goodrich arethusa trip

[tamblynhirst]

As we all are aware the Arethusa trip approaches on january 10th. I know from experience that the kids love this trip, it might very well be the first time they have been away from home, and it is all so exciting. The school is very brave to continue this tradition given all the possible things that could go wrong....but good for them, the rapport between pupil and teacher is pretty much unbreakable after this trip.

I am therefore pretty unhappy with the short timing of payments of this trip. The school has to have known this trip would occur, but why leave it so late? The majority of people will be paid at the end of November, the next payslip being the end of January, the December payslip will be after the 17th , meaning they have already broken up, which means you cannot get the full payment to the school on time. Dire straits for a lot of parents.

[womanofdulwich]

cant you just do a post dated cheque?

[Curmudgeon]

"As we all are aware" ... err no actually I don't even know what arethusa means

Why don't you talk to the school about it?

Is this not a bizarre place to be complaining about a school trip? Surely the school / pta / parental community would be an appropriate place and not an open community forum.

[tamblynhirst]

Dear Curmudgeon,

You would be aware of the Arethusa trip if you had a child in year 3. I did try to broach the subject with teachers at parents evening, a week before last term. I was informed that I would be told about the trip at the start of the following term . We were not, only now as we approach december am I being informed.

[cate]

Curmudgeon is right. At the very least this should be in the Family section. It's not a General ED issue.

[Sue]

tamblynhirst Wrote:

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> As we all are aware the Arethusa trip approaches

> on january 10th.

xxxxxxxx

Eh?

I should think only a very very small number of the people reading this have any idea what "the Arethusa trip" is.

Why not speak directly to the Head Teacher of the school, who surely is in more of a position to do something about your complaint than anybody on the forum?

[ClareC]

No idea what the Arethusa trip is............... perhaps it would be worth putting a small amount of money aside each month for anticipated trips such as this and then you could avoid being at the mercy of the school payment requirements.

Not sure what you are looking to achieve from this thread but agree speaking with the relevant school officials would be the appropriate course to take, although suspect the school have contractual payment obligations to meet and your payments have been set to ensure these can be achieved.

[sillywoman]

I happen to know that Goodrich' is a local primary school & 'Arethusa' is an outward bound centre that caters to school trips. I know this because I've got school age kids who've been there. However there's no way you should be assuming everyone knows this. This is a massive forum for all people in or interested in ED. Surely your post is relevant to only a max of 90-120 people (those with kids in yr3 at Goodrich). Whilst that in itself isn't a problem (many more esoteric posts are on here)it's poor form to start your post with " As we all are aware" when clearly the vast majority of your readers won't have a clue what you're talking about - it put's people's backs up even before they get to the main point of your post.

So, your main point is - I think - that you don't feel Goodrich has given you enough time to pay for your trip? As others have said, go to the school office & complain/ ask for some leeway. At my kids school the Arethusa trip is in year 5. All parents are aware, from general playground chit-chat, from about the middle of year 3 that it will be happening so those for whom money is an issue can, if they're inclined, save in advance. Did you not know that your school had a trip before now?

[BEANIE1]

I completely agree with others. This forum is not the place to air issues that should be taken up with the school office or headteacher. As for talking to the class teacher at parents evening, surely they were wanting to talk about your child's progress at school and not an admin decision that they probably have no say over.

[kristymac1]

Crikey, give the OP a break! I have no idea either what the Arethusa trip is but the post didn't bother me at all - like an awful lot of posts on here it's only relevant to a minority - usually I would just 'walk on by', perhaps you could all so the same?

[tiddles]

ditto kristymac1 this is how the forum is normally used!

[Dorothy]

I'm a Goodrich parent and I know what the Arethusa trip is, but I do think this is a really odd way of complaining to the school about organising trip payments. When did you first find out your child was going on the trip Tamblyn? Could you have started putting money aside then?

[Bicep_Builder]

I went to Arethusa in junior school. It was frankly shite.