School Trips

[Caran]

Remember the trips we had from school, I remember staying in a grotty dormitory somewhere in Yorkshire, we had a wonderful time and cost very little.
My grandson age 13 a tells me they are having a school rugby trip next year to
New Zealand. The cost will be £3000 each. How on earth are parents to be expected to pay exorbitant amount of money. He has been told if he wants to go he has to save up himself. I know they will chip in and so will I as long as he makes the effort and amasses the larger amount of this, so all birthday and Christmas money will be going in the pot.
But what about the families who have no chance of saving this amount. I do think things have got out of hand. I am sure there will be a lot of peer pressure too.

[Canary42]

Ridiculous

[DTCwordfan]

No I agree, it can be very difficult.

My nephew is going through the same thing as to Australia for £2k, the difference is that he is fifteen plus and can earn something and, perhaps, accumulate savings more rapidly.....

[erin-x]

That's unreal!!! I thought £300 odd was bad for a trip to Strasbourg when I was at school'

[douglas9401]

Seems like a piece of nonsense from where I sit.

[vulcan42]

Is this trip to watch rugby or will your Grandson be playing it representing the school? If that's the case, shouldn't the school be contributing?

[tiggerblue10]

They only trip I went on for a few nights was to the Brecon Beacons. We stayed in a grotty dormitory. It was fun though.

New Zealand? Flammin eck! I'd better start saving now for Little Tiggs. He's only 3 :o(

[Caran]

I'm not sure what the format will be. He does play Rugby for the school, I suppose they will be playing some matches. But I really think it is exorbitant.

[sandyRoe]

That doesn't seem right. If it was Eton he was attending then a £3000 school trip would be within the means of the parents.

[Caran]

He certainly doesn't go to Eton. It's a grammar school in Gloucester.

[DTCwordfan]

My nephews is a grammar school, not an Eton or Rugby........playing, not watching.

[sherrardk]

From experience, I blame the teachers. They get these stupid and outrageous ideas into their heads about 'fun' trips and take no account at all of the cost to the parents/careers. The teachers in question are usually so detatched from reality it is unreal. They are usually childless, single and have a fair amount of disposable income. I would think that most teachers have never had jobs in the real world, having gone from school, to uni and back to school again, usually from quite well-to-do backgrounds.

[Buenchico]

It can be worse if they also play for local (non-school) sports teams. When I was in Sheffield the two main kids' clubs were always trying to outdo each other with their team tours. When one club announced a tour to Australia, the other immediately responded by announcing a tour to the West Indies. That was ON TOP of all of the school trips that parents had to pay for.

When I was teaching, I stopped running football tours abroad as most of the kids in the school teams couldn't afford to go on them. Instead we ran tours in the UK, using youth hostels, and every team member ALWAYS went on them (sometimes with financial assistance from the school). I'm sure that they enjoyed them just as much as going abroad.

(The only school trip I ever went on, when I was 14, was a walking tour of the Lake District. That was 2 years before my first ever family holiday, to the Isle of Wight).

[ummmm]

We went to France, Germany, Italy, as general school trips. Some couldn't afford it, some could, it's the way of the world.

This is a rugby trip though so I assume he's into rugby?

I also believe that there is help towards cost for lower income families. There is in my sons school at least.

[woofgang]

So who is paying for the teachers who will go??

[Mass_Hysteria]

The son of some friends went on a school trip some years ago to Australia, playing cricket and getting some coaching. I think the cost was in the region of £1500.
Obviously the parents were expected to pay towards it but the school also arranged a number of fund raising events over the year to help pay for it with the son participating in them.

[sherrardk]

The travel company will say something like '1 member of staff per x number of students free' so in reality it is the parents/careers.

[Caran]

Grandson is sports mad, he plays rugby for the school and a local team too. He plays for a local football team, cross country and gymnastics.

[Ann]

I can't remember school trips abroad when I was at school 1952 - 1964. The only trip I went on was to another school Hall 15 miles away to see a special film showing of Richard III - it was so exciting to be out of school for the afternoon!

[Mick-Talbot]

Madness .........New Zealand isn't the only other place in the world that plays rugby.

[vodkancoke]

We had wonderful school ski trips to Austria, Switzerland, Italy and France and hockey/rugby trips to Canada, Ireland and France and other general trips all over Europe. They were open to all pupils from the age of 12. We got a letter home and if your parents could afford it, you could go. If not, you didn't. They were never compulsory.