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3895 quids!!!!! The good news is you can pay by installments. Wtf!
And as expected dearest daughter went off to bed teary eyed last night which I ****ing hate and breaks me a bit as a dad! ****s!
£3895!!!
oof. right in the slats.
No more pudding for you for a while.
Nothing for you to feel bad about.
That's f###ing ridiculous!
Where's Part 1 ?
Where will your daughter not be going ?
That is an insane amount of money.
In a few years I'll be telling my kids that they can't go on the trip too.
Mine won't be going either. That's a ****ing rediculous price for a school trip.
I went to copt oak youth hostel in Leicestershire and had to walk there!!
WTF? I would love to know how many kids will be going.
I paid £90 for an overnighter at one of those PGL centres for my lad and I thought that was a jip off. Apparently not many kids went which shocked me, as the school is in quite an affluent area.
I totally get school trips and do think they are a good idea, but I think the schools are going a little bit too bat shit crazy with their ideas.
I hope your daughter realises the reality of your decision soon as it must be bloody awful (let's be hones kids just see us as the bad guys at times). I'm dreading when mine come home asking for such things 😆
We've already explained to our daughter that trips like that are the equivilent of a really good holiday for the whole family and we can't afford both. Im not sure how good these trips are, last year there was a 3 day trip to France costing hundreds comprising a day in Paris and a day at Euro Disney. Most of the trip involved sleeping on the coach so the kids were trashed before they even got there. It just made no sense and still wasn't cheap.
Most kids I know who've gone on these type of trips raised a substantial portion themselves.
last year there was a 3 day trip to France costing hundreds comprising a day in Paris and a day at Euro Disney.
I wouldn't be surprised to hear our kids go to the same school; my lad had the sme trip.
He was knackered but loved it. Cost £400-ish.
There's no trip this year which he's a bit miffed about. Next year they are going to Bayeaux to look at an old carpet.
At wifey's school, they are going to San Francisco, about £3k. That includes the cost of paying for the teachers to go, too, don't forget.
That includes the cost of paying for the teachers to go, too, don't forget.
If the staff don't go, the kids don't go and whilst taking kids abroad can be fun and rewarding it most certainly isn't a holiday.
On the original thread I thought your '3/4 grand' meant £750 and I was gobsmacked... not 3 to 4 grand! That's insane!
As said, don't feel guilty about it - the school should have felt guilty in asking.
This is an excellent opportunity to teach your daughter about hard work and money.
If she really *needs* to go on this trip, ask her how she will pay her half.
Is she ready to get a part time job, work each week, forego going out/makeup/spending on whatever for a year, work through her holidays ? Is she willing to stay at home when the rest of the family goes away next summer in order to get a bit of extra cash for this trip that she really, really wants to go on ?
Ask her to draw up a plan for getting work and a plan for saving up in order to pay her share.
it - the school should have felt guilty in asking.
I didn't read the last thread but this kind of thing isn't normally just the school, it's usually a business like World Challenge or a charity.
I don't understand why anyone should feel guilty here, we all make choices based on prices and what we can afford every day and as Bertrand Russell said, being without some of the things we want is an indispensable part of happiness.
Where on earth is the trip to? That's an outrageous amount of money to think suitable for parents to stump up for a trip.
I'd be saying no as well. Don't feel guilty
It's a trip to the moon!
If the staff don't go, the kids don't go and whilst taking kids abroad can be fun and rewarding it most certainly isn't a holiday.
So the fact that the teachers want to see San Fran had nothing at all to do with the selection of destination?
And the further fact that (due to teacher drunkenness) a memo went around saying that there could be no drinking on any trip all the staff volunteers withdrew immediately?
Not a holiday? Maybe not in your eyes.
tell her to prepare a ppt presentation for the family, milestones are important here it shows commitment.Ask her to draw up a plan for getting work and a plan for saving up in order to pay her share.
Not a holiday? Maybe not in your eyes.
I can only comment on the ones I've seen and been on. There are muppets and chancers in all walks of life but please don't assume all trips and teachers are like that.
tell her to prepare a ppt presentation for the family, milestones are important here it shows commitment.
Quite.
And if she comes up short on the 'funding' - perhaps a shade under the agreed 2k, terminate the project as breach of contract. Tell her it was purely a 'business decision' and that she can 'learn from these things'.
Valuable.
It's a trip to Malawi. The company organising are these guys.
[url= https://www.outlookexpeditions.com/ ]wallet bleeders[/url]
It's all very slick, great presentation and you could see the kids being sucked in. Several parents walked mid presentation. It got to the end and the guy asked for any questions. All I wanted to know was how many went last year and how much they raised? After one question everyone got up and left so I never got my answer..
At wifey's school, they are going to San Francisco, about £3k. That includes the cost of paying for the teachers to go, too, don't forget
I would have love to have been at the staff meeting planning that one; 'you mean the parents pay for us to go.....screw YHA we are going YMCA!! woop woop!!!'
I can only comment on the ones I've seen and been on.
Me too.
The supervision dliemma was solved by the agreement that 'some' of the teachers would be sober at all times. What a sacrifice!
Crazy amount of money and now as a parent I wonder how my Mum and Dad afforded to pay for me to go to Florida on a school trip 😯
Miami Beach
Disney
Epcot
Bush Gardens
Universal
etc etc
But the best one for a group of teenage lads ... Wet and Wild ... Got some teaching there from Mandy from Louisiana.... And I bought my first Hendrix tape... so did get some education from the trip.
Dont know how it came about or what the point of it was ... they didn't do it again .... but in all honestly it was an amazing trip and memories I'll never forget.
Lucky lad.
Our local school does these sort of high end trips too - my kids have never visibly taken much notice. We do send them to France etc for £400 but not skiing in Colorado for £4000. As mentioned above good for kids to learn value of money.
It is cheaper for the School to plan and book everything themselves, but then they take the risk, rather than the company, and not all Schools are keen on this. I've been on a lot of School trips to a lot of wonderful places, but a holiday it is not!
As Spin mentioned, all the kids I know who have gone on trips like this have raised most of the money themselves through car boot sales, car washing etc. Usually there is an 18 month period to do this. Their trips were a similar price and the trips to E Africa and Borneo were really excellent.
My daughter did a Biology expedition to Dominica which was much less (2K), but raised most of the money through baby sitting and selling raffle tickets.
My daughter did go on an expensive trip to Namibia which she was in the 6th form.
The school made them raise the money over the course of a year. I guess as parents we still 'paid' for most of it by going to casino nights, fashion shows etc etc but they had to 'work' for the money.
The trip was excellent and they spent most of the time there at a school helping repaint and repair it. I think it was very valuable for her and perhaps opened her eyes to the world in a way the news reports/TV does not.
I'm not saying it's not a silly amount of money but my daughter went on to choose a caring career where she will never be rich. Slightly ironically maybe the expensive trip made her realise there are more important things than money.
£4k!!1!1!111 😯
Makes a family Center Parcs holiday in peak season look a bargain. 😆
Just explain that sort of money would buy daddy an ENVE wheelset, she'll understand.
In all seriousness, that is ridiculous. From what i hazily remember of school trips, its the social interaction that kids focus on and I doubt that differs whether you are in Malawi or Machynlleth.
£4k per child?! That is pretty insane. How long is that for?
We splashed out on our honeymoon & had a week in Sri Lanka on an organised tour followed by a week in the Maldives all inclusive - that 'only' cost around £4.5k for the pair of us.....
they spent most of the time there at a school helping repaint and repair it
If they'd spent the time teaching the locals how to paint and repair I'd approve. Do gooders going in does no good at all unless the capital is invested in the people. A school doesn't need paint it needs teachers.
Jesus Christ, talk about first World bull carp.
Why do these kids have to go off to the other side of the World?
We used to do the PGL trips to Wales. Bit of rock climbing, hiking in the pi$$ing rain, canoeing in water so cold that if you were unfortunate enough to go in the drink you were rushed back and thrown in the shower before hypothermia set in. Bit or Archery and orienteering. Bloody great trips they were. Great fun, brilliant character building and teaching you how to function with others and didn't cost more than I pay for a family of 5 to go skiing in Europe.
4K....I'm doing okay for myself, but even I think that's a lot of money for a school trip. Do they stay in 5 star hotels and fine dine every night?
It's a shame that people put such ideas into young kids and make them feel bad if they don't go....
How long is that for?
20 years ago I went on a Raleigh International expedition to Namibia. Not a school trip. £3000 - which I paid myself - got you 10 weeks of living in a tent, eating porridge and mealies, being accompanied when going for a poo by a ranger with a gun so a lion didn't eat you, and directing your diarrhoea down a long drop toilet you had dug yourself. The mixture of privileged (in the grand scheme of things) youths, underprivileged youths (including scrotes) and people from Namibia made for some interesting tims and it was quite an eye opener in terms of developing people skills - which I think was largely the point of it.
But without knowing what your school one involves it's hard to judge. Is it a three week jolly with school friends? My kids wouldn't be going at those prices, simply unaffordable.
My wife spent summer in Rwanda teaching teachers how to teach.
What edukator says is true.
Boxes and boxes of UNICEF sent resources toys puzzles teaching aids all still wrapped up in a back room as no one knew how to teach with them.
Anyhow she did it as a personal thing out with the school with a local business funding half and self funding the rest.
She wouldn't dream of trying to take a school trip out there.
Can I just check?
1) Is it a fee paying private school fees in excess of 20k a year?
and/or
2) Does your catchment area include mostly million plus houses?
I had a newly qualified teacher as a lodger once. as the new girl she volunteered for the school trip, via cross channel ferry to Paris. Apparently she spent most of the trip at the local police station trying to get several of the kids released after they went on a shoplifting spree, and then had to negotiate with the ferry company to let the kids return on the ferry after the chaos they caused on the way over.
She didn't volunteer the next year.
I have a decent wage, and my friends are generally middle class type families with kids. We often talk about money and stuff so I have a good idea that not one of them could justify £4K on a school trip for one person.
My wife and I went to California for 2.5 weeks, stayed in a nice central SF hotel for 5 days and hired a fancy car to tour round Cali in for the rest of the trip, all in including flights and food and entry to stuff cost £3700 for both of us! Are these kids staying at 5* places or something?
And you'll have to cough up spending money too....
Can I just check?
1) Is it a fee paying private school fees in excess of 20k a year?
and/or
2) Does your catchment area include mostly million plus houses?
^ Ha! Ha! 😀
Nope - normal state high school, in a normal town. My daughter goes to the same school as wrightyson's. Looks like we should start saving now!
My school (90s) organised language exchange trips to France and Germany (which my parents let me go on), skiing trips (which were understood to be outside the budget) and an exchange with the USA (the very idea of my going on this was hilarious).
I think I just understood that while my parents were by no means poor, there was a reason why our holidays typically involved train travel and camping, and there were limits on what trips I could aspire to.
🙂
Nope - normal state high school, in a normal town. My daughter goes to the same school as wrightyson's. Looks like we should start saving now!
I had a feeling that was the case. I think I would be a bit irritated too.
A lesson in how to deal with disappointment pending then.
When I was a kid I soon learned that it was pointless to expect to go on the ski trip and other exotic things, didn't bother me.
A great opportunity to teach jnr about money and how much things cost.
Maybe a bit young to school,her in the ways of 'taking the piss' but start them early I say.
My daughter is going to Cambodia next year on a similar trip. Total is £3800 or thereabouts, it's a 4 week trip that mainly involves volunteer work.
It's half paid for now by a few fundraising nights, raffles etc. Lots of local company's have been hugely generous. The Barbour factory have donated 2 vouchers for jackets to raffle, a local garage, £250 and a free valet to raffle plus many others.
If this was a trip to Dubai to sit around a pool I'd of said no, but I think it will do her good to experience how other cultures live and fend for herself for a while.
The supervision dliemma was solved by the agreement that 'some' of the teachers would be sober at all times. What a sacrifice!
You do realise that these teachers are in loco parentis, for an average 8-10 kids during their "holiday"?
A free trip to San Fran sounds like good value (for the actual parents).
I attended a public school. But I was a local scholarship boy whose parents weren't flush at the time.
Like bigdummy, these sort of trips (they were c£2k in the early/mid 90s) were out of reach to me. That's a life lesson right there in learning how to manage your place in the world among the kids of some well off people.
These days I could afford that for my daughter, but as many have said that's the price of a family holiday.
I am sure the price includes a high speed satelite broadband link so that they students can keep up on social media and not feel excluded.
reasonable and necessary part of a young persons education and development IMO should be mandatory,
We're in a place called belper. It's a normal state school but doing above average in grades etc. The town is originally an old Mill town so still lots of working class folk around. In the last ten years the town has really upped it's game and last year won high street of the year 😯
If you want awesome quiche from the award winning deli and then a choice of 10 different hairdressers then it's the place to be! But it's by no means an affluent town!
Fundraising got mentioned and during the presentation a shot of what a previous participant had raised was shown. He apparently earnt 340 sheets at a ****ing car boot sale?
These things make me laugh. Lifestyle experiences for little kiddies hidden under the premis of helping the poor. Learning life lessons etc.
What a load of bollox
Say 20 kids go on this trip at £3500 each. That's £70,000. Its already been noted that either the kids parents or through fundraising (IE doing some meaningless gesture so parent then dips into their pockets anyhow).
You want to teach them a life lesson. Get them to do the fundraising so they get the 'experiences' then break it to them that you are transferring the money abroad to invest in a few local businesses (One being setting a guy up as a builder/decorator). £70,000 is probably enough to set up a dozen new business over there and they will last longer than a few weeks of kids pissing about.
If that doesn't rest well, why not pay a group of homeless, out of work ex forces guys/gals to go over and work for a year. I bet they could achieve a lot more than a load of privalidged kids.
Don't forget, they get the life experience of proper sacrifice when they realise they aren't going on a 'free' holiday.
Like bigdummy, these sort of trips (they were c£2k in the early/mid 90s) were out of reach to me. That's a life lesson right there in learning how to manage your place in the world among the kids of some well off people.
We spend all of our adult lives having to deal with money. I'd rather kids were able to kids, and not have to worry about it. Really, the school shouldn't be putting parents in this position.
The annual ski trip at my 80s comprehensive school always left us with a very clear understanding of who was one of us and who was one of them
Depending on the kind of trip it is, raising the money to go is an authentic part of the experience.
So far we've had primary school PGL-type trips to fund. Not so expensive and they worked well. I like it when we pass by places in the Peaks or Lakes that our children call out as 'been there'.
Last year was a trip to Normandy & Bayeux. At about £350 that seemed OK. But much more and I'd balk unless we were also talking about how to raise the money through work and events.
Ah, it's one of those 'businesses'. That explains allIt's a trip to Malawi. The company organising are these guys.
as you were
Or just pay local people. It's a business 🙁If that doesn't rest well, why not pay a group of homeless, out of work ex forces guys/gals to go over and work for a year
"Earnt"Fundraising got mentioned and during the presentation a shot of what a previous participant had raised was shown. He apparently earnt 340 sheets at a **** car boot sale?
More likely he sold a couple of grands worth of nearly new/not at all knackered stuff for a fraction of it's value.
Guess who paid for the kit in the first place.
My last school had a French exchange, i went twice. Didn't go on the german exchange. (They were actual exchanges, we had to put a french kid up for a fortnight, twice) Only cost about £200 quid for transport and trips when we got there, food and accom was covered by the host family.
A small group were offered the chance to go to the US every year, same deal for the Russian trip. My folks took one look at the initial letter, and threw it in the bin.
I think it will do her good to experience how other cultures live and fend for herself for a while.
Hah.
You mean live for a couple of weeks in a self-congratulatory bubble with your mates having a santised (sorry - "curated") experience and leave thinking you're a humanitarian worker.
Pfft.
If you want to give her a good experience, get her on a proper outwards bound course. That cost is just a piss take, someone is making money, and I doubt there is significant benefit to the locals (although some similar schemes do seem to give some benefit on top of the "experience" of the middle class white kids).
If it was your daughter wanting to do it off her own back it would be a bit different, but as a "school trip" it's ridiculous.
I think I explained that my two could go skiing with the school or do diy in a hot place, at the moment one has been skiing the other is waiting to go skiing. Our local school has trips like this regularly and I also wonder how people with 3 or so children afford it as "its not fair" if you "only" send one.
I would rather put it towards Uni or house or car.
Apparently it is a life skill they need to learn. Its also one I don't have.
You want to teach them a life lesson.
Buy a half acre plot with the money and get them to double dig it. That'll learn em 😈
My partner's son did a Cambodia one last year. Same cost and he raised a fair chunk. The teaching they did is unlikely to have changed lives, and he isn't any more keen on eating interesting food. Some leadership skills learnt perhaps ...
I think he'd have learned more about himself and others by using the same dosh to do a ski season or travel independently next year.
Nice business to be in...
There sure are some grumpy old sods on this thread, that's for sure!
Not that I'm any different I hasten to add! 8)
We spend all of our adult lives having to deal with money. I'd rather kids were able to kids, and not have to worry about it. Really, the school shouldn't be putting parents in this position
I do wonder what sort of relationship with their kids some people have. If you can't afford it, just say so. Kids don't have to be protected from all the unfairness in the world and as things go this is pretty minor.
I do wonder what sort of relationship with their kids some people have. If you can't afford it, just say so. Kids don't have to be protected from all the unfairness in the world and as things go this is pretty minor.
But that was my point - in this case, the school shouldn't be putting parents into the position of having to say no.
Just had a letter from school regarding the 2018 trip to Swaziland to help a school out there.
£3379 per pupil .... and I've got twins there!
Thankfully they have already decided that it's too expensive - I feel bad though 🙁
We went to the museum once. It rained
Looking briefly at the OP's link, is it some kind of Operation Rally thing where you go and save baby elephants or connect a village to a water supply so they can start growing drugs?
My wife went to Africa and had to raise the £2k or whatever it was back in the day.
Also some of my friends raised money to go on what appeared to be an expensive piss up canoeing down the Yukon River when they were in Venture Scouts.
Or is this the equivalent of the school residential trip that I did to some shitty hostel in the Yorkshire Dales in my early teens?
It's a trip to Malawi
I live in Malawi at the moment, you can fly here for £700ish and then live like a king for a month on the remainder. For perspective the minimum wage here is <£1/day.
How much would it cost to provide the locals with the necessary training and building equipment to do it themselves?
A lot less than 70 grand I'd imagine.
How many teachers could you train for that?
Not as many as you think molgrips
Go read land of second chances for an interesting cycling related perspective on the challenges faced and a good explanation of the black hole of charity.
As a VI Former I went on an A-Level History field trip to the USA. It was expensive. I paid half and my parents paid half.
It had zero educational benefit, but I did finger a cheerleader. Which, I feel, made the whole thing worth it.
But that was my point - in this case, the school shouldn't be putting parents into the position of having to say no.
I'd say that was at least one of the educational aspects of this trip - those parents who want to wrap their kids in cotton wool and be their best friends get to explain to them that you don't automatically get everything that you want whenever you want it.
Only child came home with a similar letter a few weeks ago, £4170.00 for a 4 week trip to PERU in 2018 which includes a trek to Machu Picchu, benefits include earning UCAS points equivalent to an AS level. He didn't want to go, even though we said he could. (nice grand parents would have contributed) Niece went to the Himalayas last year on a similar trip.
I've had dealing with outlook expeds and they are slick.
They run training days/weekends before hand for both pupils and teachers and make sure that staff are trained in exped first aid. These trips are a min of 14 days. They also take the financial organisation and draw up payment plans with parents as well as organising fund raising.
Still a lot of money though.
benefits include earning UCAS points equivalent to an AS level.
That smells pretty bad.
Yer,..'smarts a bit of paying for UCAS point to me that
Was that with Camps International? They (and others but they're the big name) do the ASDAN Certificate of Personal Effectiveness. It sounds bullshitty but it's an actual thing (every so often it causes a Daily Wail outrage, along with pony club and dance certification) It's no more buying UCAS points than doing night school is.
Whether or not you believe it's equal to an AS level is another thing mind.
Ah, so it's a recognised course.
In that case fine, bit steep mind but hey..
If only the D was an L, that would be a good certificate 😆
8 kids died on one of my son's school trips.
The school had economised on the bus charter to cut costs. The brakes failed descending a mountain and it went over the edge packed with kids. Several other kids were maimed for life.
I never let my kids go on school trips after that.
Jeepers.
^^ That is why you never put a whole year group on the same flight if you can help it.