Not sure why the short notice, I'm sure we had more notice when my son went last year. My older son went to Spain in year 9, we received the letter requesting the deposit approx one week before it was due, I wrote an email to the teacher who organising the trip and the head of year, they were lovely and gave us extra time to pay and even extra time to get his passport as we just didn't have the money to do it all at once! The reason they miss out January is to give parents a bit of respite after Christmas, you can of course pay in January if you want too, it will show as an option on ParentPay, there's nothing to stop you paying early. My older son missed Cornwall as the letter sat in his bag for too long! I'm guessing the cost for Cornwall is high is it's a really full on trip, my younger son went in July this year and from memory they did surfing, rock climbing, canoeing, body boarding, caving, kayaking and swimming... that was just in the daytime! More activities went on in the evenings, they had and amazing time and came back exhausted. Email the school if you have any queries, I've always found them most helpful. ETA. The 'scum bag kids' comment has got to be the biggest load of rubbish I have heard!