Pool. 1 teacher. 16 Yr8 kids. Would you be ok with that?

[CurvyKale]

DS has a school trip next week. They're walking to an unattended swimming pool for the day. They did the same last year but DS's TA was there also. This year, she's no longer there and they're splitting his hours between various other members of the staff.
DS has dyspraxia and cannot swim. The boy who shared the TA last year also cannot swim
but hates water so last year didn't go in the pool. I believe the guidelines for swimming lessons at school are 1:9 but does this count as a swimming lesson?
Would you innocently ask which other teacher is going - only class teacher is listed on the info sheet?

Where are you? You seem to be using English terms ie TA and Y8 but English schools are on holiday right now so I'm struggling to understand how a school trip is taking place.

Scottish schools go back next week.

Some Scottish schools have gone back this week!

@saraclara that is simply untrue. I often take a minibus full of kids out by myself ( and yes of course it is all properly risk assessed, back up plan etc) but please don’t make blanket untrue statements like that.
However in the case of the OP 1 adult for 16 kids and water is not a suitable ratio.

Fair enough. I just thought that in Scotland the year groups were S1 to S5?, The English Y8 seemed odd in that context.

I would expect there to be more than one member of staff avaliable.

The purpose and nature of the trip will have an effect on the risk assessment. If it was something like a waterpark then at 12-13 (ish) years old, you'd expect them to go free range in smaller groups, but the venue would be life-guarded. The majority of that age group are able to swim 25+m. Lifeguarded pools tend to not have adult ratios for competent swimmers age 8+, although private venues may require more supervusion (e.g. hotels/ holiday parks)

At our swimming lessons there is a life guard then a teacher per class up to 1:13 so I wouldn't be concerned if other lifeguarding was present, but 1:16 with no other adult back up is risky if anything distracting occurs.

Ratios for Scouts/ Guides around that age range would also expect a minimum of two members of staff then additional numbers according to the ratio for the activity.

What if the teacher needs the loo? Surely at a minimum two teachers are needed.

There is no way they will send one teacher off with 16 children. That would be an obvious breach of common sense, let alone safety procedures.

Some LEAs go back in August, Leicestershire has some areas that do.

I'm not sure what the legislation is in school trips but it isn't the case that every time a group of children leave school it is a "trip".

For example, at the secondary I used to work at there would be regular games of football/netball etc against other schools. That would be one teacher plus the team. I don't know if it counts as a trip or not.

In the same way if a team were going to an inter-schools competition (so an event at eg an athletics track with lots of teams from lots of schools) it would be one teacher plus the team.

What's the purpose of taking them? Secondary schools do not normally do swimming lessons unless they have a pool onsite, it's covered in primary.

So the only reason I can think of for taking them is that there is some kind of competition - but why would they be taking students who cannot swim?

I think you must have misunderstood. There is no way that only one adult would take the children for an outing anywhere for the simple fact that if the adult themselves became unwell, collapsed or even died, there would be no other adult available to deal with the emergency.

I'm a teacher and the ratio is roughly 1 staff member for 10 students (I might be slightly wrong), but 1 adult and 16 students wouldn't be allowed where I work.