[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)?