Holiday with the school

Granny23 , a good few years ago, I took a class of Primary sevens to a camp somewhere near Aberfoyle or Callandar.
It was an old army camp with lots of wooden huts, stone floors and millions of midges. It had a large wooden dining hall surrounded by trees. Could that be the camp you went to?

When I was at primary school we had a field trip to Dungeness. I would like to have gone but my parents said I would get too homesick - actually I suspect they couldn't afford it. At Grammar school we had a skiing holiday which cost £32. My friend and I got as far as the reserve list but, no doubt to my parents' delight weren't chosen to go. Looking back I think I would have hated the skiing bit.

Well said NanaandGrampy. My DGC went on a very educational and adventurous trip with several members members of their extended family (12 people in all ) . They were all in primary at the time. They had no choice but to go using 1 week school holiday and 1 week term time as they weren’t paying the bill . Both my son and daughter in law were fined for each child. Money they couldn’t afford . They were threatened with imprisonment if they failed to pay !!! However a week away with the school doing very similar activities is fine ! Double standards or what?

Granny23, your school camp sounds very much like ours which was at West Linton. We had the option of a week there in Primary 7, but in our year, only a few of the class went as it was in November whereas it was usually in May. It was that same camp where we entertained our French counterparts. Can't remember anything about the food, though when we went to France, we had to accept horse meat as normal.

I wonder why it’s alright to go on a school trip for a week and not a family holiday ?

Both can be as educational as you want them to be but one just requires you pay and the other will net you a fine !

We had a whole month (March 1956) at a school camp called Dounans in Aberfoyle. Almost all the pupils from Primaries 5, 6 and 7 went, although quite a few went home at the end of the 1st week. We stayed in wooden ex-army huts in metal bunk beds, ate in a huge Dining Hall and had normal lessons in classrooms as well as lots of nature walks and sports. In the evenings we had singalongs, concerts, dances, put on plays and even formed a Skiffle Group.

I absolutely loved it all, except the food which was pretty dire. I thought it was like the boarding schools e.g. the Chalet School in books and comics.

It must have been heavily subsidised as our parents were only asked to pay the equivalent of 4 weeks Child Benefit for each child.

I was given the school cruise letter each year of secondary school. I took it home for my parents to read, but never expected to be allowed to go. My sisters would have wanted to go too, and that would have been too much of an expense for my Dad who was the sole wage earner.

Same as some others - there were a few trips abroad and a cruise possible at my girls grammar school and even a trip to France in the top year at junior school but I didn't even bother asking if I could go as I knew the answer would be 'no, we can't afford it'. My brother was allowed to go camping in Wales, that was the only school trip any of us ever went on - he told me he had less spending money than the other boys and always remembered that with resentment. The thing is, we were not poor as such, my police officer dad just wouldn't 'waste' money, as he saw it, he was always saving. He was quite a wealthy retiree, I'll give him that. Now my DGS is signed up for a private school where he will go on skiing trips even in the infants school, if I understand correctly - times change indeed.

I don't know how typical I was. I am now in my late 60s, and my school only did 'educational' day trips.
I did go camping with the Guides, and took my 'Leaders' badge so I could take others.
I also had a French pen pal, and when she wrote suggesting an exchange visit, I was very excited,and my mum opened an account to save for it. Actually my grandfather stepped in and paid the air fare (£40 in 1966). I of course, saved my pocket money, and my parents set aside money to take us on trips when my friend visited. After that first visit, I saved out of my Saturday job pay in order to go again.
It has been one of the great joys of my life, a friendship that has lasted over 50 years, and encompassed children and grandchildren. I am so grateful that we could do it, but I know that I didn't 'show off' to the other girls, because no-one else went. The only chat at school would have been with my 2 close friends who met my French friend when we went out together.And we too, are still in touch.

Gillybob, I can empathise with you. Talk about rubbing salt into the wound. The following year, there was the trip to the chateaux of the Loire Valley.
I hid that letter also!

Many of my friends went on the school cruise too Marydoll but like you I didn't bother even taking the letter home. I was quite jealous when they came back as they seemed to spend the entire next term talking about it and I felt like an outsider not being included in their happy memories. They also seemed to go on to develop an "understanding" with the various teachers who had gone along although that might have just been my imagination.

Gosh, that's a lot of money considering we had basic dormitories and had to clean them ourselves daily. The food was plain and there was no choices.
We were allowed to take up to £5 to buy souvenirs.
My parents both worked and I was an only child so that's how they could afford it.

When I was at school, there was a cruise on the SS Canberra.
I think it cost about £40. My friends all went, but I hid the letter from my mother, as she could hardly feed us, let alone find £40 and I didn't want her to feel bad about it.
In my 6th year at school, I went on a free trip to Furth in Germany, which my home town was twinned with. There started my love of foreign travel. I was hooked.

A quick calculation shows that the £40 cruise you had in the 60's sparkly would be approx £644 in today's money. A lot of money but perhaps still within the reach of many families. I recall "our" school cruise in the mid 70's being £100's and no doubt the same one today taking into account insurances, employment costs, taxes etc. being in the £1000's. An almost impossible amount for many families to find.

I went on a cruise in the mid 60s, on the SS Nevassa. The first night on board we had greasy fish and chips, a bad choice as that night the ship had to drop anchor in the middle of Biscay because of the storms.
Three days of sea sickness followed, all lessons and activities were cancelled. The Med Sea was kinder to us.
We visited Algiers, Malta, Greece and flew home from Venice.
The cost, £40 exactly.

Recently my DGS (8) brought a letter home from school informing his parents that there was to a be a school trip to a local marina approximately 15 miles away. The letter said that around 15 children from a class of 33 would be required to each pay £7.50 for the trip to go ahead and the balance would come from school funds. Now first of all £7.50 is quite a lot to pay when you have 3 children and secondly does the school just target/guilt trip the parents who they know will pay in order to fund those they know won't? My argument is why could the school not write to every parent and ask for £5, £4, £3, £2 or even a £1 donation. Why just expect a few to pay the whole amount?

Needless to say we did pay the £7.50.

My grammar school ran cruises (yes cruises) every summer. I can't remember the exact cost but I didn't even bother taking the letter home.

My parents told us we could go on the school trip when we reached 6th year. When my turn came the destination was Bavaria, up until then then I’d only flown from Glasgow to Dublin but I’d been doing it for years so the flight wasn’t a huge deal for me, however the following overnight journey by train sleeping in a couchette car was so exciting. Bavaria was a different world to me, sleeping under duvets and then being served bowls of milky coffee for breakfast. I remember standing on a snowy mountainside listening to the sound of goat bells imagining I was Heidi going to visit her Grandmother. I was sixteen at this point .

The memory of our trip to the salt mines in Berchtesgaden will stay with me forever.

I know it must have been expensive but we had a savings scheme at school so it was paid up over months. I’m grateful to my parents for giving me the opportunity and for making me wait until I was old enough to really appreciate it.

I was completely astonished the first time I heard a mother say that her daughter had to save her pocket money to pay for the school trip. I didn't say anything, but felt sorry for a child who had to pay herself for a tour of a museum or factory. Then I found out about these 'holidays', and honestly, remain quite astonished!

I never went away for more than day trips, but those who chose geography A-level did the obligatory field trip to the South Coast (Portland).

My sister and I were in the twinning association and did a couple of trips to France to visit our pen friends, and had French girls back in return, but that was in the Easter holidays and involved children from all the local schools.

My mother, however, who left school in about 1936, still remembers many details of her school outing to Northern Italy, and still quotes the smattering of Italian that they learnt whilst there (mainly ordering ice cream!). So that was one school trip that certainly had a lasting effect.

If you've seen "Tea with Mussolini" you will get a good idea of what that area was like in the 30's, but before the War, which is the period that the film is set in.

My GS's school was offering ski trips to the US costing well into the thousands. It's not a particularly affluent area, and, though his parents are, by most standards, moderately high earners, GS did not go on that visit. I'm not sure how many children - if any - did go. When I was at school -well over half a century ago - 'abroad' was still getting over WW2. However, Ayrshire annually took a party of 15-16 year-olds to France, having first entertained a group of French teenagers at a schools' camp in Scotland. We stayed in a Lycée in Versailles, saw the sights in and around Paris and spread a bit of Scottish culture while absorbing French customs and language. We were let loose in Paris one afternoon and were told to re-assemble at the coach at 5pm. Miraculously we did! I suspected that the teachers had gone off for a quiet smoke. As did a few of the pupils...
My sisters, when their turn came, went to a ''posher school, and went, respectively, to the the Swiss Alps and the Austrian Tyrol. But I doubt if they had as much fun as we did in that halcyon summer in France.

I went to the IofW for a week when I was 11 in 1964. It was there that we received the results of the 11+ exam. I did very well and went on to an all girls grammar school.
One of my DGD's, who goes to a private school, has recently been on a weeks skiing trip, I was quite shocked when my DD told me how much it was costing.

Our senior school did do trips abroad for the older girls. My sister and I didn’t go, we knew our parents could not afford to pay, it didn’t bother us. However, at the end of each summer term each year went on a day trip, a mix of education and fun. (Battle/Hastings, Dover Castle/Folkestone, Canterbury/Whitstable etc. They were wonderful days out, still fondly remembered).

The children of today just do not know how fortunate they are,our schools seem forever offering trips abroad during the various school holidays.
I have to wonder if all households can afford them,and if not does that make their child feel somewhat deprived and possibly the target for bullying?

There was no mention of such trips when I was at school,which perhaps was just as well,for as a fast growing gangly youngster my poor foster mother had her hands full just keeping me suitably dressed in the school uniform!!!

Seems as though the schools in your region Greyduster...... offering an home based adventure alternative has the right frame of mind,catering for all eventualities.

As for these trips,they seem to get further afield with each new year which in monetary terms means yet more expense.
A great way to learn though I feel sure........and perhaps practise those new languages learned.

hildjenniJ ‘s post reminded me of a trip to London when I was in the sixth form. It was to some sort of conference, rather than a holiday exactly, but we did go to a live television show, I think the Television Toppers (dancers of a sort, if anyone remembers them). Our teachers also (bravely or foolishly?) let us out on New Year’s Eve - well, we were 17 or 18. We went to Trafalgar Square. It was the first time I had seen lots of very drunk people, and the crowds were horrendous, the sort of crowd where you could get crushed. To be honest, we were all terrified and went back to our hostel as soon as we could escape.

.....Going to Paris the week after next (not sure what happened there!!). These trips are expensive and there is a home based adventure alternative for those children who either don’t want to go or can’t afford to go. The older they get, the more expensive the trips seem to be.