Thoughts on 9 year old going abroad on school trip ?

FannyCornforth

The usual, ignorant, teacher bashing nonsense 🙄

Great, isn't it? Thank goodness I've retired.

PS. I have known any trips to be subsidised by the LEA and there's certainly nothing in it for the school.

The usual, ignorant, teacher bashing nonsense 🙄

vegansrock

If you think taking dozens of schoolchildren, not to mention all the meetings, form filling and other endless admin that goes along with organising a trip is a “holiday” which teachers should pay for , then how many school trips would there be?

Very very few.

Over 30 years, I took school groups abroad at least once a year - in holiday time. I hardly slept while away because we teachers were constantly watching and sorting out any problems.

There is no way I would have paid to do overtime!

If you think taking dozens of schoolchildren, not to mention all the meetings, form filling and other endless admin that goes along with organising a trip is a “holiday” which teachers should pay for , then how many school trips would there be?

Or maybe the nice hard -working teachers could pay for themselves so that the extra cost is NOT bumped up to the parents cost for their child?🤔

Well now we know why teachers volunteer for them and why they go on trips totally unrelated to any education work (New York & the skiing trips spring to mind!) So its "just where the adults have always wanted to go" is it?And the cost for said teachers is what bumps up the cost to kids? My, how revealing..yes i am sure the teachers work hard on the trips, but if i was getting a free trip to somewhere i'd always wanted to go then i would as well!!! Flaming cheek is what i call it.And schools pass it off as 'in the interests of children & their education' 😂😉It's time these expensive rips were banned- most cant afford them nowadays when even putting food on the table is a high cost- and kids who cant afford them are then left out & probably feel shown up as 'poor'.Stop these expensive jollies. Maybe just leave the day trips or camping trips.🤔

Well then, Icanhandthemback- maybe its time for the teachers to start putting their foot down and saying NO to these trips then, is'nt it? It cant be all bad or no teachers would volunteer, or agree, to go would they?! I suppose your GN name says it all really.....😐🙄

I've brought up 7 children (i remarried) and no i dont think an abroad school trip is for primary age children either- and they are ALWAYS overpriced! A short 3 day uk trip maybe just to give the kids a 'taster' of independance- but not longer than that and certainly not abroad- theres more dissapearances of children reported these days, or even accidents around water etc, and 9 seems too young definitely.Plus like was said theres the language barrier if she got lost or needed help.A lot of schools push these trips as i think they must get some funding from LEA and then they bump up the price for parents- theres got to be something in it for the school i think?The new york trip (in high school) was pushed on my son and he turned it down as it wasnt good value he said- we had all 3 been the year before and it was all 3 of us went for 6 days via virgin atlantic and wasnt much more than they charged for 1!- plus they never get time to do anything they want so neither of my youngest 2 ever wanted to go on the abroad trips (i did offer for them to!) Even the older ones always preferred our family trips.As for walking to school alone this school dont seem to have a grip on life in the real modern world- 9 is still too young for going unaccompanied- my kids were coming up to 11 before that, and as a 'preparation' for moving to high school, but we literally lived 2/3 minutes walk away from school so not that far.Even then parents had to give a note to school saying its ok etc.No offence, but that school dont seem to give a hoot about the childrens safety- just so they dont have to wait beyond finishing time with a late-collected child.😐

What is the carbon cost of the trip? These trips are becoming normalised so more difficult to refuse even to those without the cash. But all this travel to places further + further away is adding to levels of pollution and burning of fossil fuels that will shorten the comfort of children's future lives. How many trips per school career is normal now?

I think 9 is far too young to go overseas on a school trip
As for walking to & from school Has the school not heard of child abduction!

However well-intentioned and responsible the accompanying adults are, the ratio of them to the number of children means that they could not possibly provide the one to one supervision that a parent can.

We had 6 kids...they rarely got one to one supervision and yet, we never lost any of them when on holiday; they all returned safely.

Finally, please excuse my cynicism, but I do also sometimes wonder if some of these more exotic trips aren't more for the benefit of the teachers. Get those kids to bed.. game on for the grown-ups?

You have obviously never been on a school trip with children, particularly primary school children. It is absolutely exhausting and you are never off duty, especially as a group. If you think the little Darlings hit the sack early and that's it, you are much mistaken. Believe me, you earn your money. Oh wait! Most trips abroad are taken during the school holidays so you aren't paid for them and you give up your holiday. I'm not sure that is a win, win for the staff!

What an exciting and worthwhile opportunity for your grandchild!

I can certainly appreciate your concern, but it's not your decision to make. I'm sure any educational trip for students of this age have the appropriate protocols in place. I'm not sure where brainwashing comes into it.

My kids walked to school on own at 9…..my son went on foreign trip at 9 but not my daughter as she is extreme asthmatic and chose herself not to go . But that was a long time ago …..I wouldn’t want my grandkids to go abroad with any of there teachers. Think these trios are more ‘jollies’ for the teachers. Why do kids need to go to Greece….

My son had summer job escorting 9/10-year-olds in London who came from afar, China, Mexico etc. They did English in the morning then taken all over London to see the sights. It sounded chaotic and relied on good sense of young people like him. They didn’t lose anyone! Hopefully, a school trip will be more organised!

Actually, as a teacher, it's a privilege to take children away on trips because you get to see their personalities out of the school environment.
One of my favourites was, "Oh Mrs. B., if my mum could see me now doing this, she'd kill me!"

9. Is too young maybe a teenager but 9 no.I’m a nursery teacher. Would hate the responsibility.

Drina01

..re the park - it’s been reported.
Perhaps my solution …. Get a ticket on the same flight and book into the same hotel 😎

I hope you're joking!

I am not a teacher but twenty years ago I took a small group of children away for a week. I can still remember the utter exhaustion at the end of it.

"Can def get my head around local stays but not abroad. I would need to know the teacher pupil ratio etc - which isn’t forthcoming.". But is it your decision!? You're the grandparent, not the parent. Unless she's in your guardianship it really has little to do with you. I know if my children's grandparents had tried to inject their thoughts and opinions into the way I raised them I would have been extremely unhappy. If you've been asked your opinion, then that's great. If not, I'd stay out of it. It's not like the parents are deliberately putting the child in danger. Accidents on school trips do happen, but they'll happen whether in the UK or abroad. Trying to stop your GD from going on this trip (which again, really isn't your business) will only cause her to resent you. When she's one of the very few children who have to stay home and all her friends and peers are having the time off their lives, she'll be very unhappy with the one who caused that to happen. Plus, there's a good chance that ongoing school work afterwards will involve activities/ knowledge/experience gained on the trip which she'll have no idea about. Don't be that mother/M-I-L/GP. Step back and let the parents parent!

That sounds quite shocking twograndchildren my DB and his DW are both recently retired teachers.
They have been in charge of groups of 6th formers (yr 11 and 12) for trips over the years mostly within Europe but to China too and USA.
I can promise that they work very hard and do not treat these trips as holidays.
They take their responsibilities very seriously.

School trips are not jollies , I can assure you. They are hard work.Teachers can be on duty 24hours a day, so please can we have less of the snide remarks.
To the initial poster ,I'm sorry but it is not your call.Try not to worry . Your grandchild will be well looked after and will have lots to tell you. I'm sure she would like you to be enthusiastic too .

A few years ago I worked in a secondary school as a TA, I was usually asked if I wanted to accompany them on a school trip, Madrid, Hamburg, France, I asked the teachers how they chose the locations, they said usually its somewhere where the adults have always wanted to go, they get a list of companies who would book it all for them, it's just a matter of choosing. One year, before covid they took a group to Borneo, a few years later they booked to go to the Galapodous Islands but this didn't go ahead because of covid. The cost for the staff is added onto the cost for the children, so teachers don't pay a penny. In secondary, I can see the reason for going abroad for educational trips but Borneo was over 4k which was definitely for the more affluent children and definately ruled out most of the students. They also did skiing holidays but the same teachers went on this every other year. As a parent it was an eye opener. I'm not saying I wouldn't have trusted the teachers with the children, but used to wonder what teacher this time was making a tick against their bucket list.

My son went on a school trip to the Isle of White for 4 nights with his school. When I went to pick him up, he was sitting on his case sobbing uncontrollably. He begged me 'never to send him away again.' His choice was to never do another residential trip. I dread to think the effects of a longer trip abroad would have had on him, and he was the youngest in his year...

Jaxie

I can’t help remembering the girl on a school trip staying in a French youth hostel who was murdered by a man who broke in. Sorry to bring it up, I know bad things are unlikely to happen but 9 seems a bit young to me.

Had that girl been 16, she would probably have still been murdered! Age would not have made a difference to a predator. It was tragic but not a reason for school trips to stop or for age limits.