re - horrendous school trip!

maman

When I read your original thread I was horrified. I have a great deal of experience in this field and I just couldn't believe that this sort of thing still went on. It's not just that children seemed to be taken on a jolly with little educational value but that it was potentially so dangerous. In my Local Authority there are strict policies for planning off-site visits especially ones to the seaside. I had even looked up the link to the Lands End tragedy from years ago that triggered these policies across the country.

What I'd advise is that you make an appointment with the head and just talk her through your concerns. What I'm guessing you want to do is prevent anything like this happening again. You might want to tell her you're going to put your concerns in writing and copy in the Chair of Governors and the Local Authority. The last bit is your choice, I suppose it depends how confident you are that she's taking it seriously.

meritaten

I think I have to raise concerns - I think a letter to the head in the first instance - but I will copy it to the chair of the governers - as I have no confidence in them knowing about it. and I think they should.
my grandson was right - so was my SIL - the trip was a shambles and I WOULDNT trust my grandson in their care on future trips. Parents should feel their kids are safe on school trips.

meritaten

maman - the teacher virtually said that the garden centre tour was so it could be termed an 'educational trip'. most of the parents/grandparents took the trip to be a 'jolly' . we were only supposed to be responsible for our own children.

I don't know the head of the whole school - the head or senior teacher of the infants school was one of the staff on the trip. and she is retiring at the end of term.

maman

meritaten wrote: »

maman - the teacher virtually said that the garden centre tour was so it could be termed an 'educational trip'. most of the parents/grandparents took the trip to be a 'jolly' . we were only supposed to be responsible for our own children.

I don't know the head of the whole school - the head or senior teacher of the infants school was one of the staff on the trip. and she is retiring at the end of term.

It's your choice, but what I might do is wait until the start of next term and then go to see the Head of the whole school. I'm irate and horrified on your behalf but if this person is retiring at the end of the week.....

fudgecat

Meritaten, as a teacher I can assure you that normal good practice would be for a recce visit beforehand to the venue, a strict adult to child ration of a minimum 10 to 1(and the ratio would be nearer 8 to 1 if it was seaside), an action plan including disaster planning, full risk assessment which would include regular head counts by the specified adult designated to a small group. It is not necessary to have every adult CRB checked if the party will stay together at all times.
I have been on 5 trips this year alone and I can assure you that a responsible teacher comes back utterly exhausted from the heightened state of alert for the whole day. Quite apart from a teacher`s natural wish to do the best for the children, it is common sense to be seen to be supervising actively in the sight of parents!
The Head Teacher and board of governors needs to know what happened to check if normal procedures were followed, or if normal procedures need to be tightened up!
You might start with an approach to the Head Teacher in the spirit of checking if these were the normal procedures for the school.
Don`t just leave it - if things were as you described, then future action must be taken. I once went on a school trip (as a parent) where an inexperienced newly qualified teacher allowed children to go into a river up to their waists - it turned out this had not been risk assessed! I am aware that we can all be a little "health and safety gone mad" these days, but what you describe had the potential to be dangerous.

meritaten

yes I was told by garden centre staff that a teacher had do a recce! so how we ended up at the wrong garden centre - boggles my mind!

most of the kids had a parent or grandparent with them out of a class of say 25 only 4 or five were un-accompanied - and I honestly don't know if they were 'allocated' to another childs family - I don't think so as my DIL was told that the staff would look after GS when she found she couldn't go.
I feel really upset - I do not want to cause trouble for the school or the staff - but I know they have behaved unprofessionally.
I have to be honest - I felt that on the beach the teachers were just on a 'jolly'. they took no interest in the kids apart from pics for the school website. I also don't think its very professional to take toddlers on a school trip?
I really don't want to do this - but I feel if anything awful happened if future and I don't say something now - I would be responsible.

coolcait

meritaten wrote: »

I am now in a bit of a quandary - I posted Thursday about that awful school trip I took with my grandson and this is related to that.

I was telling the family about it today up my mums, and when I got to the bit about the staff just setting up their little staffroom and sitting there for two and half hours - I turned to DIL and asked how many un-accompanied kids she thought there were and she said she knew four or five from GSs class alone - three classes went.
My DD was horrified and so was her husband who is a teacher - he was so horrified he said I should write a letter of complaint to the Head and copy it to Governers!
When I said that one of the teachers had taken along a toddler about two years old - he went white! DIL said that it was the teachers nephew - Teach is childless. He said staff aren't allowed to take along their own children on educational trips.

I said I felt that as I was just GSs Nan - I didn't feel it was my place to make complaints about the staff.

my 15 year old grandson then asked 'did you feel the (unaccompanied) kids were at risk'?

the honest answer to that is 'YES' the teachers totally ignored everyone! I wouldn't even have realised they were supposed to be in charge of kids!
What to do? I still feel a bit that its not my place - DIL is worried but she wasn't there - I was. no-one else seems concerned from what I can make out. I feel the trip was badly organised and I certainly wouldn't leave 4 to 7 year olds in these bozos charge!

I don't really understand why you feel that it's 'not your place' to report concerns about child safety.

You were on the trip, you saw what was happening and what was not happening. You saw the areas where there was a serious risk to child safety.

If anyone is in that position, wouldn't it be 'their place' to report it.

Ok, you didn't recognise the safety issues at the time - your original thread is all about the awful day you had, even after the school trip had ended.

However, other posters did point out that it was a seriously flawed outing.

People in real life have told you the same thing. You now realise that far worse things were going on that day than the things which had annoyed you as an individual.

Given that you were an accompanying adult on a school trip which appears to have broken every rule of health and safety and of commonsense, why on earth would you not write a factual account of everything you witnessed, and present it to the headteacher, copied to the board of governors?

meritaten

coolcait wrote: »

I don't really understand why you feel that it's 'not your place' to report concerns about child safety.

You were on the trip, you saw what was happening and what was not happening. You saw the areas where there was a serious risk to child safety.

If anyone is in that position, wouldn't it be 'their place' to report it.

Ok, you didn't recognise the safety issues at the time - your original thread is all about the awful day you had, even after the school trip had ended.

However, other posters did point out that it was a seriously flawed outing.

People in real life have told you the same thing. You now realise that far worse things were going on that day than the things which had annoyed you as an individual.

Given that you were an accompanying adult on a school trip which appears to have broken every rule of health and safety and of commonsense, why on earth would you not write a factual account of everything you witnessed, and present it to the headteacher, copied to the board of governors?

yes - you are right and as I said I am going to do that.

coolcait

meritaten wrote: »

yes - you are right and as I said I am going to do that.

Thank you for confirming that - given the extent of the safety failures you'd described, I was half-inclined to go to the Health and safety executive and give them all the information you have provided on MSE. Then let them deal with it.

I hope you are able to resolve the other family issues you described.

Savvy_Sue

meritaten wrote: »

yes I was told by garden centre staff that a teacher had do a recce! so how we ended up at the wrong garden centre - boggles my mind!

It's possible that was down to the coach driver: you said there were two run by the same company in the area. Even if someone had done a recce and given the right details to the coach company, drivers sometimes head off in completely the wrong direction, and even a very alert teacher may not have been able to re-direct them fast enough.

However, I wouldn't let that put you off mentioning it in your complaint!