No phones on ski trip

[AreTheyMad]

DD is going on a ski trip with school next week. We've just been informed they won't be allowed to use their phones during the day, only for an hour in the evening.
Would you be happy with your DC not being allowed to take their phones on the slopes?

I think it's mad, and I'm trying to formulate a mail which doesn't sound over protective pub! It means they can't call if they get separated from the group, check the map, if they injure themselves. What if the visibility is bad? Am I overreacting here?

"I mentioned a kid dying on a school trip because teachers didn’t take her to the doctor"

No you didn't, you're changing your story here. This is what you said:

"Given how several kids died in a school trip because the teachers ignored how sick they were and didn’t take them to a doctor"

[emphasis added]

You clearly said that several children died in a single school trip.

BTW you should be glad your DD isn't at the Chalet School.

They were always having horrible skiing accidents.

She’s not going to need to be dug out of snow if she falls on a pisted run for gods sake, catch a grip of yourself

All trips at DS school are now no phones .(skiing and others )

Yes some kids don't go because of it But that is their loss.
All come back in one piece and generally happy to have gone !

"I'm familiar with the Lyme Bay incident as DH is a kayak instructor. That incident resulted in major changes to the way instructors have to operate. "

"Its an ongoing thing, but the failings of previous incidents are taken very seriously."

Oh, I totally agree. Most of these incidents led to major changes and updates.

I think that is one of the reasons that the last multiple death (for a UK school) I could find was 25 years ago.
.

"I am amused at the idea of unsupervised kids on a school trip going off piste."

Yes, quite.

If you are worried about her can you get a Garmin GPS or similar, so she can send SOS if necessary

Yes, but we don't use it to find out where she is - we would use it to work out if she's left her coat at school, or on the bus, or someone has taken it home with them.
If she's with her coat, or as far as we know she is, we wouldn't bother checking.

I was a teacher with a school trip in Yorkshire not long after the sad deaths of 2 pupils there. We were staying in the same YHA (It was a huge trip and they used several). I was on good terms with the then manager there and we spoke about it.

After this accident, which should not have happened, the amount of work for risk assessments went through the roof. (And rightly so) They became far more detailed and required, in my local authority, external approval.

No approval, no trip.

Your DD is not going to be allowed off piste - unless she deliberately slips away.

For those suggesting iTags - they only have a short range, perhaps 20m, and only if other iPhone users walk by. Good for finding a cat in the house but not when its wandering through others' back gardens. Other active devices are better - but in all honesty it wouldn't be needed.

Let her enjoy the trip, don't let your worries cast a spell on her.

My old school did outdoor activities every summer. When we first went we were allowed to go kayaking more or less by ourselves. Sometimes there was a teacher with us, but I remember they often just stayed on the beach and watched us.

They stopped it before I left. It was really annoyed as we couldn't understand why we weren't allowed.

Looking at the timings, Lyme Bay would have happened about the time they stopped us going on.

The school continue to go to the same place. They now have trained professional instructors that take the kids out. My mate has done it for the last couple of years and I know how qualified and responsible he is. He's a really good coach.

It has really changed beyond all recognition in terms of what the schools can and can't do. I shudder thinking about what could have happened and how iffy it was back in the day. Even thinking about safety equipment and how well it was kept has changed massively. There were no helmets back then.

I have no doubt foreign ski trips will have followed the same path (and its part of the reason they've increased in cost so massively).

They won’t need phones. Please don’t be ‘that’ parent.

This.

If you are REALLY concerned about her location, follow best practice and get one of these and don't rely on a phone.

If you don't want to fork out for one, find out about and trust the school protocols or don't send your kid on the trip.

....... or use the incredibly useful, practical and sensible modern day tool that nearly everyone has these days called a mobile phone!!!!! 😂

I think its been fully covered why thats not sensible with a bunch of teenagers in the mountains. Thanks.

Ski trip is basically obligatory.
Just asked DD, they are allowed to go off piste if everyone in the group agrees to it. I was wrong, last year she wasn't with a trainee teacher, she was with a friend of a member of staff - they'd asked him to go because he's good at skiing. There were 6 in her group last year. No, she didn't need her phone last year, but that doesn't mean she might not need it this year. There has been a massive amount of snowfall this week, avalanche warning is severe in the whole region where they will be going.

I work in a secondary school office and it’s parents like you who make me question my life choices, daily.

Please let the staff, who will be highly experienced in running overseas school trips, and will have seen everything, do their job.

They will have done a thorough risk assessment and come to this decision on the basis of that.

You have no doubt paid a lot of money for your child to go on the trip, let her be present and enjoy it, and stop with the interfering and micro aggression.

The world will not end if she doesn’t have her phone and you are unable to contact her every second of the day. Jeez.

I think it will be good for them.

If she wants photos bring an old digital camera

In your opinion. Happy to agree to disagree - not like either of us can change anything anyway.

@AreTheyMad I'd want to understand exactly why it is school policy and whether they truly think the benefits outweigh the risks. Regardless of what opinions might be about DCs using phones inappropriately, not making the most of the trip or all the other value based reasons, I'd like to really understand what their risk analysis (for we are told that schools do this incredibly thoroughly) was for being without a phone.

How is it obligatory?? I wouldn't be letting my child go at all given your update. Huge potential for issues.

Sorry I don’t believe that a school would allow a group of children to go off piste without a responsible adult present. Insurance wouldn’t cover it.

I think lack of phone is the least of your worries @AreTheyMad

How can a skiing trip be obligatory? DS never went on a skiing trip at Secondary. How can you expect parents to stump up for a ski trip?

Are you in England @AreTheyMad

Are you sure?!? This seems crazy dangerous for a school trip. I have never heard of teachers taking kids on black slopes, let alone off piste. That's insane.

"Ski trip is basically obligatory."

I'm sorry, but what?

You are claiming that the entire school year will be going on this ski trip?

This cannot be a school in the UK

Must be outside the UK and/or a private school.

No ski trip is obligatory. No school trip is obligatory.
Don't spout crap that it is. It makes you look ridicilous and brings into question everything else you say.

You are now trying to tell us, you are basing your decisions off what your daughter says rather than getting information directly from the school. COME ON!

Honestly, if you have concerns about what your daughter has said and them going off piste, then the question to the school is about risk assessments and adequate appriopriate supervision, not fucking phones.

If you are that worried you just do not consent to allowing your child to go.

If they are going off piste without ensuring theres appriopriate safeguarding when you have concerns before the trip then honestly you are risking your daughters life anyway. A phone is not the solution to this problem. Her phone might well still be in her pocket if an incident happened, but hey at least they might find it easier to find her body...

Either you are concerned or you aren't. The idea that the ski trip is obligatory, honesty says more about you than anything else.