Is It Fair For Schools To Organise Trips Abroad?

[dave50]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-33047817

I would have thought this is an extreme example which is very unfair to those who are less well off. Is any school trip abroad whose cost may run into hundreds of pounds fair to those who cant afford to go? Why cant they visit places in the UK?

[mrs_overall]

As has been said...life isn't fair, so get over it.
If there was a day trip costing £25, there would still be some kids who could not go as their parents could not afford it.

If you think the school trip to Barbados is expensive, ten years ago,the year before my daughter started middle school, that school organised a trip to Australia and Fiji for £3,000!

[jourdain2]

I went on an exchange trip to Germany. It taught me a lot - including realising the reality of the East/West border - walking up to a lot of barbed wire under the scrutiny of hard-eyed soldiers armed with kalashnikovs (which one of them kept pointing at us) was a reality check at 14! I had to save-up/earn half the cost, plus provide my spending-money and it was a great help towards my G.C.E.. Also good to entertain 'Gudrun' and learn about hostessing.

First time I had been away on my own and I was homesick! I think that all of my class managed to afford it - but it was an exchange and therefore economical.


My granddaughter has just been told 'No, you cannot go on the skiing trip'. It's about £1K - a ridiculous amount. She's got over it. I think that enjoyment-only trips are rather different. My kids holidayed in UK until we saved up enough to get the caravan across the Channel when they were 14/16. They were the only kids in their classes who knew UK geography and basic historical locations!

As a PS - I don't know about this trip, but on the only trips I have taken with pupils - all relatively local, but 1 residential for a week, which meant I had to desert my family and organise my kids' care, I worked very, very hard, was responsible 24/24 and wasn't paid any more. The one under discussion may be different of course - but I would think that my experience is more the norm.

Fair? It's as fair as life gets.

[EDDIE51]

The cost is so high because the teachers go free. The travel agents offer 'free places for teachers' but add the cost onto the pupil's price. By law there have to be a set number of adults to look after the kids. It was 4 teachers to 12 children when I went on a ski trip.

[-Talbot-]

Who is to say the parents of the football and netball teams can afford it?

They will have to play with who can afford it, even if the footballers have two left feet and the netball players have no hand–eye coordination.

But hey...it's the taking part that counts!

[bednobs]

i am with the "life isn't fair; get over it" camp. However i am slightly puzzled - the school seem to be "marketing" it as a sports trip, where the teams will play local teams. Which is all very well, but what if the kids in the teams are the ones who can't afford it?

[bednobs]

apparently i should type quicker!

[-Talbot-]

Sorry, bednobs.

Why are the 'get over it' camp not bothered about what it is costing the teachers?

[ummmm]

Like Talbot said earlier...sounds more like a jolly for the teachers.

[237SJ]

When I was at school I never went on any trips because my Mum said that she didn`t want to subsidise a free holiday for the teachers. Coupled with the fact that I had no wish to go on holiday with teachers and be organised by them or anyone else, I didn`t feel I was missing out at all.

[DTCwordfan]

I went to Borstal....cheap as chips.

[bednobs]

well talbot i can only speak for myself, but basically the teacher have responsibility in loco parentis for 24/7 throughout the whole holiday. I certainly wouldn't fancy going on holiday with a bunch of teenagers, no matter what the destination!
Teenagers are on the whole little sh!ts, and frankly i would not want to give up any of my family time to go on holiday with them, let alone pay for the "privelege"

[sherrardk]

It's crap being the teacher on a school trip - it's stressful and 24 hours a day, full on. One of the them always lands up in A & E, one manages to get ratted and spends the evening telling you that he loves you while chucking up, someone gets bitten by a stray dog and convinces everyone they've got flipping rabies, one of the girls (at least) cries every night for their mum, someone loses their wallet, purse, passport, etc, etc.

I agree this trip is way over the top but no one has to go on it.

[-Talbot-]

Teenagers are on the whole little sh!ts


I've never foun that. On the whole I have found if you respect them, they will respect you.

[zebo]

Totally agree with the comments about going on school trips as a teacher, it's a nightmare, especially adolescent girls, I can recall spending hours in the small hours with a sniffling girl, often being egged on by her friends. Also recall, if your chid breaks a leg running around on your family holiday, that's an accident, on a school trip is negligence and a nice little earner.
A friend took a ski-trip and the Head got a call from him Do you want the good news or the bad? Oh God, give me the bad news first. One of the girls has broken a leg on the slopes. What's the good news then? It's your daughter, so there'll be no trouble.

[sherrardk]

Talbot, you've obviously never taken 50 of them on a coach to the south of France.

[Psybbo]

Zebo, brilliant, that made me smile

[ummmm]

What happened to trips to Long Town and Frontier camp?

[bednobs]

i am not talking about individual teenagers who im sure are lovely. I am talking of teenagers en masse

[sherrardk]

My kids in primary school go to an outdoor activities residential (£150 for two nights) and London (£300 for 3 nights) plus day trips here and there. Boy #1 is going on an eight night PGL in the south of France next month for £720 - our choice to let him go. I'm saving now so that the others can go when they get to secondary school (again, our choice). Hats of to the teachers who take them, it's no holiday for them.

[-Talbot-]

Talbot, you've obviously never taken 50 of them on a coach to the south of France.


What just me with 50 kids...no I haven't, that would be bizarre if I had.