Train delay and School comments

How else will children learn that things do not go to plan.

They are 12. Their education has been massively impacted by covid. Why on earth would you assume that their generation needs another lesson on "things don't always go to plan" as if they haven't just lived that already.

Never mind all the disabled, ill, child carers, victims of domestic violence, children being sexually assaulted by class mates, children being sexually assaulted by adults, children living in poverty, child refugees etc

Sounds like you are assuming every child lives in a nice middle class bubble OP and needs a train delay to teach them something might go wrong in life. Personally I would have been assaulted by my parents if I had got home that late even though it wasn't my fault. Its quite possible at least 1 of those 50 children was. But still at least they can congratulate themselves for their increased resilience 🙄

*hings don't go according to plan. Delays happen, cancellations happen. I agree that trains should run on time and not be cancelled. But things happen.

How else will children learn that things do not go to plan*

Why on earth are you assuming children of that age wouldn’t know that things don’t always go to plan? I’m an adult who is well aware things don’t always go to plan but I would still be fucking annoyed at this.

This is the most bizarre anti child post yet.

What is ridiculous is that Avanti didn't put them on a cross pening train to pick up a train to Scotland from Leeds.

@Jellycatspyjamas Preston is hardly a small town.

You know many of the children will have gone through something much more stressful than this right?

You act like every child has a perfect life and they need random occurrences like this - that will have been stressful for everyone involved, the children, teachers, and parents, to build resilience

I guarantee many of those children will know not everything always goes to plan, and it won’t have taken transport issues on a school trip for them to have learned that.

What a strange thing to sound so pleased about. Perhaps time for a hobby?

Are the children in need of a lesson like this? Can't speak for all kids but mine know shit happens sometimes.

Doesn't stop the kids and parents and teachers being pissed off that this happened.

I find it highly unlikely that 12 year olds will not already have experienced times when their travel did not go to plan.

What could the children learn?

That things do not always go to plan.

They'd already learned that. It was the entire reason that they were sitting on the platform eating chips @HarrowToCroydon

There are much easier ways for children to learn that things don’t always go to plan. A couple of train trips with their parents is enough to teach them that our train services are shit and can’t be fully relied upon.

This did nothing but test the teachers who once again were forced into going above and beyond for their students.

It's a city

Well done to the teachers for creatively managing a situation and getting their charges home safely.

THAT (getting them back safely) was their priority, not teaching a lesson on resilience. And frankly, what they already went through was sub-optimal and required some resilience.

Take 50 kids on a school trip yourself, and then let me know what you'd do in similar circumstances.

Loads of secondary school kids get buses to school. They get plenty of opportunities to learn that travel will not go according to plan

then there are kids who get trains who are impacted by strikes and kids who get the underground who are impacted by strikes

It's not like it's such a rare life lesson that we should be congratulating the train company for providing them with a learning experience

The kids learnt to cope there is no complaint from the school there about the train delay. There is complaint about the alternative transport offered. Again, You're just picking random bits of the article.

Perhaps it is Avanti who need to learn. It used to be possible to divert trains via the Settle and Carlisle line using a diesel locomotive. The crew knowledge was cut back a few years ago.

You've quoted random bits without sufficient context. The complaint is that the alternative transport was not suitable for the children as quite rightly they cannot travel alone in a taxi. The school had to organise their own coach, if they hadn't they'd all have been stuck in Preston. I think it is fair enough to be annoyed by the lack of thought by the rail company - they should have organised a coach if taxis weren't suitable.

I think this is what is called 'toxic positivity'.

"Well we had twice that many children and a tsunami, and we were robbed by bandits and we coped".

No it's not a learning experience if anything children have learnt not to trust the rail network.

The issue was the track was deemed unsafe. The rail staff were stuffed to I bet the driver and crew just wanted to get home at the end of the shift too.

I don’t understand your issue; the children were fed and got home eventually, safely, in a group. I hope the staff had a dispensation to go in at lunchtime, but if there were 12 teachers, probably not!
We used to have to deal with this sort of stuff ( arrive in Rome with school party late at night and find hotel had double booked) before mobile phones and the Internet, and we coped.

Avanti’s inability to transport the children on the journey they had tickets for didn’t build resilience and resourcefulness in the children, it tested the teachers’ skills in getting hold of a coach.

Since the teachers did manage that, while I doubt it was an experience that will have lasting negative impacts on them throughout their lives, but it’s a bit smug-wankerish to suggest people should be pleased about it.

I agree with you OP. It's not the school's fault what happened, and it's shit that it did, but it's a lesson for the kids that sometimes things happen which are beyond your control. In these circumstances, it can be incredibly stressful and unpleasant, but you have no choice but to pull together and make the best of it.

It shows the difficulty of school trips, I'm sure it was a bit of an adventure at first but they would have been incredibly tired by the end. I was on a trip that was over 2.5 hours delayed (meaning getting back at 2am not 11.30pm) and I had had it! It's hard once you get to a certain point, the teachers are who I feel for but all was ok, everyone got home safely and it's one to spin a yarn about for the kids and staff!