Holiday with the school

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 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 !

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.

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?

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.

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?

Certainly Sounds like it MaryDoll

It was awful Granny23 ! We were eaten alive all week, despite hats, nets, insect repellant , we all looked as if we had the measles! ?

Being there in March, we were spared the midgies. I have suffered their onslaught on other occasions (notably on the Isle of Skye) and do sympathise.

I would have said that when most of us were of an age to go on school trips it was unusual for most families to enjoy more than a day out or two.
School trips were a way of introducing children to a wider world. Nowadays most families do have some sort of break so it seems to me that the’need’ for exotic trips is less than essential.
With funding cuts why don’t the schools arrange more sporting breaks like tennis, swimming etc. sports that get neglected at school but are a little easier to keep up in later life.

We went to Paris for a week, stayed in a boarding school right in the centre, which was attached to a convent so not much freedom. It cost £32.32 pence that included £5 spends. The 32d was for a scarf we all had to wear outside so the teachers could see us. It was a very hot week so we were not happy.1970

The first time I went 'abroad' was in the '60s when husband got a job in Singapore.
But our children all went on school holidays, the boys on a training ship. The girls exchange visits to France.
I wonder if part of the reason why these holidays are so expensive now is insurance. There have been some tragic accidents, some where accompanying teachers have been sued for negligence.

In years 5/6 my GCs' school had a week in Normandy. They attended lessons in a local school and had to shop (in French) for their lunch in a nearby market. DGD loved it but younger brother was homesick. But now that he is nearly 14, and has been on an exchange in Germany, he has enjoyed it and loves the language.

The other thing that I think is totally wrong with that Gillybob is that if you are a married couple you are fined per person per child. BUT if you're single, separated , divorced you only pay for one person per child.

Penalised for being married ???

This is not exactly a holiday but I've just heard my grandson in his reception class is being taken to the woods for team building for six Fridays in a row starting soon - I'm flabbergasted that that amounts to over a weeks schooling and yet if we asked to take him on a weeks holiday with perhaps a more variety of things to see, do, and learn, we're not allowed

Youth Orchestra trips rather than school ones for me. I remember that the individual cost was kept moderate, expensive destinations were preceded by a year of fundraising activities.

Yes exactky NanaandGrampy . It’s very wrong .

Day trip to Chester at my Primary School and a ride on a boat on the Dee.

The school I worked in, in the North West, for a good few years went to the IOW. What a journey, the Head dreaded it as he hated the ferry. Children brought money in each Monday towards the holiday. It was in a Methodist holiday house. I think it cost about £90 including coach and ferry and that was not so long ago. In the last few years prior to me leaving they went to the Welsh Shropshire border much nearer.

The rule was that if children could not pay, we still had to include them. So if someone had twins we would pay for one out of "School Fund".

£3,000 sounds like an excessive amount unless it's a private school. The average parent with more than one child would be hard pressed to find this amount I would think.
I went to Austria on a school trip but sadly my father died whilst I was away so not really happy memories.

Our very young and enterprising History mistress organised a trip to Belgium to visit the 1958 World Fair. It was so exciting - my first trip abroad - happy memories of The Atomium and a glimpse of Mitzi Gaynor being driven around in a convertible - and wearing a white fur stole! My dear Mum must have found it a struggle to pay for this trip, and I'm eternally grateful to her for it.
Speaking of which... it does grate when on occasions I've been asked to contribute for someone's child to go on a far-flung expedition (Guides etc.) when the parents can well afford to send said child to private school. The 'Sorry we just can't afford it so you won't be able to go' phrase seems to have disappeared from many parents' vocabulary.

The rule was that if children could not pay, we still had to include them

My grandchildren's primary get round this Marieelizby almost blackmailing a few parents to pay over the top, in order to partially fund those who they know can't, or indeed won't, pay anything. If they don't get enough money in, they cancel the trip.

So bearing all of the above posts in mind, when is a term time holiday a "holiday" and when is it an "educational trip" ?

Answer: When it suits the school.

We went to school camp, not far from home,lots of memories good and bad, daughter went with same teacher (17 years later) skiing. For these far away trips do they not do fund raising?

My school ran a skiing trip to Switzerland but I didn't even pass the letter on to my parents as I didn't want them to worry about the expense of trying to afford to send me- that was in the 1960s. I knew they had had to take out a loan with the Pru just to be able to afford my uniform to send me to the grammar school and that cost about £30 so a foreign holiday would be way out of their league. I've travelled extensively since so I haven't lost out.

I think I only went on school day trips and a one weeks stay somewhere in the southwest (local) as my parents couldn't afford any of the trips abroad. We were a 'free school meals' class family, and I felt stigmatised at this - I had to collect different coloured meal tickets to everyone else from the school secretary, who clearly looked down her nose at me and my home-made school uniform. In the end I just used to take a sandwich from home to avoid the weekly meal ticket humiliation. My parents went without things to provide for me and my sisters, so that school secretary had no business judging me a a scrounger.