Contact whilst on school trip

[countrysidefields]

My son is off on a school trip to Europe next week. He is 12. They are allowed mobile phones for the journey there and back but once at the hotel the phones are kept with the teachers until they are back on the return journey.

Whilst I am ok with this and am happy with these rules, I am a little concerned my son wont be able to contact us/we contact him in anyway.

It's his first trip abroad without us, the school have done this trip around 20 times and I know the teachers will ensure their safety at all times but there are times the children will have free time to walk about the town and I'd feel much better if my son had some sort of contactable device on him.

Any suggestions on anything he could take or am I being a worried mum and should just not worry about all this

I think you're over worried and have to trust the school. Think how it was when we were that age!

At 12, they will have fairly strict boundaries about where they can and can't go and they will be in groups. "Walking around a town" is also an activity that lends itself to other people being about to help if something goes terribly wrong.
You say yourself the school has done this 20 times before, so they will have more thoroughly risk assessed it than you have done yourself - what exactly are you concerned about?

Why phones aren't allowed...

• safeguarding in overnight accommodation (photos/filming etc)
• roaming costs!
• "homesickness" calls... its a lot better these go through staff so they know of any problems
• losing them/breakages

Sadly more harm than good comes from them all have access to their mobiles

I did similar trips at 13/14 but my phone at the time could only text and call, nothing was even visible through the camera!!

It’s sad OP but they are probably safer as a group without access to their phones. Tell him he absolutely needs to stay with a group while mooching about the town, and to immediately tell a teacher if he needs to contact you.

He doesn't need a device - as everyone says, they do more harm than good.
Just tell him to speak to a teacher if he has any problems.
And please allow him to enjoy his trip and hopefully you won't hear a dickie bird from him for the whole time - which is as it's supposed to be!

I appreciate I am probably worrying about this too much, it's just it's the first trip away and I am naturally a worrier. I would rather he didn't have his phone and I agree with all the comments about it being safer. It's just the lack of contact I was struggling with. Time to stop worrying I think

I 'walked about a local town' at 12 or 13. In reality we had an hour and spent most of it in the supermarket!

You can ask him to send you a letter or postcard? Granted it might arrive after him but that's what would have happened in our day.
Do the school not post photos or updates on how the trip is going?

airtag him if you're that worried

School trips were happening many years before mobile phones existed. Just teach him what to do if for some reason he were to get lost or separated from his group. Put the details of where he is staying and teachers' and your phone numbers on paper in his pocket.

How bloody soft have mobile phones made everybody? Kids and parents.

Go back 2 or 3 decades and there was zero contact with home when away on with school. Who else remembers watching Turner and Hooch on a grainy VHS on the TV on the coach on the way to Dieppe!? Are kids even allowed to wander round ferrys anymore?? At 12 I remember it was a right adventure.

Make sure he has an emergency plan in the unlikely event he gets separated from the group. Write out details of his accommodation and emergency phone numbers - inside his backpack and on a piece of paper he should keep with him. Make sure he knows not to try and find the group, but stay in one spot and let them find him. Alternatively, go into the nearest shop or tourist attraction, ask them to call the police, then go back outside and wait for the school to find him in the meantime.

These are the sorts of things we would do when we were young and before modern history had been invented.

children are supposed to have fun and not think about home (much) during a school trip.
school's policy is fine and pretty common.

he will have fun!
and will come home very tired and dirty

Personally, I wouldn’t even be happy about phones going on the coach. If there is an emergency, school will be in touch.

My Y6 went to France a few weeks ago for 6 days. No phones allowed and no contact. We waved her off and saw her again the next weekend. She had a wonderful time. If there had been a reason she needed to contact us, the leaders would have facilitated that.

Phones otherwise are just a massive safeguarding risk on a trip like this and I’d be annoyed they were allowing them at all.

And purely from a getting lost standpoint, there will be a plan in place. For our trip, all excursions out were like a military operation. Group leaders walking with their group of 6 students and trip leaders topping and tailing, one at the front, one at the back. To go up the steps to a church, they count them at the bottom and at the top, on the way in the door and on the way out. It’s much more attention than I’d be paying to my own child on a trip abroad, where I let them roam around and play. These trips are literally risk assessed to an inch of everyone’s sanity. I’m definitely more likely to lose my own children!

Honestly I'd be more worried if they were allowed phones on the trip.

I know it's a bit anxiety inducing not knowing what they're up to but when it comes to school trips, I presume no news is good news. Will they be updating you though....my DC's school used to send us updates and photos of them doing activities.

I understand wheee you're coming from op, but phones makes it worse.

Thanks for the advice for what to do in case of an emergency, I will make sure he has all the info he needs in his bag as he will always have that during the day and will talk to him about what to do if he does find himself lost although as many of you say I'm sure the school have all this planned out already.

I do agree with no phones and I understand why the school do it. Just struggling to let go of my little boy I suppose.

I don't know if the school will give updates so I can ask about that.

You talk about you not being able to contact him, you may not be able to contact him directly but you will have an emergency number either for an adult on the trip or for someone at school that can relay an important message (I can't think of anything that couldn't wait until he got back though). As for him contacting you, ofcourse in an emergency situation the adults on the trip will contact you if they need to. In my experience those who keep InTouch with home struggle far more with homesickness etc, out of sight out of mind and all that.

As for the rest of it, it's meant to be an adventure. Make sure you send him with a camera as he won't have his phone, disposable film one will add to the novelty even if the photos are rubbish. Perhaps a portable CD player, stack of spare batteries, selection of charity shop CDs in a wallet folder and some cheap wired headphones with a splitter so he can listen with friends.

When supervising a school trip it really is like a military operation, 'walking around town' will be groups of four with teachers stationed at cafes or on benches in the vicinity with regular checking in.

Follow the schools social media accounts they are bound to put out updates for safe arrivals and key moments of the trip.

Its a completely normal and sensible rule.

If he really needs to get in touch then if he speaks to the teachers they will enable that.