How do you feel about expensive foreign school trips?

Person_one

duchy wrote: »

I presume you'd want a "free" holiday if it meant giving up your own holiday time with your own family or friends to spend a week (unpaid) supervising teenagers, on duty 24/7 - keeping them organized and behaving all week, dealing with homesickness, teenage squabbles, being the one to deal with any child who gets injured (and stuck in a hospital emergency room with them) etc etc .....Might be your idea of a holiday- but it certainly isn't mine !!

My teacher friends always sleep for about 48 hours when they get back from their 'free holidays'. It sounds like they spend most of the nights going between different rooms telling the kids to stay put, shut up and go to sleep!

gingin_2

peachyprice wrote: »

DD got a letter about the 2013 ski trip, to Colorado, it's £1100, I refuse to pay that much for one member of the family when we could all go away for not much more.

I believe they do alternate between USA and Europe, if the European one comes up at under £500 we'll consider it.

Interestingly, the USA trip only used to be open to Yr10 & yr11, definitely not yr7, seems they're not getting enough takers anymore so are having to offer it to the whole school.

Ours is £100 less (it is £1000 having reread the letter) to go to the French Alps. £1000 for the Alps seems :eek:

Person_one

Carl31 wrote: »

I wouldnt pay £1000 pound for a week ski trip on principle

Firstly, it doesnt cost that much, and secondly its an act of stupidity. Id rather teafh my children that when it comes to money, value is what they need to look at, not the first price shoved under their nose

Admittedly, i went skiing with the school in 1995. But i paid every penny of the 400 quid out of my paper round money, i wouldnt expect my parents to have paid

Blimey, you had a well paying paper round!

Spendless

Person_one wrote: »

My teacher friends always sleep for about 48 hours when they get back from their 'free holidays'. It sounds like they spend most of the nights going between different rooms telling the kids to stay put, shut up and go to sleep!

Any parent who has ever done a sleepover should know that one.:D

Carl31

Person_one wrote: »

Blimey, you had a well paying paper round!

No, just had a lot of notice!

To be honest, i was juggling 3 paper rounds, 7 days week

Foggster

Hey it is not only the teachers who go on trips - support staff come in rather handy too

The trips mentioned are very much optional. I feel sorry for those children who may be studying a humanity or language subject and a trip is planned which would benefit their study but they are unable to go because of cost. That is when you do see an unfairness.

peachyprice

Seems like our £1200 Colorado trip is a bit of a bargain!

ciderwithrosie_2

Ours were told they could have the end of junior school residential trip and one in secondary school, with 3 of them fairly close together we couldn't afford more.

Oldest son opted for a trip to Berlin as he was doing History and German GCSEs and the younger two went skiing in Italy. Was expensive kitting out DS2 for skiing but obviously we kept it all for when DS3 went. Think the skiing trip was over £600 for 5 days + kit, passport and spending money and that's going back 3 or 4 years.

DS3 got offered a trip to New York with college but that was nearly £1000 + spending money!! Only a few went so he wasn't the odd one out by any means. He had 2 days in Bristol instead. :rotfl:

Newly_retired

When I was at school I rarely told my parents about the trips as I knew they could not afford it. Then one came up that I really wanted to do and they knew it would benefit my studies. Amazingly the school actually gave me a grant towards it. It was a fantastic opportunity, which really set me up for my uni course.
As a teacher, my school issued parents with a list of all the main trips so that they could plan ahead and budget for the one they felt would be best for their child. I thought that was a good idea.
Of course, some kids could afford to go on everything. That's always going to happen, whilst others can never afford it. That's life. Kids have to discover that they can't have everything they want.

LondonDiva

Carl31 wrote: »

I wouldnt pay £1000 pound for a week ski trip on principle

Firstly, it doesnt cost that much, and secondly its an act of stupidity. Id rather teafh my children that when it comes to money, value is what they need to look at, not the first price shoved under their nose

Given the emphasis on volunteering that we've had this week, I'm sure your local school would very much welcome your input to support their efforts by sourcing cheaper coaches / flights, insurance etc which meet the mandatory guidelines for these sort of specialist trips.

Otherwise *facepalm*