The Y7-Y9 Ski Trip to Andorra in 2020 sold out quickly this morning – and though we were expecting a high demand, we were still surprised by the level of interest shown.
The deposits were paid via Parent Pay – a national, online school payment transfer system – and the option was opened electronically at 9.00am and was set to take only 48 places. The Parent Pay system is well capable of processing a high number of payments and is designed to cut off once the 48 places have been filled. In fact, the places were filled after 1 minute 15 seconds.
The permission slips that came in earlier in the week have been used to draw up a reserve list and it is possible some children may drop out once they realise their friends have not got on. If this happens the trip organisers will simply run down the list and offer out the places.
This payment system was determined after careful consideration and our Chair of Governors has been aware of how we were planning to run things to ensure fairness and transparency.
Matt Allman, Headteacher, said: “We are pleased the trip has been filled, but are disappointed that some students have missed out. All children had to apply in the same way and running it like a pop concert or sports event seemed the fairest way. We have had some upset parents call the school but we would ask that there be some understanding on how we run this voluntary trip – if we could take a thousand students then we would, but we simply cannot.”
