[Closed] Unrealistic school trips!

Mate, our school does an exchange with Japanese kids in Year 10 for £1500, plus the cost of putting someone up and showing them round on the return leg.

It was made clear to MCJnr - who goes on a lot of £2-300 trips with Scouts, bands and school - that £1500 for a single trip was a line that we would not going anyway near!

On a wider note, I did a lot of trips with school and Scouts as a kid that were a lot of money to my folks at the time. The deal was that I could have trips or a family holiday, so I only had 2 family holidays in the 21 years I lived at home.

Does anyone know why Malawi is such a popular destination for school trips?

Malawi? Bloody hell!

I find it boggling enough when I see school ski trips to the Alps.

When I was at school the furthest we went was to see the fishing museum at Stonehaven and do a bit of brass rubbing!!

Still, once in a lifetime trip and over a year to save for it...

Think that unfortunately this is becoming the norm now for some schools.
My daughter is just finishing high school. She's only just gone on her first "fun" school trip which was to euro Disney.
I was similarly as outraged as you when the year 8 trip was skiing in Canada with a shopping stopover in New York.
Watersports trip in year 10 was the Dominican Republic!
This is a normal comprehensive school too, not a private one!

Does anyone know why Malawi is such a popular destination for school trips?

Safe/stable, relatively accessible, but still undeveloped. English widely spoken. Plenty of opportunities to see "the real Africa" and get involved with development/volunteering projects. Good - and not too extreme - weather.

I worked in Malawi for a bit.

Lovely people.

My daughter's school has just scrapped the annual trip. It was Eurodisney in year 7, Belgium in yr 8, New York, Ski-ing, Japan...... but less than 30% of kids were getting to go on them. So now they're having a week at the end of the summer term and doing stuff like the British Museum but also 'fun' stuff (London shows, Go Carting, for example) to be more inclusive.

I blame Brexit.

Cost 3/4 grand!

£750? (expensive enough) or somewhere between £3000 and £4000? (holy shit! for a school trip!?!)

Blinking heck, my best school trip was an outdoor 3 day trip of night orienteering, with a bit of canoing and rock climbing in north Yorkshire.

Bloody good it was too!

Uganda 'expedition' here.
Easter ski trip is to Sugarloaf in Maine. £1500. Last year's was to Alpe d'Huez, £900. Not sure of the reason for the change.

Genuine spit coffee moment when the email came home asking for tryouts for the school showjumping team.

We do World Challenge at our school and our daughter did it at hers. It was lots of money but they raised over year and a bit as a team - did lots of fundraising. That was part of the challenge and actually was a worthwhile experience for them. They learnt to work together, value of money, organisation and communication skills.

When you are arranging his posterior ask him how much the trip is costing him personally and how he feels about poor families paying for him to go. And ask how much of a kick back he gets from the travel agency organising it and whether he declares the kick back to the tax man.

Then engage in a rant about how he is betraying his socialist heritage by organising something only the haves can afford.

And then threaten him with makign a complaint to the court of human rights as he must be breaking some discrimination rule somewhere.

Edukator, an ex-teacher who organised exchanges with Germany, paid his own way, didn't take kick backs and got grants so it cost the parents 150e for 10 days.

These types of trips are becoming more popular, companies such as Outlook and world expeditions seem to be taking the lead. I was lucky enough to go to Morocco last year as a member of staff however the cost was much lower the 4k. Think it was approximately 1.5k and we encouraged pupils to fundraise as much of the cost as possible. Some pupils went on the trip having parents paid the full cost whilst others raised the full amount with a great deal of assistance from family.

Does anyone know why Malawi is such a popular destination for school trips?

Not sure, it's certainly interesting in terms of geology and nature, but but socially and politically I'm not sure it's somewhere I'd send kids too on a school trip, and certainly not at that price..

Have they told you what the itinerary is, as in what will they gain educationaly?

Spent a week travelling down the shore of Lake Malawi back in the 90's, lovely place 🙂

"Well of course we 'ad it tough".

I really would love to send her but we simply can't justify that kind of spending. We probably won't spend half that amount in the next 18 months on holidays for the 4 of us let alone one holiday for one person. It's going to end up with a "well such and such mums has said she can go" and before we know it it'll be one big guilt fest with people stretching themselves to keep up with the other parents. Wrong wrong wrong to even arrange such trips if you ask me.

I went to the good ol' USofA in the late 70s. As an educational tool it was invaluable and it has helped make me the rounded human being I am.
Annual skiing trips from the school too.
It must have cost a few quid back then, this sort of trip isn't a new concept. I don't understand the outrage as they're obviously realistic for some.

Elitist and discriminatory and you don't understand the outrage, Captain. Don't choke on that silver spoon. 😉

I went on a football tour to Spain 24 ish years ago for a week. It was 270 quid all in and my mum and dad saved for it. I believe 4 grand is a little above the " a bit of savings" even though it's 24 years later!

Surely you can ask for a breakdown of costs. That doesn't mean you'll get to see the true figures, but £3-4k for Malawi stinks of BS to me.

FTR, I enjoyed all my school trips; mostly Italy, Germany, Austria, Holland, France and UK. The latter included a PGL trip in the Brecons that was IMO my best "holiday" ever.

Four kids through a upper middle class comprehensive most trips cost between 500 and a 1000 pounds - probably £10k spent - last one suggested was like the Malawi trip £3.5 k to go and build huts in Venezuela- - stood up in the parents meeting (probably 500 of them) and reset the expectations of the greedy thieving privately owned "not for profit" (read big salaries) representatives of the charity.

Double post

A mate was feeling the emotional blackmail of the proposed Japan trip (from oz) the cost would have paid flitted accommodation for a family of 4 to nz. The phrase trip of a lifetime was used - if you do that at 15 what have you got to look forward to! Plenty of time for the kids to pay their own way as adults and get more from it.

I went to the Brecon Beacons. For a week. In the rain. And the bus crashed on the way there.

But I did get to see a girls boobs for the first time. Brilliant trip.

No I'm not a teacher 🙂

I'm going through this one at the moment. Getting hit for nearly a grand for a week doing water activities in Spain. I could probably take the whole family for not much more than that...

At least I dodged the Washington/New York trip - three grand for that.

The poor kids get to paint a mural on a wall at school for a week. 🙄

A system where you paid a decent amount so that everyone could go on something a bit less grand would suit me fine.

I work in the outdoor education business. Some questions to ask:

- how were the pupils involved in consultation and planning for this trip, as well as practical arrangements? (At yr10, the kids should plan the menus and book the flights and accomodation...)
- what are the educational benefits of this trip and how will these benefits and impacts be assessed? ('They had fun' and 'it's life changing' are not specific enough, nor is a questionnaire on the last day of a trip)
- how are the staff leading the trip suitably qualified and/or experienced enough to maximise the learning? (Don't tell me about safety, I'm sure it's safe enough. Tell me about facilitating and extending deep, place responsive and inter generational learning with lasting impact)
- how has the school demonstrated inclusion in the organisation of this trip? How have the non-attendees been included and provided for with another great learning experience?
- if such a trip is important, and regretful to miss, then why is it at (such) extra cost to the rest of school curriculum provision?
- Can the school demonstrate value for money in choosing provider and destination.
- can the school demonstrate the distribution of outdoor learning and extra curricular trips - from free, local, routine and expected; through residential or specific; through to overseas and adventurous? It would seem inappropriate (and outside of DfE, Education Scotland, OEAP, SAPOE and most best practice guidelines) to operate many expensive trips compared to local or low cost trips.

These are genuine questions, not barriers or flippant, and if answered well can support better outdoor learning experiences.

My last, personal frustration. Why the hell am I constantly being approached by wealthy middle class kids to pay for thier wonderful trip through 'fundraising', when I can't afford my children to go? P*ss off.

yossarian - Member
I went to the Brecon Beacons. For a week. In the rain. And the bus crashed on the way there.

But I did get to see a girls boobs for the first time. Brilliant trip.

No I'm not a teacher

Proper laughed out loud at that one 😀

Three or four grand?! Yeah that ain't happening.

I'm still getting over peeling off £380 for his 5 day trip to Wales, that's what they called it, 'a trip to Wales' we live in Cardiff.

I think the big money one in high school was a canoeing trip to Italy, it was £1500 in the mid 90s, I actually got the nod on that one because I was working part-time in the evenings and was going to pay half myself, but so few were allowed it was canned.

Some of the ones I see and read about seem other worldly to me, my Sister went on a 3 week tour of the US one year and Jordan the year after, but she went to a fancy public school in the Middle East, I went to a scruffy Comp, I'm not jelous ha ha.

I think matt out and about has nailed it, what are they going to accomplish that they can't do on a simmilar trip to Wales, scotland, lake district, etc. Try some fun outdoor stuff, teamwork, map and compass reading, team building ...and the price? Id expect 6 star accommodation for that.

Try paying for these trips when you've got twins! Usually you can't, which is unfair on the twins, but what can you do?

Mattyfez - I'm not against such trips, in fact, they can be amazing and utterly life changing, and they can offer more than a YHA in Wales....

What I do not agree with is sales people phoning a school, selling a 'wonderful' experience that staff are hooked in by, without applying our usual school and learning rigor.

I'm also not negative about the bloody hard work organising and leading such a trip is, and the dedicated teachers who take this on.

I can give you loads of examples of how to do this more thoughtfully, more inclusively, lower cost and with greater impact.

I think the costs are so high so more of the teachers can go for a free holiday

My youngest did a Malawi trip. The kids spent a couple of weeks doing up a school and a clinic while the village menfolk sat and watched.

So a free holiday for the teachers in term time, justified by eco tourism?

You couldn't pay me any money in the world to be a teacher on a school trip abroad 😆

Blinking heck, my best school trip was an outdoor 3 day trip of night orienteering, with a bit of canoing and rock climbing in north Yorkshire.

Same here, 3 days on Exmoor staying in a chalet doing similar activities was the best I got. Although there was one "educational" day trip to France but I seem to remember the teachers returning with lots of beer and wine so it was obvious what that one was really for 😆

So a free holiday for the teachers in term time, justified by eco tourism?

You couldn't pay me any money in the world to be a teacher on a school trip abroad

He's right you know! It ain't no holiday. Never been at a school where trips like these happen in term time and despite organising plenty of trips over the years I've never heard of anyone ever getting one of Edukator's kick backs. Maybe I just didn't try hard enough!

Easter ski trip is to Sugarloaf in Maine. £1500. Last year's was to Alpe d'Huez, £900. Not sure of the reason for the change.

One word - alcohol. Too many schools have been burned by kids getting shit faced on ski trips to Europe and the tighter drinking laws in the states means they can find staff prepared to man them. Being responsible for a group of dangerously drunk kids overseas unpaid in a week of your holiday is not something many folk are desperate to experience.

£3-4K for a school trip is bonkers though and putting that in front of kids is wrong.

^ lol. That reminds me of my school ski tripto Austria when I was 15.I seem to remember a teacher making a very drunk kid drink salt water to make him puke!

At the start of summer I'll be going with 30 of our kids (y11-y13) to Tanzania with Camps International. The cost is over £4k for 4 weeks. In this case students are encouraged to raise the money themselves, and we as a school do as much as we can to facilitate that. There are occasional kids who's parents have just stuck up the cash, but mostly they're working for it.

We also run a ski trip for year 8, which is 5 days on the slopes in Italy. I think it's about £600, all in.

Our catchment area is a really deprived town and then the surrounding farms/villages, so a wide mix of backgrounds. It's not just the rich kids who go on the trips though.

It's certainly nothing like the trips I went on as a kid, we went to Normandy, but I think it's such a great opportunity for them. I would have loved to go on a proper holiday with all my mates and no parents. There's more to school than counting beans.

So glad it's not just me who is a little outraged by these trips...

I went to a Surrey secondary school between 1984 and 1988, not once did my year actually take a foreign trip, I am struggling to remember more than one day trip during that 4 years.
Feel that I have now reached that age where I can actually say 'kids these days....etc etc'.
3-4k Trips though, despite the amazing experience that they would provide I'm sure that must cause a lot of issues with those parents who just cannot afford it, that's serious money?

My daughter did an exchange visit to Beijing. Two weeks away and the total cost (this was 4 years ago) was £1,400. The trip was cancelled the following year mainly as costs had increased and the school decided it was simply becoming too expensive for the majority of families. However, it had also become apparent that Beijing was no longer as culturally different as it had been when the annual trips first started.

Was it worth £1,400? Probably. My daughter had to learn some Cantonese, she was exposed to a different culture and a month later we had a Chinese girl with us for a week - allowing us to experience some of that too.

Cantonese would not be much use in Beijing, Mandarin the official language there, you would struggle to find Cantonese speakers anywhere (from my experience anyway)?

I got as far as the north France coast and got punched in the neck by my drunken Religious Education teacher!

Has The Black Country Museum closed? 😥

I think these trips are a awful idea for all the reasons suggested here. We should try and compete with the private schools on life experience though, not sure how to square this circle.

I will call BS on Educator.I will also declare an interest, I am taking 28 pupils to Krakow in June for 4 days. Flying and all the visits mean it will cost between 450-500. There is no surplus built into my cost.There are two bag packs arranged in a Supermarket that we will supervise, anybody pushing the free holiday line fancy 8 hours on a Sat doing that? This is in a mixed background school hit hard by the oil slump. Oh; and the tour company gives one place for ten pupils/council insists on three staff so we are chipping in to cover the shortfall so we didn't have to drop 8 pupils. Statements like "Free holiday" and "travel agency kickbacks" are bollocks. I love Krakow, but A) would happily not set foot in either of the camps for a seventh time. B) don't like Krakow so much when I have to abstain.

Crikey Moses! £3k for a school trip!
My school trips were ,a week in The Wye valley. It rained all week.
A week in Eskdale . It rained all week.
A week in France - St Cast & Paris. That was great because...

I did get to see a girls boobs for the first time. Brilliant trip.

😀

I had a stand off between two minibus loads of German police and four students accused of smoking dope. After much debate the boss turned to me, told me I was typical teacher, no charges and go away. I'd asked what would happen if he took them in for drug testing, they missed the train and were stuck in cells in F, and then the tests turned out negative.

Call me a liar if you wish, Duckman. Others have accused me of lying about teachers being victims of racist abuse. I know what loaded up credit card for "teachers expenses" is when the company specifies receipts won't be asked for and cash withdrawals are possible, it's a kick back (but you don't have to withdraw the offered cash).

Cantonese would not be much use in Beijing, Mandarin the official language there, you would struggle to find Cantonese speakers anywhere

I'm sure Ed speaks the truth, but think that it would be difficult to do that in the Uk in this day and age. Too much transparency. I paid for my daughter to go to Berlin recently, they did a lot of educational stuff, but not sure it was worth the outlay.

My only school trip was to Bolonge (can't spell it) which involved is all buying French fireworks and setting them off at school in the following weeks! That was the end of those trips for years apparently! 😳

I know what loaded up credit card for "teachers expenses" is when the company specifies receipts won't be asked for and cash withdrawals are possible, it's a kick back (but you don't have to withdraw the offered cash).

Teaching for 11, running trips for 9 with multiple companies; never heard of this and how does a tour company hide this? Maybe a French thing?

Why make things so unreachable for a good percentage of the school?

Knowing the background and area of the kids that go to your daughters school I'd say 95% of families can't afford that sort of money.

My daughter won't be going on such trips!

Perhaps the teacher in question has come from that other school nearby, close to where the footballers mansions are! 😀

I went on a school trip once down Bolsover colliery. That was the only one I think.

The foreign school trips at my fee paying schools were just for a few people so no sense of feeling left out, I never went on a skiiing trip but went to Greece in the lead up to my O'levels which was excellent.

At my son's infant school in a mostly well off Surrey village we get asked for the odd tenner but they say if anyone feels they can't afford it that's ok and their kid can still go so that's nice. If some schools are suggesting its the norm for parents to pay for theses expensive trips then no doubt some parents are putting themselves into financial difficulty so their kids doesn't feel they're missing out.

So what's in it for the schools anyway? Do the kids benefit educationally or just have fun? An exchange trip for language purposes seems useful but exchange trips shouldn't be too costly due to staying in family homes.

I know what loaded up credit card for "teachers expenses" is when the company specifies receipts won't be asked for and cash withdrawals are possible, it's a kick back (but you don't have to withdraw the offered cash).

scotroutes example is a good on - although £1400 is steep, it is half of what some of the other trips were. There is clearly more than just a trip (remember foreign exchanges folks?) and done - there is work before, after, during. A school that also made the decision to cancel when costs spiralled as well.

The challenge here is not just the expensive, headline grabbing trips, but the routine and expected local theatres, local green spaces, nearby weekends to field study centres, DofE style self supported expeditions that are much more affordable and much more integrated with the learning and curriculum.

An example: my own sons school does a battlefields trip to France and Belgium each year. 3* hotels, coach everywhere, tour guides each day, day at a theme park. No particular connection with other learning at school (e.g. history, English, languages), other than all S1's do WW1. Cost £540 for three days in Europe, plus travel time, with commercial tour operator.

Another Scottish school - battlefield trip for four days. All S2's go to local war memorials and pick a name. They then research that soldier - war records, family etc. Any battles or locations that pop up in that enquiry are also researched by pupils. The pupils then help plan a trip to one of the battle sites that has 'popped up'. Many other subjects help - French & German to book accommodation and interpret maps; maths to do the budgets and account for monies in; geography to plan a trip and access WW1 maps and land use etc etc. They use train to get to France and have helped plan and book a youth hostel or similar accommodation (self catered), they visit the battle sites where they have also organised a local guide or school to help show them around. They use WW1 maps to ID the ground, draw pictures and compare photo's, imagine what it is like to be in the trenches, hear local stories and more. They read poetry and stories of the day, as well as newspaper reports. They have ID'd both sides of the battle in this way.

They then usually hold a simple, reflective moment to think about the soldier they have traced and followed to this place in France/Belgium/Germany. A couple of years ago, one of the trips was at a graveyard in France, and a teacher asked for a pupil to step forward - the pupil had researched a named soldier from Edinburgh, who was MIA. The pupils research had actually identified the unmarked grave of the soldier, and where he had fallen. The pupils helped change the headstone to one with a name on.... Cost £280.

Both trips were residential, both had great, fun experiences for the pupils, both were to the same area on the same topic. As a teacher, parent or pupil, which one has had a bigger impact and learning outcome?

The reasons that some of you are more than a bit negative about these trips is not only cost, it is valuing the learning to be had. Personally, I think almost all school trips are great. However, some more work and they can be totes amazeballs.

Some resources to help:
http://learningaway.org.uk/residentials/
Get a copy of Simon and Mike's book:
https://beamingsimon.wordpress.com/2016/02/25/chapter-1-preface-and-foreword-free-download/
Place responsive outdoor learning:
https://education.waikato.ac.nz/spls/michaelb/pedagogy-of-place-outdoor-education-for-a-changing-world/
etc.

In all my time in education. I think I made it on three school trips.
One to St Marys Lighthouse. One to Housteads fort on the Roman wall and a "ski" trip to Allenheads.
I thought I did pretty well with that and the Cub/Scout camps.

I do dimly recall a ski trip to Norway but that was way out reach for my family.

Oldest offspring is going on the Great Victorian bike ride with his school. 5 days of riding, fed, watered and accommodated for 300 quid. Cant complain at that.

Ever considered why trips are organised? In a few rare cases it's for noble causes, these are the only reasons I've been prepared to get invloved:

- Bettering international relations and giving kids a positive experience of a foreign land and thus make them less xenophobic and better citizens.

- Improving their language skills - in all honesty the only time this happens is in a genuine exchange where they spend time in a family with an exchange partner who they go to school with and share activities with.

- Real educational trips, coal mines, geology and geography field work... .

And then you have the "holidays". Ski trips, trips to Disney land (a nephew went on a foreign trip in which the group was so protectedhe never encountered anyone he need to speak the language to), visit New York, "aid work" in some poverty stricken land. Raising the school's profile, marketing a product (the school) in a competitive industry, justifying the head's fat salary, providing work for the suppliers (and you may not have experienced it, Duckman, but "hospitality" and "covering incidental expenses" happens and doesn't need to be hidden by the company). It becomes a machine, sometimes a grotesque industry in which the kids are pawns and the parents victims.

So, parents, you weigh up the pros and cons, if it's a genuine exchange it won't cost much and they'll learn a lot - do it. If it's a jolly then I suggest you spend the money doing something with them yourselves and give your kids a lesson in resisting emotional blackmail and being ripped off. Take them shopping and show them what 3k relates to in terms of shoes, clothes, food or whatever - It's a Carbon Zesty with full XT and decent wheels FFS!

Blimey. This is all to come for us. Right now it's a tenner for daytrip somewhere. I know the local secondary school has an exchange programme with a Chinese school, so suspect there will be pressure to do weeks there. Hopefully it's flights only and getting put up in someone's house. In that case I can see the pro's. Expensive jollies seem out of order though.

I know what loaded up credit card for "teachers expenses" is when the company specifies receipts won't be asked for and cash withdrawals are possible, it's a kick back (but you don't have to withdraw the offered cash).

Which company is this, and do they have any vacancies?

....asking for a friend

Take a ticket Doris!

Which company is this, and do they have any vacancies?

Having said that, my lad did learn to push himself, did get to stay away from home for three days and did come away positive about some other kids he is going to high school with. Once again however, the trip fell short of what is possible in learning terms, and was a super marketing effort to the teachers - many of whom ignored the teacher 'entertainment' and headed out with their learners anyway....(good on them)

My mum used to organise school trips. Theirs were definitely not cushy for the teachers.

But then they were the £150 self organised jobs.

My daughter is down for a trip to Malawi in 2018 the planning for the trip started in January this year - 2 yrs of researching and planning. Cost is around £1500pp (of which she will contribute ¼-½ via personal fundraising (cakes/knitting/bob a job) all organised via in house resources. Comprehensive School in semi rural Scottish town. A specific part of the trip is about working with a school that they have partnered with over there and the teachers from Malawi have been to the school here - the school in Scotland has a constant round of fundraising for the Malawi project and each year the kids are focused on different developmental aspects:

Sanitation and clean water for 2014
Transport and ecology for 2018 - this includes purchasing bikes over there for transport and then gifting them to school upon departure.

The kids are involved in a great deal of the planning and content well in advance and have bi monthly meetings to keep on schedule.
Malawi is a seriously underdeveloped nation and has long established links with Scotland through the David Livingston Memorial Trust.

I have similar feelings to a lot on here regarding the expensive holidays. They seem to have little educational value for me.

The most recent examples I have are a football trip to Amsterdam with the school team. My son loves football but isn't too keen on putting in any extra work to improve. I was happy for him to go and comfortable with the £500 cost. All I asked him to do was a bit of extra training off his own back to make the most of it. A bit of running etc. He declined so I refused.

My daughter is a good climber. I organised with the local wall to take 15 people to Font. I organised the bus, drove it all week and drove it back. They organised the accommodation and coaching. Cost everyone £350 each and it covered everything to the penny. I didn't begrudge a penny.

Schools are there to teach. Their ability to give kids the experiences of a lifetime are very limited. I dread the day my son comes home keen to go on a £3-4000 trip. I expect full value for my money and I would want every single thing detailed before I even considered it

I was at an outdoor ed meeting last year with schools from around South East Asia.

The largest school UWCA spends $2mUSD on flights per year for overseas trips for its students. Trip prices range from $500-5000USD.

Standard practice for large schools like that is to not put a whole year group on one flight.

Its optional, if I couldn't afford Id tell my children that I cant. I would not feel bad about it and they would also learn that honesty and diligence with money is to be admired. Try being honest with your children. If you think its too expensive then say so. People seem to take such things too personal. Is your relationship with your children so fragile and insecure that no is not an option? Turning up and ripping into the organiser is something I wouldn't want my children to hear about my poor personal behaviour. Not a good example.

Am I the only one that's surprised (nay, shocked *handwring*) at kids being told to "fundraise" to pay for their expensive school trips?

Isn't "fundraising" something that should they should be encouraged to do altruistically for someone else or some other good cause (I seem to recall the Economics Entreprise at my school used to flog tat you didn't need for a "good cause"). Isn't what they're actually being told to do (by their school, no less) just asking people for free money?

What is the world coming to?

What is the world coming to?

an end?

Its no different to the 'beggars' who come on here asking for people to donate towards their 'charity' activity. They get jumped upon but its a little harder to shout down a kid trying to help others (yeah, I bet that's all they are interested in).

The schools know that parents tend to compete to ensure their little bundle of joy doesn't miss out. Its happening with mobile phones, it happens with football boots, it happens with everything in school life and it happened when I was a kid too.

I don't go through life trying to be popular and I have regularly stood up to this kind of thing at the expense of my kids popularity at school. Its rife in every area of life and unfortunately you look bad standing up to it.

Surroundedbyhills example sounds like another good one - embedded in more than just a standalone school trip. Real engagement, learning and opportunity. On top of which is an amazing trip.

Let us not be negative about these things - just check that your are getting best learning, value and inclusion...

And your mother was 100% responsible, Molgrips.

On self-organised the teachers deal with the exchange families or accomodation providers, transport and activities. They spend nights in hospital with sick kids, nights on the phone with irate parents because little darling daughter has been telling them porkies, time dealing with security staff because a kid has keeled over in a shopping complex and they want to call an ambulance but the life-saver teacher knows the kid will be fine and wants to get on a boat in a hour not go to hospital, cope with drunk or high kids who have a private stash, get it in the neck from parents for not preventing kids having a private stash (though the parents would go nuts if you suggested regularly strip searching the kids was the only answer), time sorting out intimate photos the little darlings take of each other and circulate (when it's not vids of winking competitions), negociate with the local feds on behalf of pupils, accompany a kid 800km home because the ID card got lost and border control refused entry, hunt for kids who ignored instructions and sneaked off whilst waiting for a museum to open ... all these have happened on trips myself or Madame have done. Cost to parents 150 -500e with subsidies for the poorest parents. Up to 111 kids on an international trip.

Or pay a school trip tour operator/activity centre/ski package organiser, give them the file of names and let them get on it with making sure they are responsible for as much as possible. Don't worry about the cost, it's the parents who pay, and if some can't afford it that's fewer to take. It's the modern commercial world and money makes it go round.

We went to Alnham in Northumberland for a week, from Newcastle.

One of my mates got bitten by an adder.

We played football on a cow field.

We walked a lot.

The teachers got pissed in the evenings.

And that was a Private school.

I just went to band camp 😉

Edukator - good last point. 🙁

Am I the only one that's surprised (nay, shocked *handwring*) at kids being told to "fundraise" to pay for their expensive school trips?

No mate, it stinks.

And you could buy a half-decent bike for £3k anyway!

I just went to band camp

Edit: the same year his school organised an orchestra trip to do two public performances. In Italy. They drove a full orchestra load of instruments across Europe in two vans, flew the kids out to 4* hotels, performed and toured a couple of small towns/cities and flew home. Costs started at £550 per child, subsidised by a years fundraising (parent council refused to say how subsidised it was), but by the time the trip went ahead, an additional £100 was added to cost and the evening meals dropped so kids to another £100odd in euros to pay for meals. 😐

Am I the only one that's surprised (nay, shocked *handwring*) at kids being told to "fundraise" to pay for their expensive school trips?

......

What is the world coming to?

You sound horrified, should probably write to your local newspaper about it.

If the students want to go, and their usual source of income (parents) physically can't help, then they're given an opportunity to help themselves....like they will have to in a few years anyway.

The kids aren't begging, they're organising events, activities, services and other active ways of raising the money. They don't wander around, door to door, with buckets. The trip itself is an end goal, it's something to aim for. They're learning the value of money, and it's a tangible outcome.

We also run Young Enterprise at school, which, regrettably, is usually a right mess because they're just raising money for the sake of it, they're not invested in any outcome other than a certicate, so subsequently don't care.

You sound horrified, should probably write to your local newspaper about it.