Cancelled school trip

peachyprice

silvercar wrote: »

Having made the decision, it would be wrong to them blame the school for anything that happens.

It may well be wrong, but that is what will happen.

pollypenny

pogofish wrote: »

And this seems to have gone right over the heads of these teachers.

Silly, unpleasant comment!

As I said previously, Nothing would stop me taking a planned trip to Paris. In fact, I would go in order to support those who refuse to be cowed.

However, it's a different thing completely to take any sort of risk with a group of school kids. I wouldn't use my pupils to make a political point.

One kid would only have to have a minor injury, say in a rush during a false alarm, for the DM to have field day.

Janepig

coolcait wrote: »

Has the trip actually been cancelled, or is this just school chatter?

DD had choir practice yesterday after school and they were talking about it with the teacher who wants to go and he said at the moment it looks like they won't be going but nothing official has come back to the parents. Yet!

pollypenny wrote: »

Parents would not be insured, nor would many have CRB checks.

I've got a bang up to date DBS check!! Had to have one afew months ago when we were privatised at work. I still wouldn't take responsibility for other people's children though!

Gavin83 wrote: »

I have a question for you. If the school decided to continue with the trip, the choir go and while on the trip the entire group is murdered by terrorists would you in any way blame the school for allowing the trip to go ahead?

The school need to access the risks and have clearly decided that the risk is too great at the moment. Personally I think theres more risk of an incident in London than Paris at the moment but it's still their call.

I 100% would not blame the school if something happened whilst they were on the trip as it's my decision whether DD goes or not (if the trip goes ahead) and if I thought it was too risky I'd stop her going, never mind the school. Obviously if they were killed because whoever was looking after them was in some way negligent then that's different. But in general if, for instance, their bus was attacked out of nowhere then that's not the school's fault.

If the FCO advised not to travel and the school still decided to go then they'd be to blame, but lets be honest no parent would let their child go if that was the case.

DD's going on another trip in the summer to Wimbledon and London - fingers crossed there's no calamities there!

Jx

January20

Every other year, I organise a trip to Paris with some pupils and I have to say I am very, very glad that it wasn't this year, because I would want to cancel myself.

The responsibility of taking children on school trips, particularly abroad, is stressful enough without having to add the fear of a possible terrorist attack.

The French govt have deployed an extra 10,000 troops around Paris for a reason!

I would also NOT believe any parent who before the event said they wouldn't blame the school or the teachers if anything happens. It's part of modern culture to want to blame somebody when something happens, especially when teachers are involved.

I, however, would take a personal trip to Paris at the moment, in spite of the troubles, but that's completely different.

January20

pogofish wrote: »

Looks like the terrorists have won then! - Well done that bunch of cowards at the OP's kid's school.

What a lesson to teach for the future.

When you've taken a group of children to a foreign capital and looked after them 24/7 for the whole of the trip, you will understand the stress that it puts teachers under and may won't be making such silly comments!

angelil

I work in an international school in Paris and have done for the past 6.5 years. I have also taken children on school trips to foreign capitals and am about to do so again in February (London). I'd say that frankly speaking you're safer in Paris now than before the attacks, and that to cancel the trip is therefore unfounded.

Janepig

January20 wrote: »

Every other year, I organise a trip to Paris with some pupils and I have to say I am very, very glad that it wasn't this year, because I would want to cancel myself.

The responsibility of taking children on school trips, particularly abroad, is stressful enough without having to add the fear of a possible terrorist attack.

The French govt have deployed an extra 10,000 troops around Paris for a reason!

I would also NOT believe any parent who before the event said they wouldn't blame the school or the teachers if anything happens. It's part of modern culture to want to blame somebody when something happens, especially when teachers are involved.

I, however, would take a personal trip to Paris at the moment, in spite of the troubles, but that's completely different.

That's rubbish I'm sorry. Like I said, the only time I would lay blame is if harm came to my child because of negligence on the part of the teacher who should have been looking after her. That's not blaming the school, that's blaming the individual teacher.

Unfortunately you are right about the compensation culture that prevails these days and if there's a sniff of compo, whether the parents think the teacher was really negligent or not, they will sue. Same as if you have a car accident these days, it's so easy to cry "whiplash" and get a payout.

I say again, if I was concerned about the safety of going to Paris at the moment per se, I would keep DD home at half term and wouldn't let her go. I would imagine that there's more risk of injury to the thousands of groups of schoolchildren who will be going skiing at half term than they would be in if they were going to Paris.

Plus, being honest, if I thought for a minute that the teachers who will be accompanying DD are even half as incompetent as the teachers who accompanied our school trip skiing in France in 1985, she wouldn't set foot on the bus!! How any of us came back unscathed is nothing short of a miracle.

Jx

January20

Janepig wrote: »

That's rubbish I'm sorry. Like I said, the only time I would lay blame is if harm came to my child because of negligence on the part of the teacher who should have been looking after her. That's not blaming the school, that's blaming the individual teacher.

Unfortunately you are right about the compensation culture that prevails these days and if there's a sniff of compo, whether the parents think the teacher was really negligent or not, they will sue. Same as if you have a car accident these days, it's so easy to cry "whiplash" and get a payout.

I say again, if I was concerned about the safety of going to Paris at the moment per se, I would keep DD home at half term and wouldn't let her go. I would imagine that there's more risk of injury to the thousands of groups of schoolchildren who will be going skiing at half term than they would be in if they were going to Paris.

Plus, being honest, if I thought for a minute that the teachers who will be accompanying DD are even half as incompetent as the teachers who accompanied our school trip skiing in France in 1985, she wouldn't set foot on the bus!! How any of us came back unscathed is nothing short of a miracle.

Jx

You can't say what I'm saying is rubbish because you are speaking from a theoretical position. When bad things happen, things you can't understand, and people around are whispering "how did that happen? who's fault was it?" it would be very unlike human nature to resist and say "it just happened. It's nobody's fault". Just look around you whenever anything bad happens. Heads have to roll.

Incidentally, my union advises teachers NOT to take pupils on trips - at any time - because of the precarious position teachers put themselves in. If I wasn't so pressurised by my management team, I would never take pupils on trips abroad.

I've seen the cover of the new edition of Charlie Hebdo. I wouldn't take the risk and I hope I am wrong.

Janepig

January20 wrote: »

You can't say what I'm saying is rubbish because you are speaking from a theoretical position. When bad things happen, things you can't understand, and people around are whispering "how did that happen? who's fault was it?" it would be very unlike human nature to resist and say "it just happened. It's nobody's fault". Just look around you whenever anything bad happens. Heads have to roll.

Incidentally, my union advises teachers NOT to take pupils on trips - at any time - because of the precarious position teachers put themselves in. If I wasn't so pressurised by my management team, I would never take pupils on trips abroad.

I've seen the cover of the new edition of Charlie Hebdo. I wouldn't take the risk and I hope I am wrong.

It's not rubbish. Most school trips pass off without incident. And if something bad were to happen, well obviously questions would need to be asked, rightly so, but that doesn't mean the finger of blame will point at anyone.

I'm in a different line of work but we have "incidents" happen occasionally, we've had people take legal action against our organisation, but that does not mean any one individual is to blame.

I can quite imagine that your union doesn't want its members taking children on school trips, same as the union I'm in is always "advising" us not to do things but with no idea what it's like on the ground floor and the effect refusal has on your colleagues and management. If we were worried about possible risky outcomes of our actions we'd never do anything.

I repeat what I said in reply to Pol though - I wouldn't want to take a group of school children on a trip, I simply wouldn't want the responsibility. I take my hat off to any teacher that does.

Jx

peachyprice

Janepig wrote: »

That's rubbish I'm sorry. Like I said, the only time I would lay blame is if harm came to my child because of negligence on the part of the teacher who should have been looking after her. That's not blaming the school, that's blaming the individual teacher.

Janepig wrote: »

It's not rubbish. Most school trips pass off without incident. And if something bad were to happen, well obviously questions would need to be asked, rightly so, but that doesn't mean the finger of blame will point at anyone.

But you're talking about YOU. Unfortunately there are 10,15,20 other children going on the trip.

You can bet your bottom dollar that a percentage of those parents WILL blame the school if it goes wrong, they will be the same parents who have not actually paid any attention to what is going on in the world, will not have gathered their own information before making the decision to let their child go and are just seeing a nice trip for little Alfie/Ellie (fictional names to protect the innocent) and a nice rest for themselves.

All parents are not equal and it is the reaction of those kinds of parents that the decision to cancel the trip will be made.