Cancelled school trip

Poppy9

callum9999 wrote: »

Of course it's fair for the school to pay up. They cancelled ergo it's their responsibility. I don't care if you or a teacher doesn't want to go, it's perfectly safe so if the school is going to make an irrational decision then they can pay for it.

Do PGL even do city trips? I would have imagined they'd be in a camp in the country near Paris (I see nothing actually in Paris on their site), so the terrorist threat will be basically non existent. Just cancel any excursions to the city itself if they must.

Did you miss the bit that they couldn't legally use money given to them to educate children to refund for a voluntary contribution trip? The only other money the school have is PTA monies so basically all parents who contribute to PTA funds are paying the refund. Or do you suggest that the Head and staff personally make good the money.

As I said in my post school cancelled, school should refund in full. I would just like to know where the school get the money from because you can't take it from money that is for staff, equipment, building maintenance etc as it's not legal and a school as a public body is regulated on what it can spend it's money on. Only option is PTA or staff pay. If staff have to pay then that will be the end forever of school trips.

pollypenny

blindman wrote: »

The trip is in Feb-3 months away.;)

If it was next week then fair enough.

There must have been some T&C's regarding this trip so the OP must check if the school has the right to do this.

And again there is no government advice against travelling to Paris.

It's towards the end of November, time is going on and the Christmas holidays coming. There could just be three weeks in 2016 before the planned departure.

Organising trips for large groups is complicated, more so when it's a school trip. In view of Hollande's instructions to French schools, it was probably better to cancel.

I'm sure the money issue will be sorted.

zagfles

pollypenny wrote: »

It's towards the end of November, time is going on and the Christmas holidays coming. There could just be three weeks in 2016 before the planned departure.

Organising trips for large groups is complicated, more so when it's a school trip. In view of Hollande's instructions to French schools, it was probably better to cancel.

I'm sure the money issue will be sorted.

What were those instructions to French schools? Not to go to Paris for the next 3 months?

zagfles

Poppy9 wrote: »

Did you miss the bit that they couldn't legally use money given to them to educate children to refund for a voluntary contribution trip? The only other money the school have is PTA monies so basically all parents who contribute to PTA funds are paying the refund. Or do you suggest that the Head and staff personally make good the money.

As I said in my post school cancelled, school should refund in full. I would just like to know where the school get the money from because you can't take it from money that is for staff, equipment, building maintenance etc as it's not legal and a school as a public body is regulated on what it can spend it's money on. Only option is PTA or staff pay. If staff have to pay then that will be the end forever of school trips.

Whoever caused the cancellation of the trip should pay.

Poppy9

zagfles wrote: »

Whoever caused the cancellation of the trip should pay.

That's not disputed but a school has limited sources of money.


1 source is from LEA to educate pupils and that money is ring fenced and restricted in what they can use it for.


Second source is school fund. This is usually from voluntary donations by parents i.e. non uniform day, nominal school fees for things like planners. PTA monies may also be paid into this fund.


Now school has cancelled. They cannot use LEA funding to give a discretionary payment to a group of parents. So only option is school fund. So the majority of parents whose children were never booked onto the trip but have contributed to school fund basically provide the refund. One parent gets wind of this and informs other parent - huge fuss made, complaints to LEA etc.


So final option is LEA. Given the level of cuts to LA then if this is widespread in schools throughout their area they will refuse and say use your school fund.


I am not for one minute saying it's acceptable that parents have lost their money. I'm just saying if the school did not have insurance to cover this situation then they have limited options to refund. Insurance to cover this eventuality (and any other) should be compulsory

maman

Martok wrote: »

A further developement is that in todays online local paper there is a story about another school in the area that cancelled a trip to France next week and the head has said that parents will get a full refund even if their insurance doesnt cover it.

zagfles wrote: »

What were those instructions to French schools? Not to go to Paris for the next 3 months?

The current FO advice does give advice on school trips


https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/france


but it's current advice NOT for trips in February. Presumably if the advice was extended then the school would be covered by insurance.


Maybe the school was concerned that a number of parents would panic and take entirely the opposite view from OP and if they knew that deposits were non-refundable they thought most would prefer some sort of trip rather than none at all and lose the money.


I think all we can say for certain is that the school has handled it really badly. Why make such an instant decision with no consultation or explanation so far in advance?

Backbiter

The issue is as complicated as has been pointed out. It's not as simple as saying the school has to pay when it doesn't have the means to.

I am a bit puzzled as to when it's going to be considered OK to travel. It's not as if an ISIS spokesman is going to come out and say it's fine for trips to go ahead. And if they did, noone's going to believe them, and will assume it's a bluff, so they'll conclude it's more dangerous than ever to travel.
It's like post-9/11. The threat of terrorism has never gone away, but security has been massively tightened. In that respect, travel is probably safer now than it was last week.

elisebutt65

I just read in the Guardian that the FCO has advised school trips be cancelled until Nov 22nd.

vivatifosi

Yes, I've heard this on this morning's tv New too.

elisebutt65 wrote: »

I just read in the Guardian that the FCO has advised school trips be cancelled until Nov 22nd.

jackieblack

Backbiter wrote: »

It's not as simple as saying the school has to pay when it doesn't have the means to.

Well they should have considered that before they made a decision that forfeited the parent's money.
They have to take responsibility for that decision.