go on a trip. We agreed to send him, but it then ended up being cancelled due to lack of interest. That was going to be £1k. They had another trip £3.2k for a month in africa helping build a school, but we said no. They could do fundraising to help towards cost but we thought it too big a risk.

The skiing trips are around £800 and the trips to spain about £650. It is a lot of money to find.

Lunar_Eclipse

gingin wrote: »

DS has excitedly brought home a letter for a £920 ski trip. I guess once we have bought appropriate clothing and spending money it's £1200+.

Although I'm not overly keen on skiing trips (expense & injury risks being higher than others), I do think most learning and personal development takes place outside the school classroom, so am generally in favour of them. I also try to give my children exposure to as many different experiences as possible, so would happily forego a week's family camping holiday for instance, for one family member to have this kind of opportunity.

What I wouldn't do, is think of it as a £1200 trip. I would be thinking it's a £920 trip plus spending money (child funds) and clothing (borrow, EBay or hire for minimal outlay.) I imagine this means it could be a £1000 trip. Also, I would probably ask the child to contribute. My Y8, 13 year old is going on a similarly priced sports based school trip at the end of this Summer term. We have asked her to contribute/fund raise £200 of the trip cost, plus her nominal spending money she 'needs.' This is partly to help her appreciate the trip and also to give her a gentle introduction to the more costly expedition trips they do in Y11/12/13 where they have to pay for the entire trip (£3000) via fund raising if they want to go (she does already.)

zagfles

andygb wrote: »

All of those things are determined by quite different outside influences - except the ones which are gained through merit - scoring goals, exam results, more popular with the opposite sex.
However, buying Iphones, going on expensive holidays is down to what the parents can afford, so I honestly do not wish to see schools putting pressure on parents to live beyond their means.

Parents will always get demands from their kids for stuff they can't afford, or stuff that's a waste of money. They need to learn to deal with it, just like dealing with all sorts of other inequalities I've mentioned.

There's no way I'd pay for the sorts of overpriced trips which have been mentioned, nothing to do with affordability, it's about getting value for money, ie what this site is all about.

If some kid or their parents started boasting about an expensive trip I'd probably be boasting that I could have taken the whole family for the price they paid for one child :rotfl:

MarilynMonroe_2

zagfles wrote: »

Parents will always get demands from their kids for stuff they can't afford, or stuff that's a waste of money. They need to learn to deal with it, just like dealing with all sorts of other inequalities I've mentioned.

There's no way I'd pay for the sorts of overpriced trips which have been mentioned, nothing to do with affordability, it's about getting value for money, ie what this site is all about.

If some kid or their parents started boasting about an expensive trip I'd probably be boasting that I could have taken the whole family for the price they paid for one child :rotfl:

Lol you sound like me ,a abit of cheap skate haha. I'd be hoping my daugter grows up to tell the teachers how outrageous it is to have 1k school trips and how she could stay in a caravan for like 10 weeks out of season for that :rotfl: I do bet some parents get loans out for these holidays which is a sad state of affairs.

Poppy9

When I was in junior school in the 70s we went on whole of school day trip to Dudley zoo! Our annual school day trip was always a very big event as about 400 children would go and all year you were under threat of being unable to go if you seriously misbehaved.

New or best dresses were worn, mothers would give packed lunches with special treats of a chocolate bar and a juice drink. Pocket money saved for spending money.

It was a RC school so lots of large families and no expensive overnight school trips.

Anyway I still remember we were on the top deck of the bus to the train station and the talked turned to how much money we had to spend. Four of us had £2.50 and one girl just 50p (she was one of 8 children). Four of us gave her 50p and she gave her 50p to one of her brothers so we all had £2 each for the day. It's funny but as a group of friends we wanted each to be equal.

Reading this thread I started with the view point of "tough if your parents can't afford it", I've even paid the £1200 for a US trip!! but this thread is changing my mind. I'm coming to the POV that schools should be inclusive, not exclusive with it's school trips. Yes the experience is wonderful for the fortunate few, but all children deserve the chance of that experience. A trip doesn't need to be expensive for a child to learn independence, team building, bonding etc. with friends and teachers away from home. A simple camping trip will suffice.

Yes children can fund raise but it's easier to raise funds if your parents/family etc. are well off or you live in a affluent area and people will pay you a few pounds to run errands etc. Also I'm not sure it's a good lesson to teach children to only help someone if they are paying you.

If schools were making pupils plan trips and using a business type enterprise to raise funds for the trips I would feel it's more inclusive.

Lunar_Eclipse

Poppy9 wrote: »

schools should be inclusive, not exclusive with it's school trips. Yes the experience is wonderful for the fortunate few, but all children deserve the chance of that experience. A trip doesn't need to be expensive for a child to learn independence, team building, bonding etc. with friends and teachers away from home. A simple camping trip will suffice.

I completely agree, so have a bit of an issue with schools offering trips with a limited number of places whereby all pupils can't go regardless of the reason (first come, first served.) I'm very surprised they are legally allowed to do that actually.

Another thought regarding the cost of trips is that views on their personal affordability are highly subjective. Some people choose to prioritise different things yet say they can't afford it, whilst others scrimp and save pennies or a pound here and there for months/years and decide they can afford it. Clearly some parents definitely cannot afford some trips.

Poppy9

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

I completely agree, so have a bit of an issue with schools offering trips with a limited number of places whereby all pupils can't go regardless of the reason (first come, first served.) I'm very surprised they are legally allowed to do that actually.
.

That's a good point. When DD did her DofE they were told only a certain amount of pupils could go etc. - there were just under 300 in her year but I'm sure that everyone who wanted to do it was allowed and I know they had to put on extra expeditions on different weekends because of high demand and they had a limited number of rucksacks and tents to loan the pupils.

I do know from work colleagues that some schools don't provide rucksacks/equip etc. for D of E so this will limit some unless they can borrow.

duchy

I used to be a TA working with secondary kids .... you KNOW they'll be going home at 4pm !! So grain of truth Yes !

zagfles wrote: »

I know teachers/TA's who say looking after a class of 30 is easier than looking after their own 2 children

Group travel is hardly "niche", and as mentioned Scouts/Guides seem to be able to do them for reasonable prices.

I think organising a group trip would make an excellent class project - let the kids research where to go, what to do there, trips, hotels, restuarants, etc, using online resources such as tripadvisor etc. Get them into the habit of researching holidays themselves rather than lazily paying a rip-off amount to a tour operator for a holiday! They'll get so much more out of a holiday they've put effort into researching, plus it will be much cheaper. Organising it (or helping to) is probably as educational if not more than the holiday itself

This assumes teachers have the skills to direct-bearing in mind most of them pay through the nose for their own holidays as they are limited to school holidays themselves

zagfles

duchy wrote: »

This assumes teachers have the skills to direct-bearing in mind most of them pay through the nose for their own holidays as they are limited to school holidays themselves

That should give them exactly the right skills! We've been restricted to the school holidays for the last 10 years, and have come to the conclusion that only a complete mug books a package holiday in the school holidays! I'd have though intelligent people like teachers would have realised this too

Book everything yourself and preferably go somewhere where the local kids aren't off school and you can get good value holidays in the school holidays (second half of August is quite good). We spend about the same for a 3 week holiday as some people spend on 1 week, for a similar type holiday!

Dorset82

Woah! £1,200 for a school ski trip is A LOT. Me and the OH don't even pay that much as adults staying in pretty decent accommodation.

Our daughter went to Kitzbuhel last year with her class and the cost (excluding spending money) was £595. Schools usually take over a whole hotel which can be quite basic, but that is perfect for a school trip.

I would definitely recommend sending your kids on a ski trip if you can afford it - but £1,200 is far too much in my opinion.

Maybe your kids school should have a look at www.chalet-hire.com - they have some cheaper accommodation that the school could no doubt get a deal on.