School Trip

patchwork_cat

I have not read this thread as teacher bashing at all.

I have read, and my feelings are, that I am bashing 2 particular teachers. My own brother and sister are teachers as were 2 of my grandparents!!

If I started a thread complaining about a washing machine repair man, would that be bashing all washer repair men, no. This is not a teacher bashing thread, it is criticising 2 teachers, not teachers in general.

I do, however, feel that to infer it is not part of the job to 'take' trips is misleading. Trips may not be specifically mentioned in your contract, but they are accepted as an integral part of the job of many teachers who have a calling .This is not a topic for my thread on the lack of attention paid during a school trip by 2 teachers who did think they were off on a day out, I am afraid. I have talked to my DD and she has told me they they were very involved in a conversation and paying little attention to the children. They are also 'best' friends!

I am still flabbergasted particularly as they are both young women and I am 100% confident would know Meadowhall and ought to know that that is not on the route to the zoo from here.

Incidentally at least 1 teacher drives and whilst not local originally has been in this area for quite some time - even so it would surely be good pratice to look up the route the night before - forget all that though - they knew how long the journey should take and it was a full hour after they should have arrived before the error was identified.

This does not take away from the coach company, but the teachers are also culpable. every body that myself and my DH has mentioned this too - first thing they say is why didn't the teachers notice?

Minxy_Bella

patchwork_cat wrote: »

I have not read this thread as teacher bashing at all.

I have read, and my feelings are, that I am bashing 2 particular teachers. My own brother and sister are teachers as were 2 of my grandparents!!

If I started a thread complaining about a washing machine repair man, would that be bashing all washer repair men, no. This is not a teacher bashing thread, it is criticising 2 teachers, yes not teachers in general. I do, however, feel that to infer it is not part of the job to 'take' trips is misleading. Trips may not be specifically mentioned in your contract, but they are accepted as an integral part of the job of many teachers who have a calling .

No, they're not.

Many teachers will not organise trips for the reasons that other posters have outlined and there is no statutory demand for them to do so. Nor should there be when a teacher in charge can be held responsible by any interested party for any incident that can occur.

Things like this happen - mistakes get made. One of my ex-colleagues accidentally left a child at Alton Towers once. That's stupidity! This incident was merely unfortunate and, dare I say, fairly trivial in the grand scheme of things.

I'm sorry that you're so very upset about it but it's really down to the school and the coach company to source a solution.

patchwork_cat

This incident may be trivial to you - to my DD's class it was not. I am not so very upset, I do wish people on here would stop telling me my emotions. Believe me of the things I am dealing with at the moment this is very minor, my DD however was very disappointed. Every thread that is posted is not posted because someone is very upset.

Many teachers with a calling accept trips are integral to education. Unequivocal or else why do the do them? You may not think they are, but many do accept them and know they are necessary.

Minxy_Bella

patchwork_cat wrote: »

This incident may be trivial to you - to my DD's class it was not. I am not so very upset, I do wish people on here would stop telling me my emotions. Every thread that is posted is not posted because someone is very upset.

Many teachers with a calling accepted trips are integral. Unequivocal or else why do the do them? You may not think they are, but many do accept them and know they are necessary.

I did say - in the grand scheme of things - to put my quote in context.

And I apologise if you aren't upset, but the tone of your posts (and the fact that you posted about it in the first instance) does indicate some level of discontent.

I was a teacher for 15 years so I do have a rudimentary knowledge of how the system works and what teachers are expected to do and what they are not expected to do.

Obviously your perception is from a different angle. I'm just trying to put that into context.

milliebear00001

patchwork_cat wrote: »

I have not read this thread as teacher bashing at all.

I have read, and my feelings are, that I am bashing 2 particular teachers. My own brother and sister are teachers as were 2 of my grandparents!!

If I started a thread complaining about a washing machine repair man, would that be bashing all washer repair men, no. This is not a teacher bashing thread, it is criticising 2 teachers, not teachers in general.

I do, however, feel that to infer it is not part of the job to 'take' trips is misleading. Trips may not be specifically mentioned in your contract, but they are accepted as an integral part of the job of many teachers who have a calling .This is not a topic for my thread on the lack of attention paid during a school trip by 2 teachers who did think they were off on a day out, I am afraid. I have talked to my DD and she has told me they they were very involved in a conversation and paying little attention to the children. They are also 'best' friends!

I am still flabbergasted particularly as they are both young women and I am 100% confident would know Meadowhall and ought to know that that is not on the route to the zoo from here.

Incidentally at least 1 teacher drives and whilst not local originally has been in this area for quite some time - even so it would surely be good pratice to look up the route the night before - forget all that though - they knew how long the journey should take and it was a full hour after they should have arrived before the error was identified.

This does not take away from the coach company, but the teachers are also culpable. every body that myself and my DH has mentioned this too - first thing they say is why didn't the teachers notice?

If you read my post, instead of jumping to conclusions you will see that I did not accuse you of starting a teacher bashing thread.

I'm not sure what you're hoping to achieve really. The school haven't yet said what they're planning to do on the back of the incident - perhaps when they come back to you, they may have a solution that i acceptable and reasonable? Seeking to blame the teaching staff, for not doing the coach driver's job for him, is simply going to mean teachers are much less likely to want to take pupils on school trips - which of course, many choose not to do already. It seems largely irrelevant who should take what share of the blame. Surely what matters is how the school chooses to deal with the incident?

If I was faced with an irate parent ranting that I should have known we weren't going in the right direction, I think I'd be somewhat reluctant to volunteer my services again!

patchwork_cat

Obviously I hate incompetence, ( a particular bugbear) but to say I am very upset is a put down as are your other comments about trivialty. From my angle as someone who has more than knowledge as a parent - school trips are after a brief hiatus are restarting, so if you have not taught for a while you may find that current thinking and expectation is that trips are essential. As I say every thread started is not one where people feel very upset, as in amy community you post to vent frustration, ask opinion etc. I was frustrated when my DD phoned me, as someone who is going into hospital next week and whose DH had a major health issue 3 months ago, not to mention AS's in the house, this is nothing!

mrcow

patchwork_cat wrote: »

so if you have not taught for a while you may find that current thinking and expectation is that trips are essential.

Not to the zoo or to Alton Towers though.

I think that you need to get in your head what you'd like to get out of the situation before you speak with the school. I think it highly unlikely that they would be willing to pull an entire year group and staff out of lessons for another day so that 40 children could have an extra 2-3 hours at the zoo that they missed last week - and that's before you even start going into who would fund it.

Have you approached the school as yet? If not, what have you in mind to do?

Minxy_Bella

patchwork_cat wrote: »

Obviously I hate incompetence, ( a particular bugbear) but to say I am very upset is a put down as are your other comments about trivialty. From my angle as someone who has more than knowledge as a parent - school trips are after a brief hiatus are restarting, so if you have not taught for a while you may find that current thinking and expectation is that trips are essential. As I say every thread started is not one where people feel very upset, as in amy community you post to vent frustration, ask opinion etc. I was frustrated when my DD phoned me, as someone who is going into hospital next week and whose DH had a major health issue 3 months ago, not to mention AS's in the house, this is nothing!

Well, I've obviously upset you by saying you appeared to be upset so I apologise for that.

milliebear00001

patchwork_cat wrote: »

Obviously I hate incompetence, ( a particular bugbear) but to say I am very upset is a put down as are your other comments about trivialty. From my angle as someone who has more than knowledge as a parent - school trips are after a brief hiatus are restarting, so if you have not taught for a while you may find that current thinking and expectation is that trips are essential. As I say every thread started is not one where people feel very upset, as in amy community you post to vent frustration, ask opinion etc. I was frustrated when my DD phoned me, as someone who is going into hospital next week and whose DH had a major health issue 3 months ago, not to mention AS's in the house, this is nothing!

Believe me, while many parents' 'thinking and expectation' may be that school trips are 'essential'; they are not compulsory. More and more teachers are opting out - especially at secondary level. It may be a 'calling' to some teachers, but to most of us, it is a job, and one that however much we enjoy, we are not going to risk castigation (and possibly career-damaging accusations) for when trips don't go according to plan. It is another repercussion of our increasingly litigious and 'blame-led' society.

It is of course, the children who ultimately lose, but I don't blame teachers for not wanting to volunteer for school trips.

Idiophreak

patchwork_cat wrote: »

you may find that current thinking and expectation is that trips are essential.

Sure, but that doesn't mean that teachers are going to volunteer to go on them. My OH takes the children on the outward bound trip each year - but she's one of the few to volunteer regularly. Most teachers are happy not burdening themselves with the additional responsibility. As you keep saying, teachers with a "calling" may view it as part of their jobs, but teachers who do it as a "career" will view is as something that's additional hassle they don't get paid any more for and *aren't required to do*...

Without sounding rude, I have to say this whole thing reads as a bit of a non-event. 6 hours in a zoo sounds like torture to me, 3 hours should be plenty.

Sure, if I were the school, I'd have tried to get the children in to Alton Towers, as they were there already, but maybe that wasn't possible.

As OP said, it was very good value for a week's activities and any financial recompense ("here's a fiver back from the coach company") isn't going to help any of the kids that were upset by this. And I fail to see why any of the kids would be overly heartbroken anyway "sorry kids, we're going to be late to the zoo" doesn't sound like a disaster to me...I had much bigger disappointments when I was at secondary school, I've survived.