A debate

[hightara]

many years ago when I joined FHG..... this stirred up opinons.... and not in my favour.

however this has raised its head again

I have five kids...... one girl four boys

the boys are in uni etc and self reliant....... our girl is now 12

She came home in floods of tears last month.......saying that she was the only one in her class not going on a school trip.

Not the school trip we had......where we went on nature walks......or educational stuff.....all free/or a couple of quid

£395 two nights in london.....also had to bring a packed lunch.....and £10 for a.......wait for it,,,,,,McDonalds on the way back

She made her Confirmation the month before......so she is using her own money (school said recommened £70

[hightara]

I emailed the head teacher of the school....... told them that we had to borrow the money

we where fortunate to raise the funds...... but what about those who are on benefits? 

[martinlufc88]

Yeah had the same last year with my daughter, cost nearly £400 for a 2 day stay in London, when i was at school we went to the country side, camping ect... loved it great memory's and didn't cost much, it cant of cost much or my mother would not have paid it lol.

Son brought a letter home last week, school trip to france for 3 days £500+!!!!!!

[1956glyn]

Wow how things have changed.

When my son was at school the dearest school trip was like £20.00.  Most within say a 10 mile radius were free and all parents had to do was give the child a few pounds spending money.

If a childs parents could not afford to pay....the school paid from their resources so that the child did not miss out.

[evoman3957]

From what I've been told, the teachers get to go free..........well, well, we won't read between those lines then....will we !!!  and finally, perhaps more children ought to watch the onslaught of charity adverts, that we are now all subjected to, showing children starving to death and drinking water; urinated in by livestock...........god forbid anybody should give up their £400 " School Trip ".........the west's morals of convenience have been shot to hell for years.........so what's new.

[hightara]

you are so right Evo

my family where poor........and I didn't even ask them when we had school outings.......as I knew they couldn't afford them.

did I conform.......yes

did I want to ........no

This will be her last few days in that school.........but I wanted to let the teachers know.... the horrible position they put the kids and their familys in. Maybe they will re-think next time.

[1956glyn]

Hello.

Is this a state school?

This is just putting too much pressure on parents in my opinion full stop.

I went to a private school.....this was the sort of school trips available years ago at my school and no i did not go on them.

Paying the fees was a struggle enough for my parents lol

My son went to a state school  (he is 25) and i cannot remember him being offered trips costing hundreds so wonder if this is a new thing?

[hightara]

yes  glyn.

state school, thing is, the parents conform......as did I when my daughter was the only one not going

[bitsnknots]

A young man I know was going on a school day trip and the cost was £21 and that was only going 13 miles.  The father of the young man in question actually owned the coach he was going on. 

[hightara]

books............... I wish that were me..........lol

at our school............ we went on outings once a year...to the local forest ( I am talking about half a mile here)..... we had to hold hands .....with our spare hand.......we had to put our fingers on our lip....... yep the good old days

[evoman3957]

It's probably happened to many others, but I remember when peer pressure came from other children and not the Schools themselves.  A good few years ago, while out shopping for trainers for my son, I picked out a pair for him ( with his approval of course ) they were about £20 ( in a sale again ). A few weeks later, he came home from School and told me that another child, in his class, had the latest £120 trainers. I asked him if this Boy could run faster than him, jump higher than him, or was as clever as him, the answer to all these questions was no........so I said " well the trainers aren't doing him much good then are they " !!  My son's now a Doctor and we recall those days with a smile, I wonder what Mr. £120 trainers is doing now.........either a banker or a gun runner, I wouldn't be surprised.......either of which would make sure you were in the gutter; while they made off with the money. I told him very early on that you earn credibility..........you can't buy it.

[hightara]

Thankfully our ones.......do not do designer... nor care.... same as our family.

Quote From Emo
I asked him if this Boy could run faster than him, jump higher than him, or was as clever as him, the answer to all these questions was no..

Genius................ brilliant Emo

[peteryola]

Our daughter's secondary school stings me for £8.50 a month in "voluntary" Governors' fees to help with some of the costs.  They call it voluntary, but you try not paying it and you'll very soon know about it.....!!!  I've never come across "voluntary" and "must" in the same sentence before!

[soppysofty]

When our youngest daughter was at school (she is married now and has made us grandparents) her school had a skiing trip to France.  £485.00 each for 5 days and two of those days would be spent in a coach travelling there and back.

I went on line to a very reputable travel company and found the same trip advertised for £340.00.

With a group booking I could get that down to £310.00 each.

I wrote to the headmaster with my findings and he came back and said that they had to use company X because they where the only approved company to carry school children by the local authority and the cost of the escorts (teachers) had to be included in the price as they could not be expected to pay for themselves as it was 'work'.

I then suggested that the local paper and TV news station may be interested in covering this story and, guess what!

The cost came down to £315.00 per pupil.  Our daughter went and had a wonderful time.

[hightara]

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@soppysofty wrote:

When our youngest daughter was at school (she is married now and has made us grandparents) her school had a skiing trip to France.  £485.00 each for 5 days and two of those days would be spent in a coach travelling there and back.

I went on line to a very reputable travel company and found the same trip advertised for £340.00.

With a group booking I could get that down to £310.00 each.

I wrote to the headmaster with my findings and he came back and said that they had to use company X because they where the only approved company to carry school children by the local authority and the cost of the escorts (teachers) had to be included in the price as they could not be expected to pay for themselves as it was 'work'.

I then suggested that the local paper and TV news station may be interested in covering this story and, guess what!

The cost came down to £315.00 per pupil.  Our daughter went and had a wonderful time.

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I did the same too soppy.......... looked up the hotel.... £69 pound for three sharing....... had to make a packed lunch..........and an extra tenner for a Big brand name burger happy meal,

also checked the flight details...... so they came to £75 return flight as she had to leave at 4.am and arrived back home at 11.00pm

yep we definately paid for the teachers.

now, my daughter is going into the big school this year........so this won't be an issue to me, as she now knows how hard it hit us in the pocket........ But I couldn't stay stum........but I did let the headmaster know the position he put me in. Hopefully with the kids coming after, they will think twice about asking people for £400 quid.

For two nights.

[upthecreekyetagain]

Both my daughter and son-in-law are secondary school teachers and yes they do go free on school trips.

Sounds great I suppose but if that is the case then why do the school find it so difficult to get teachers willing to take on the responsibility of supervising 20 or 30 young teenagers in a foreign country?

As for in 'my day' - I spent my primary years up to the age of 10 at a private prep school and never went on a school trip other than the odd 'day out'.  For my last year at primary level I went to a state primary school in Moss Side as we had moved to Manchester.  In that one year I went on two school trips, one to Belgium and the other a 'winter' trip to Austria.  That was in 1959.

[5129frederick]

This very much brought back memories to when my daughter was about seven or eight.   My wife was blacklisted - with very much my approval I hasten to add, because she refused point blank to sign a consent for to let my daughter be taken to a museum and spend the day learning all about the kings and queens - of Africa!

"Don't you understand you are denying your daughter the basic right to an education on how these other great nations came about etc?"

One other parent said enough is enough, and damn right too!  They spent the time in another class.  Things went downhill fast after that.  The final straw came when not French or German was discussed as a potential second language to be learned but Urdu, which at least 60% of the kids could speak fluently.  She was up against such absurd odds we couldn't have got her out of that school quick enough.  Kings and queens of Africa - I ask you!