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Organising a primary school ski trip

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
The fines are imposed by the education welfare officer. They were introduced in 2004 to stop pupils truanting. Obviously some heads are using them to stop pupils going away on holidays. But they can only do it when absence is more than 10 days
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
have a look at skibound. specifically for school groups, i'm working with their sister company this winter (crystal). and worked with other sister company JCA over the summer. we specialise in summer camp style activity weeks and skibound do the winter ski side of things.... does that make sence?
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Not sure what happens if fines are ignored. Perhaps schools can release pupil from its roll, this meaning travel to another school maybe of greater expense! Long term this would be of greater expense than the fine, parents realise and just pay!
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 You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
Ultimately a parent can go to prison if they don't pay fines imposed on them to do with their child truanting.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Quote:

I don't particularly want to organise a school trip, I am not a masochist, but I do want an extra week away with my usual group of friends all of whom have young kids at the same school and who won't take unauthorised absence so this might be a way of doing it, making it an official school trip open to all etc etc


Can't fault your honesty, but not exactly the most noble of reasons.
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 You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
dw832, I quote you from a previous thread on school ski trips:

Quote:
spend 12 hours on a coach with 40 kids who want to watch Fast and Furious2
if you're really unlucky you get to hold one or more sick bags on the coach
after every loo stop you including the one at 2am have do a double head count to check that there's not someone still on an arcade game in the services
spend 2 hours in the ski hire shop getting them kitted up
get up at 7am to go around their rooms to wake them up
spend 30 mins waiting outside the apartments whilst they go back to get the goggles/helmet/lift pass they've forgotten
wait 30 mins on the first day getting them into their lessons
at various times during the week try to sort out those youngsters that hve got their boots/skis muddled so that they now have a set of skis that don't fit their boots and so they miss their lesson
go skiing with your colleagues for 90 mins - keeping a constant eye on the watch beacuse you've got to be back to meet the groups at the end of their lessons
trudge back to the apartments for a 1-2 hour lunch break
get everybody back to the ski school school meeting point
get to go skiing for 2 hours - hoping that you don't get a call from an instructor that somebody's now in the medical centre
take a group of 10 youngsters skiing for 90 mins - hoping that you don't lose someone along the way.
get back to the apartment at 5p.m. to be out again for a meal at the restaurant at 6p.m - because that's how they keep the price down.
go ice skating/bowling/have a quiz for two hours.
escort group back to apartments
Lights out at 10pm. Wander around corridors until 11pm to check that they are not 'upto something'
Repeat for 5 days. Hopefully, not spending ?? hours in medical centre with a child with damaged limb and subsequent phone calls to parents, insurance company


Now please tell me why a non-teacher would want to organise a school trip just for the sake of it?

You selectively quoted me. In the same post you quoted I had also agreed with Lizzard that the kids would
Quote:
learn to ski/enjoy the mountains/benefit from the new experience
and had said that
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the kids would have a great time and we might get a few new converts to skiing
I was merely responding to suggestions from others that I might be slightly mad to even be considering such an undertaking.

As you are a teacher with experience of school trips then why don't you offer a constructive contribution? Thanks.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Sorry, but your other motives weren't in the original posting, but are absolutely valid. However, a trip during term time is sure to cause colleagues more work and so something that I personally would find hard to justify. The only reason for a term time trip that I've ever felt was valid is that you could get a massively lower price (e.g. beginning of January) that would make the trip affordable to many more parents.

If you want to get some converts to skiing also consider running some trips to your local dry ski slope. Not the same, but they start to realise that skiing is something they might want to do one day.

Constructive contibution... would support idea of Skibound's Hotel Frejus in Serre Chevalier. Very efficient tour operator and great hotel staff. Would also support Interski's operation - particularly in La Thuile (although be warned in can be sooo.. cold there and perhaps not good for really young kids). Beware parental helpers on residential trips - it may be the only way to staff a term time trip, but that's even more reason to stick to a school holidays in my view. We took them once, but never, ever again.

Good luck!
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
dw832, you're exaggerating (a bit). You're also describing apartment accommodation, which I wouldn't consider for little kids. ClubHotels with on-site rep and tech are the way forward.
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 You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
What is wrong with parents coming and looking after their own children on primary school ski trips? Are the teachers on here saying they are better at looking after children than the parents or what?

At secondary level I can see it is better for the trip to be for teachers and pupils only. However at primary level I would have thought most children would rather have a parent with them on a skiing holiday.
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 Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
I can imagine that some kids would behave better without their parents present - and that some primary age children wouldn't want to go without parents. The only experience I have is as a Girl Guide, helping out at a Brownie camp. It was for a week (in the UK) and the kids all had a great time. There was a little homesickness, but not beyond dealing with. I can see that some parents could be a complete nightmare, but there are loads of kids activities which depend on parents helping (e.g. at our sailing club, which does a huge amount of children's training, most of the instructors and helpers are parent volunteers). It's a bit much to write them off completely!

Having said all that though, if I were a primary head teacher I don't think I'd contemplate a "school trip" in term time which would necessarily exclude the vast majority of the kids.
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 snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
Quote:

What is wrong with parents coming and looking after their own children on primary school ski trips? Are the teachers on here saying they are better at looking after children than the parents or what?

At secondary level I can see it is better for the trip to be for teachers and pupils only. However at primary level I would have thought most children would rather have a parent with them on a skiing holiday.


The issue is that parents on such a trip do not have the same legal responsbility as the teachers and there is the potential for all sorts of problems to arise because of this. In reality I'm sure lots of trips make use of parents and take place without any problems, but it's always worth thinking 'what if' before going down this route.

Many years ago (prior to the need for CRB checks) we had an accusation from a girl about one of the dads and another dad who had looked after a bottle of spirits for his 15 year old son.

Always remember that like all groups of people (including teachers, but you will know which ones) some parents are mad - you can't tell this from a reply slip and you don't want to find out on the coach journey out!
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
1969jma, We never apply for holiday. We apply (tell) for a week's sports training. Never been refused. And even if it was, we'd be go anyhow as the kids gain far more from a week in a foreign country than they do in school.
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
sarah, I have run a school ski trip for the last 7 years. Just a few points for you to consider before asking the head for a term time trip.

1. Who is going to pay for the cost of your cover which could cost the school up to £750 (bearing in mind the work load agreement)

2. What will the children left behind be taught? As anything they are taught the others will be missing out on.

3. Other staff may/will be jealous. Skiers or not. Or they may wish to run their own term time trips to other places which will be hard for the head to turn down if he agrees to yours.

4. How can the head justify the trip to a parent who wants to know why a supply teacher is teaching their child while the regular teacher is off skiing?

5. Term time trips can cause problems as you would have to justify it as being beneficial to the curriculum in which case a child who could not afford it would be entitled to financial help from the school.

6. How would the pupils who could not afford it feel?

These are all points raised by my head when i asked for a term time trip which was refused. I work in a secondary school so i would imagine that teaching in a much smaller school these problems would have even more of an impact.

This said lots of schools do run term time trips but there isn't one as far as i know in our county.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Right that's it I am canning the daft idea and doing as per RobW Laughing
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
sarah, I thought it was brave of you and think it is a wonderful idea. I just wish it was as easy to do as it was a few years ago, but I fear the paranoia that seems to be rife over in the UK will put too many hurdles in your way. I took all my trips out of school and set up a Ski Club to avoid all the invidious nastiness. Worked a treat and we carried on until I finally left the UK. Some of the kids who began skiing with me in the 1970s aged 11 are still coming over and skiing with me when their trips and mine coincide.

Any bloody idiot suggesting that they do it just for the sake of the masochism that is a school trip is a pretentious pr1ck. I worked with a Scottish Prep school last year that seemed to be made up mainly from the various leader's kids. The ones that made up the numbers seemed to be having a brilliant time too. The leader, by the way was the school secretary as I remember, not a teacher. And the leaders were also having a great holiday.

I agree, go with RobW's idea
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Lizzard wrote:
For a small group of little kids I'd highly recommend SkiBound's Hotel Frejus in Serre Chevalier - small hotel, about 10 metres (if that) from the lift


Heh heh, funny you should mention that place, I stayed there on a summer school trip l when I was about 14 Little Angel
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Quote:

Some of the kids who began skiing with me in the 1970s aged 11 are still coming over and skiing with me

And there you have it, the value of school ski trips. It's given those people something they will enjoy for the rest of their lives and which they probably would never have tried otherwise. That's what education is about - its primary purpose is not that of turning out economic production units for big business.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Samerberg Sue, Lizzard, thanks Smile
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