So Sad about the Teacher

[rickysmiths]

It is so sad about the coach accident in France in which a teacher has died and a number of children have been badly injured.

I so hope this makes all schools look at these skiing trips. There are so many better trips the schools can offer that are much more in line with what is being studies at school, that are cheaper and to which they travel to and from at more sensible times.

These skiing are so stupidly expensive and I have never understood how they justify them in terms of the curriculum. It also concerned me the enormous distances that they have to travel on a coach to get there and back. Often through the night and in bad weather.

I would never let my children go, couldn't afford to anyway but so pointless. If children want to ski they should go with their family.

I feel this was an accident waiting to happen. So, so sad.

[~Chelle~]

Read about that this morning, is very sad :(

My son's school was organising a skiing trip to Austria and it would have cost £900 for him to go for 4 days :eek::eek:

There was no way that we could have afforded that, as to us, that is the cost towards a family holiday.

Also wouldn't feel comfortable with him going with the school as my friends daughter came home from a ski trip with a broken leg! x

[Mouse]

It is very sad that someone has died and others are injured.

I don't quite see that it should signal the end of skiing trips though.

[Mollymop]

It is very sad. :( x

[LOOPYLISA]

Read about that this morning, is very sad :(

My son's school was organising a skiing trip to Austria and it would have cost £900 for him to go for 4 days :eek::eek:

There was no way that we could have afforded that, as to us, that is the cost towards a family holiday.

Also wouldn't feel comfortable with him going with the school as my friends daughter came home from a ski trip with a broken leg! x

There was a skiing trip with E school, she didnt want to go, also one to china i think £1,000 :eek: its a joke :rolleyes:

[mama2three]

So sad , his wife is also badly injured and his daughter was on the trip too.

Ds1 went skiing with school a couple of years ago. It was expensive , but probably the only time he will get the opportunity. We certainly couldnt afford it as a family holiday , nor is it the whole families idea of a good holiday - but ds had an absolutely amazing time . It was half term so no ' school time' was missed , so no need for it to be an educational trip as such.

[nikki thomson]

Both the children I use to nanny for went on school trips, one to newyork for 5 days that was £1000 and the other one went skiing to Canada that was £1300, the primary school my dd and ds go to do residential trips and the one this year which is for 3 days and quite local couple of hrs on a Coach is £350. X

[Penny1959]

This is indeed very sad news Rickysmiths and the school in question is in my area.

My thoughts are with the family of the teacher, with the other children on the trip, and all the children and teachers at that school.


Penny :)

[Mcgons]

It is very sad. My brother, who is a teacher, was on his way home this weekend from his school ski trip, could so easily have been any one of the many schools on their long return journey.

[Trouble]

we had our own bus crash up here and the children are still scared :panic::panic::panic:

i dont agree with them now:panic:

[rickysmiths]

Oh don't misunderstand. Both my children have been on trips aboard regularly. In fact both of them went to the World Scout Jamboree in Sweden last summer. My ds went to Copenhagen for 3 days before and to Croatia for 4 days after and it cost £2200.

It is the way these half term and Easter holiday school trips so often involve long and often overnight coach journeys. Why is that necessary? They should travel during the day and have a night stop. None of us would drive non stop from here to Italy (I know there was prob more than one coach driver) even with two drivers. We would stop for the night on the way. Especially as they are always so expensive.

The comment has been made on the news now about how these trips don't leave sufficient time for travelling.

I hope schools do review the status and value of these trips and consider their value in terms of the curriculum. Either they should be stopped or safer and more civilized arrangements should be made for travel.

[rickysmiths]

This is indeed very sad news Rickysmiths and the school in question is in my area.

My thoughts are with the family of the teacher, with the other children on the trip, and all the children and teachers at that school.


Penny :)


Apparently the teachers wife and daughter were also on the trip.

[Ripeberry]

Oh don't misunderstand. Both my children have been on trips aboard regularly. In fact both of them went to the World Scout Jamboree in Sweden last summer. My ds went to Copenhagen for 3 days before and to Croatia for 4 days after and it cost £2200.

It is the way these half term and Easter holiday school trips so often involve long and often overnight coach journeys. Why is that necessary? They should travel during the day and have a night stop. None of us would drive non stop from here to Italy (I know there was prob more than one coach driver) even with two drivers. We would stop for the night on the way. Especially as they are always so expensive.

The comment has been made on the news now about how these trips don't leave sufficient time for travelling.

I hope schools do review the status and value of these trips and consider their value in terms of the curriculum. Either they should be stopped or safer and more civilized arrangements should be made for travel.

Are these private schools? None of our local schools would ever offer a trip like that. It's bad enough trying to get parents to cough up £50 for a camping trip let alone thousands. And we are supposed to be in a 'posh' area :eek:

[Jiorjiina]

The value in the trip is from broadening students horizons, not just based on the curriculum. Safer and more civilised trips are also going to be a lot more expensive. Part of the reason they are so expensive is because of the insurance.

If you stop overnight, you either have to pay more for a longer trip, or have a shorter time skiiing, which seems a little pointless on a skiiing trip which is often less than a week anyway. If you are travelling overnight, coaches have to have 2 drivers, so they can swap and avoid tiredness.

[rickysmiths]

Are these private schools? None of our local schools would ever offer a trip like that. It's bad enough trying to get parents to cough up £50 for a camping trip let alone thousands. And we are supposed to be in a 'posh' area :eek:

Do you mean the skiing or the Scout Jamboree?!!!

The Scout jamboree happens every four years somewhere in the world. The next one is in Japan in 2015. Scouts from around 150 countries in the world take part and there were 40,000 scouts there this year. We do fund raise to get the money together. This is organised by the Scout Association for scouts. Not by the school.

My children go to a regular state High School but they run the ski trips which are £800-900 for the week which the parents have to pay.

They also Offer World Challenge which happens every couple of years for years 11 and 12 and that costs around £3000 each for a month and the children fund raise to get the money.

[EmmaReed84]

I once went on a coach trip with school to Spain... 36hours on a coach!!! We had two drivers and we kept stopping on the way and they swapped over during the journey. Dont know why this is not the case on all long distance school trips... lorry drivers have to take breaks, why not bus drivers

[rickysmiths]

I once went on a coach trip with school to Spain... 36hours on a coach!!! We had two drivers and we kept stopping on the way and they swapped over during the journey. Dont know why this is not the case on all long distance school trips... lorry drivers have to take breaks, why not bus drivers

I am sure they do this on long distance school trips but I for one wouldn't want my child on a coach for that long even with comfort stops. I don't understand why they would do this to school children as young as 12. I would rather pay a bit more on what would already be an expensive trip so they could stop in a hotel overnight or fly to a point much nearer to their destination.

[Bluebell]

I have to agree with you Rickysmiths - this should never have been allowed to happen!
I bet the bus driver was acting like he was on holiday too though - obviously not drinking or whatever (or hopefully not) - but socialising with all the people on the trip and making the most of being away. If so no wonder he fell asleep!

We have 1 local school as we are in a small town in a rural area, and the school covers a large area. We are an affluent place but with huge amounts of deprivation within it. The local school do all sorts of exchange trips, skiing trips and iceland and Peru and the cost is astronomical. I am dreading my kids being old enough to go - 1 for the cost but 2 for the dangers!

Maybe I'm being silly but any bus trip, dartmoor trip, canoe trip, camping trip, hostel trip has a story that can be remembered of something that has gone wrong and a school child has died. We are putting a great deal of responsibility on the shoulders of teachers to look after our kids!!

[rickysmiths]

I have to agree with you Rickysmiths - this should never have been allowed to happen!
I bet the bus driver was acting like he was on holiday too though - obviously not drinking or whatever (or hopefully not) - but socialising with all the people on the trip and making the most of being away. If so no wonder he fell asleep!

We have 1 local school as we are in a small town in a rural area, and the school covers a large area. We are an affluent place but with huge amounts of deprivation within it. The local school do all sorts of exchange trips, skiing trips and iceland and Peru and the cost is astronomical. I am dreading my kids being old enough to go - 1 for the cost but 2 for the dangers!

Maybe I'm being silly but any bus trip, dartmoor trip, canoe trip, camping trip, hostel trip has a story that can be remembered of something that has gone wrong and a school child has died. We are putting a great deal of responsibility on the shoulders of teachers to look after our kids!!

Oh I wouldn't go that far. Many of the trips are wonderful and are very well run as I'm sure the skiing ones are.

But it is the extremely long and overnight coach journeys that seem to be unique to the skiing trips I hate the idea of. This race to the ferry to get home.
They interviewed an owner of a coach company on the radio today. He said it had taken 16 hours to drive from Italy to where the crash happened near Reims. I have been there on my way to and from a holiday in Southern Germany. When we were travelling home from our friends who were about and hour from Stuttgart we stopped in Reims for the night and then continued the journey the next day and dh and I were sharing the driving. This coach would have had another 2 hours driving on from where we are so Reims to Worcestershire in a day is actually a big step too far never mind all the way from Italy with no overnight stop. Pure madness.

I hope the Coach companies are brought to book over this and the practice is stopped.

How can two drivers drive for 16 hours between them, that's 8 hours each and still be a good days drive from the channel ports and think they can continue to drive. It is sheer madness and should be stopped.

No school trip either of my children have ever been on in this country or abroad have involved such travelling conditions and I would have not let them go if they had. The longest they have ever travelled in a coach on one day is four hours with a ferry in the middle.

[jane5]

Oh I wouldn't go that far. Many of the trips are wonderful and are very well run as I'm sure the skiing ones are.

But it is the extremely long and overnight coach journeys that seem to be unique to the skiing trips I hate the idea of. This race to the ferry to get home.
They interviewed an owner of a coach company on the radio today. He said it had taken 16 hours to drive from Italy to where the crash happened near Reims. I have been there on my way to and from a holiday in Southern Germany. When we were travelling home from our friends who were about and hour from Stuttgart we stopped in Reims for the night and then continued the journey the next day and dh and I were sharing the driving. This coach would have had another 2 hours driving on from where we are so Reims to Worcestershire in a day is actually a big step too far never mind all the way from Italy with no overnight stop. Pure madness.

I hope the Coach companies are brought to book over this and the practice is stopped.

How can two drivers drive for 16 hours between them, that's 8 hours each and still be a good days drive from the channel ports and think they can continue to drive. It is sheer madness and should be stopped.

No school trip either of my children have ever been on in this country or abroad have involved such travelling conditions and I would have not let them go if they had. The longest they have ever travelled in a coach on one day is four hours with a ferry in the middle.

I dont understand this???

Does 1 driver drive for 8 hours and then the other takes over or do they swap every few hours?

I find travelling as a passenger for a few hours makes me tired so do they sleep on the coach and if they do they are not going to get any quality sleep......!!!!!

[rickysmiths]

I dont understand this???

Does 1 driver drive for 8 hours and then the other takes over or do they swap every few hours?

I find travelling as a passenger for a few hours makes me tired so do they sleep on the coach and if they do they are not going to get any quality sleep......!!!!!

I think they keep swapping over but it is still mad and they are still on the coach. the person being interviewed said they had a bed for the second driver under the floor of the coach :eek: and there was a buzzer system so the one driving could raise the sleeping driver if they go too tired. How can you possibly rest properly like that and he commented that a lot of them just slept in the seat next to the one driving so not a proper rest at all. Sheer madness. :panic: Who would let their child ever travel under such circumstances?

[ajs]

It is so sad about the coach accident in France in which a teacher has died and a number of children have been badly injured.

I so hope this makes all schools look at these skiing trips. There are so many better trips the schools can offer that are much more in line with what is being studies at school, that are cheaper and to which they travel to and from at more sensible times.

These skiing are so stupidly expensive and I have never understood how they justify them in terms of the curriculum. It also concerned me the enormous distances that they have to travel on a coach to get there and back. Often through the night and in bad weather.

I would never let my children go, couldn't afford to anyway but so pointless. If children want to ski they should go with their family.

I feel this was an accident waiting to happen. So, so sad.
It was a tragedy and I was in tears watching the news

I disagree though about your point, I do not want to ski so why would I stop my children experiencing it. Two of mine went with school one to ski and the other snow boarding they both had a fantastic time and yes it cost more but included were the ski passes and all lessons and all food if they had wanted to go again I would have allowed them. Not all things at school have to be in a classroom

[JCrakers]

It is sad :( my thoughts are with evryone who was involved.

My sons school go skiing in March but hes not going so thats a big weight off my mind. The place they are going is where we go anyway and it was going to cost £900.
We go skiing every year and it costs us £130 for tunnel which we get free with tesco vouchers , £100 petrol, £80 for tolls, £400 for appartment, £200 ski hire and £550 for passes so a total £1300 for 4 of us. (then theres food) but its was still too expensive for just him.
Plus all his friends can't ski/board and he can so he would be in a different group to all his freinds so wasnt too bothered.

Im so glad hes not going, although he is going to germany in June.