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’m not keen on phone bans, would prefer my kids were allowed to use their phones as they please providing it doesn’t interfere with others, just like adults do. I understand phone bans in class but don’t see a ski trip as at all similar.

So it would annoy me.

However, I don’t think it’s a safety issue just a controlling approach by the school.

Agree with you. My daughter is 13 and going skiing at the end of March on her first big trip. She’s autistic and understandably I have concerns about how she will cope being away from home for a week - but she’s been adamant that she wants to go. We haven’t been advised about phone use yet, but I will be really cross if she is not able to use her phone freely. Not just to contact me if she needs to, but as a tool to stay calm and grounded if she feels overwhelmed. She doesn’t have any friends in school so will likely spend an awful lot of time by herself, (which she doesn’t mind) but it will be pretty miserable and lonely if she doesn’t have her phone.

Yes you are overezcting and the sooner there is a ban on social media for under 16s the better.

That’s easy to say. Harder to implement. It would be devastating for neurodivergent kids who use their phone / tablet to self regulate.

no, no I'm still here. Just busy. Teacher never called back. She has, at least, told the class there is to be no skiing off piste. She hasn't told them (or us) which groups they will be in or who the other adults on the trip will be. All the girls from both classes will be sharing a room, which Dd isn't impressed about, and one of the girls in her class is planning on taking a second phone to hand in as she apparently can't sleep without her phone.

For those of you assuming DD has constant access to her phone and social media, the only social media she has is what's app and has a 20 minute daily limit on it.

Why do you need to know which group your DD is in as you are not going on the trip?

Phones on trips are a nightmare. You are overreacting. There will be staff around all the time.

Blimey, how did mankind survive before phones were common place. Phones make being late easy, being irresponsible easy, and being self obsessed unavoidable. Let the kids enjoy skiing and actually be in the moment, they don't need to post on wasteagram or bacefook their every padding thought. Skiing is a brilliant experience, let to them actually experience it first hand, not through a screen...

When I was a schoolchild and we went away on such trips, they were well organised and supervised by teachers / parents ... and we most certainly didn't have mobile phones - because at that time they hadn't been invented (yes, I am THAT old!!) No child was lost on any of these trips.

In my view, we have all become far too reliant on having that little electronic device strapped to our sides. Your child will be with all the other 'phoneless' children on the trip; do you really think that their supervision will be amiss? If so, I would be speaking to the organisers for reassurance.

1. You don't need to know what groups they are in, neither does daughter. It is a learning experience to just go with it.
2. So what if they are all in one room? What do you think can be done at this late stage? Perhaps you can rebook the accommodation with individual rooms and massively up the cost...?
3. The girl proposing to take a secret phone shows how addicted many are, and how underhanded and undermining the whole phone issue is.
4. You clearly have no real understanding of skiing/the trip risk assessments if you think a beginner group is going off-piste and that somehow from a foreign country you can help out if they get 'lost' somehow. They will be on piste and on beginner slopes the whole time. And if they were off piste then getting lost is just one of a multitude of risks they face.

I think your last post still shows this is you worried about all sorts - and possibly feeding into your daughters concerns or preferences. A LOT of the purpose of school trips like this is not the adventurous activity. I is things like being in a foreign country and culture, different food from home, different sleeping arrangements, managing your own clothes and suitcase, learning to work in groups that are not of your choosing etc etc.

Your daughter will gain huge independence by working through all these concerns without the immediacy of having you or other friends for back up at the end of a phone/text. Look up the anti-phobic effects of risk taking, and remember risk-taking is not just physical it is hugely social (hanging out with other people, trying on new behaviours, being out of the influence of family on behaviour etc) and emotional (being scared, feeling a long way from people, having to demonstrate a new skill like skiing surrounded by peers, putting yourself out there for new relationships). By taking a phone with you you dilute this learning, possibly even ruin real moments of learning when instead of finding the deep down determination or decision making, you reach for the phone to complain / as advice / know that support is just a click away....

@AreTheyMadYou should be getting a briefing on arrangements and staffing ratios plus the dos and don’ts of the trip. Are they flying? They should give you details of this. When are they going?

@outdooryone it's not a beginner group. Last year they do mainly blacks and went off piste. This year she has chosen to go into the red group because she was in a group of boys who just basically raced. She has been on many camps away from me (2 per year) in which I have far more faith than a school!