A road less travelled by school tours

IT’S hardly a secret that many parents are under serious financial pressure, struggling to keep their children fed and clothed.
While the day-to-day expenses are hard to cope with for many, those with teenagers often face additional pressures with school tours to foreign countries on offer.
Cathal Oakes, president of St Vincent De Paul in Clare, said such trips can make things harder for struggling parents.
“It can put an awful lot of pressure on people who are trying to keep a mortgage going and trying to live up to the expectations that their children might have had a couple of years ago and maybe they can’t afford it.”
He said, in some cases, people who are struggling make a particular effort to keep the best side out. “Unfortunately, a lot of the time people who are less well off are more conscious of it and they tend to extend themselves maybe a little bit more, so as to not appear less well off.”
Trips undertaken by primary-school children are generally far less expensive and he said they are happy to help parents who are faced with those.
“Generally speaking, the primary school trips are what we’ve tended to support and we’ve done that wholeheartedly because they tend to be to the zoo, or whatever, that kind of thing, a day trip and you’d hate any child to miss out on that.”
When representatives of a number of secondary schools were contacted by The Clare Champion this week, different views on foreign travel were offered, although all said they are conscious of the straitened circumstances facing parents.
Claire Knight, deputy principal of St Caimin’s in Shannon, said the school does still have foreign tours but it is with the support of parents.
“We haven’t stopped them but what we did last year and the year before was go to the parents’ council and ask them what they would consider to be appropriate, should we continue with them? They considered that we should go ahead and people be given the choice. We’d give 12 to 14 months notice and that’d allow them to pay in small stages.”
She said tours can cost up to €1,100 for a ski trip but said, in that case, many children pay for some of it with Confirmation money.
Morgan Heaphy, principal of St Patrick’s Comprehensive in Shannon, said they have moved to put limits on the level of expense.
“We recognise the value of school tours but we have become conscious of the cost of them. We discussed it with the parents’ association and we’ve kind of put a cap on them. The cost of them shouldn’t be in excess of €400 or €500.”
He said the school also tries to give parents 12 months notice.
Principal of Coláiste Muire in Ennis, Jean Pound, said the school used to have regular tours to European destinations but have cut down on them.
She said while Leaving Cert students still get an option of going to London for a weekend, that is about as far as they get on school tours.
Ms Pound said people have far more access to travel now away from school, compared with 10-15 years ago. She said the implications for parents shouldn’t be forgotten.
“It is very expensive for parents and while it may be optional, it can still put pressure on parents. Youngsters don’t always see the hidden costs and they’ll be saying everyone is going and they want to go too.”
St Joseph’s Spanish Point principal, Mary Crawford said while there is some foreign travel linked to school activity, this is limited to exchanges.
“We have an exchange programme running to Italy for the last several years, that’s one, and we have a similar programme for junior students with a school in Paris, that’s a language exchange. They are the only trips out of the country that we undertake,” she said.