How do you feel about expensive foreign school trips?

zagfles

sillygoose wrote: »

Well thanks! you have all depressed me!

I have 2 kids 10 and 8. The 10 is up for a school trip next year to France, not too bad for nearly a week @ £400 with good educational content in it.

But when he/they go to secondary school £1000+? no way!!! bloomin heck!

When I was at school in the Jurassic era school trips were a day out to see a stately house and that was your lot.. Skiing was something James Bond did!

No way, we all go or no one goes!

They're not all expensive in secondary schools - ours have been on a few 4-6 days'ish trips to Europe which were around the £350 mark, and really enjoyed them. School trips can be good value and a good experience for the kids.

pukkamum

silvercar wrote: »

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

Yes it was definitely insured I will look into this thanks.
Reading the other posts I don't think we'll get anything was a good thought though.

andygb

I just cannot believe the cost of these trips, and I know that I never went on anything other than day trips (which really peeved me at the time).I would like others to see this from the child's perspective - the child who does not go, for whatever reason.
In my school, children who did not go would face humiliation from both the more fortunate pupils and the teachers, who would press them for reasons - in front of the other pupils. Then, on the return from the holiday, the unfortunate ones would face further ridicule from the other children.
Schools should be places where there is equality and inclusion. Holidays of this kind simply divide and exclude, they do in fact encourage a "class" system to exist, and that in my opinion is wrong.
Educational day trips are a good idea, but "holidays" for the well off should be discouraged.

Dunroamin

When I was at school in the Dark Ages I went on a 3 week trip to Austria when I was 13/14 and a fortnight's educational cruise to Algeria, so these trips aren't that new. What has changed is the cost as the accommodation on both visits was very basic and wouldn't be acceptable to most modern teenagers.

Interestingly, my dad was a postman and I went on both trips whereas many other students with far more affluent parents didn't. I still blush to remember that my parents gave up their own first foreign holiday so that I could go on the cruise.

zagfles

andygb wrote: »

I just cannot believe the cost of these trips, and I know that I never went on anything other than day trips (which really peeved me at the time).I would like others to see this from the child's perspective - the child who does not go, for whatever reason.
In my school, children who did not go would face humiliation from both the more fortunate pupils and the teachers, who would press them for reasons - in front of the other pupils. Then, on the return from the holiday, the unfortunate ones would face further ridicule from the other children.
Schools should be places where there is equality and inclusion. Holidays of this kind simply divide and exclude, they do in fact encourage a "class" system to exist, and that in my opinion is wrong.
Educational day trips are a good idea, but "holidays" for the well off should be discouraged.

Really? At our school the majority don't go on the foreign trips - they are usually outside term time where families may have other plans, also they have upper limits on numbers so there no way everyone can go anyway (first come first served - delay and you miss out).

There were about 80 kids on my son's last trip, from two year groups of about 320 total - the idea that the 240 who didn't go were subject to "ridicule" from the 80 who went is just, well, ridiculous!

I don't think anyone should feel pressurised to send their child because they're worried about this. I very much doubt it happens much anywhere.

Poppy9

zagfles wrote: »

They're not all expensive in secondary schools - ours have been on a few 4-6 days'ish trips to Europe which were around the £350 mark, and really enjoyed them. School trips can be good value and a good experience for the kids.

While you may think £350 is reasonable to many families it's out of their reach. I know DD school didn't take payments in installments for the lower end trips like this. I did get to pay £1200 for US trip in 3 installments over 5 months but I do think it would help if schools gave maybe a 1-2 year run up to trips so parents and pupils have time to save.

Pupils can then decide to forgo Xmas/Birthday presents and save the money for trips.

peachyprice

andygb wrote: »

I just cannot believe the cost of these trips, and I know that I never went on anything other than day trips (which really peeved me at the time).I would like others to see this from the child's perspective - the child who does not go, for whatever reason.
In my school, children who did not go would face humiliation from both the more fortunate pupils and the teachers, who would press them for reasons - in front of the other pupils. Then, on the return from the holiday, the unfortunate ones would face further ridicule from the other children.
Schools should be places where there is equality and inclusion. Holidays of this kind simply divide and exclude, they do in fact encourage a "class" system to exist, and that in my opinion is wrong.
Educational day trips are a good idea, but "holidays" for the well off should be discouraged.

Really? Did you go to a particularly small school?

The majority of the overseas trips at my children secondary school are restricted to 30-40 places, out of 1250 children only a small minority will go on the trip, certainly nowhere near enough for anyone to even notice they've been.

zagfles

Dunroamin wrote: »

When I was at school in the Dark Ages I went on a 3 week trip to Austria when I was 13/14 and a fortnight's educational cruise to Algeria, so these trips aren't that new. What has changed is the cost as the accommodation on both visits was very basic and wouldn't be acceptable to most modern teenagers.

Interestingly, my dad was a postman and I went on both trips whereas many other students with far more affluent parents didn't. I still blush to remember that my parents gave up their own first foreign holiday so that I could go on the cruise.

The other thing that's changed is the freedom they give the kids - I went on a school cruise when I was 10 and the freedom they gave us was amazing - at the ports we could go on trips with the teachers if we wanted but didn't have to, we could explore by ourselves, the only rule was that we had to go in groups of at least 2. Can you imagine two British 10 year olds being allowed to wonder around the Grand Bazar in Istanbul alone these days? Even had a go at haggling (we'd been taught that the day before in the usual lesson about the next port), but was a bit of a disappointment. Asked how much, offered half the quote, deal! Most disappointing!

POPPYOSCAR

I can remember when our son was at school and we did not find out about the ski trip from him but from other mums talking about it.

When I asked him why he had not told us he replied that he did not bother because although he would like to go it was not worth the money!(It was £800 for 5 days two of which would have been mostly travelling)

zagfles

Poppy9 wrote: »

While you may think £350 is reasonable to many families it's out of their reach. I know DD school didn't take payments in installments for the lower end trips like this. I did get to pay £1200 for US trip in 3 installments over 5 months but I do think it would help if schools gave maybe a 1-2 year run up to trips so parents and pupils have time to save.

Pupils can then decide to forgo Xmas/Birthday presents and save the money for trips.

Yes I was just pointing out that secondary school trips aren't all at the £1000 mark. Our school are much better at providing a long time to pay, for a £350 trip they'd usualy give at least a year's notice, probably 18 months.