How do you feel about expensive foreign school trips?

SingleSue

Eldest has been on trips to Disneyland Paris but the cost was reasonable (less than £200), he was also going to go on a trip to the rain forest but their promises on fund raising and what actually happened were poles apart and he didn't go in the end (he raised loads personally and on a team basis but it wasn't applied to his 'account')

The other two are not offered trips away due to their disabilities.

When I was at high school, I went on a school trip to Holland...brilliant fun and not too expensive, my parents baukled at the cost of the skiing trip, so didn't go on that one.

pukkamum

Well ds is on a a pgl trip this weekend that cost nearly £200, got a phone call this morning to say he is ill and dh has had to drive to Anglesey to pick him up costing £60 in petrol, to say I am upset is putting it mildly will be thinking very hard about whether to let him do another.

pollypenny

My two had the Y8 taster trips to France or Germany at a reasonable cost. Neither even suggested the skiing trips. Just as well, it was the time when we were ground down by the 17% mortgage!

To answer what do kids get out of school trips: sometimes they learn to sit at a table, wait to be served and eat with a knife and fork. That's without their elbows in the neighbours' eyes, too.

These £3000+ trips are mad!

saterkey

I was shocked this week, when ds brought home news that there was a trip to NEW YORK for only 1300 plus spends, and clothes etc. He is only 14, fgs, we are not having a hol this year only days out, but our holiday would be less than this.
I have paid for all the small theatre, theme park, London, wales, alton towers etc etc and would continue to do so, but this trip is just senseless in these recession times. he is not going obviously.

silvercar

pukkamum wrote: »

Well ds is on a a pgl trip this weekend that cost nearly £200, got a phone call this morning to say he is ill and dh has had to drive to Anglesey to pick him up costing £60 in petrol, to say I am upset is putting it mildly will be thinking very hard about whether to let him do another.

Was the trip insured? You should be able to claim.

zagfles

We really wanted our DD to go on a school ski-ing trip - it was quite reasonable at £700 and as she loves ski-ing and we don't, it was an ideal opportunity. But none of her friends were going to she didn't want to

The trips to NZ/US/Asia/Africa etc at several thousand are complete madness though...no excuse for those sort of prices. My friend's kids' school regularly have ridiculously priced trips like that - they even had a "language" trip to China - they don't even teach Chinese, they teach French and Spanish - !!!!!! would they go to China and not France or Spain? Maybe the teachers are bored of France/Spain They also had a ski-ing trip to Aspen for 6 days for some eye-watering price! They'd hardly be over the jet-lag before they had to come home!

zagfles

boiler_man wrote: »

My DD school do a 4 week trip to an African country where they safari and carry out volunteer work at a cost of approx £4000. They are expected to fundraise to reduce the cost to parents.

My DD is not going!

I never understand why these are so expensive, ok the flights may be £500 or more but they're staying in basic accomodation in a cheap country, and expected to work, how can they justify charging £4000? You could probably live on less than a tenner a day, even with a few hundred for a safari (which is easily do-able) the price is way OTT. Maybe they really think it'll make their CV/uni application look better?

inkie

I see school trips to be part of the school/college experience and budget accordingly. both our girls have been in all the school trips on offer. DD1 went to NY in feb with college, it was £800+, but worth it. We went last year asa a family and she always wanted to go back, and so this was a cheaper way of doing it than all 4 of us going back. Next trip, year 13 classics to Pompei - but I have already warned her that she needs to pay half now she has a part time job:)

Wine_of_the_World

boiler_man wrote: »

My DD school do a 4 week trip to an African country where they safari and carry out volunteer work at a cost of approx £4000. They are expected to fundraise to reduce the cost to parents.

My DD is not going!

Good on you! There has been a bit of press about this kind of voluntourism over the years. Often run by NGOs out to make money - exploiting both the communities in developing countries - taking jobs away from locals, exposing children in orphanages to a stream of tourists and school children to poor teaching, as well as those trying to help. Its a shame schools dont look into this more deeply.

I know the campaign 'children are not tourist attractions' http://www.thinkchildsafe.org/thinkbeforevisiting/

Here's an article in the Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/13/beware-voluntourists-doing-good

zagfles

Wine_of_the_World wrote: »

Good on you! There has been a bit of press about this kind of voluntourism over the years. Often run by NGOs out to make money - exploiting both the communities in developing countries - taking jobs away from locals, exposing children in orphanages to a stream of tourists and school children to poor teaching, as well as those trying to help. Its a shame schools dont look into this more deeply.

I know the campaign 'children are not tourist attractions' http://www.thinkchildsafe.org/thinkbeforevisiting/

Here's an article in the Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/13/beware-voluntourists-doing-good

Yes, I can't help feeling these schemes are expolitative, of the locals, of the kids who go and of their parents who pay. I know someone who went on one of these, the sort of work they did (painting etc) was probably nothing the locals couldn't have done, it seemed to be "token" work, one of his friends got Bilharzia and was seriously ill for over a year after his return.

Linked to the orphanage issue, I can't help but think of the scene in Slumdog Millionaire where the beggar masters tried to gouge the child's eyes out with a spoon so he'd make more money begging.

Interesting wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volunteer_travel