DD taking mobile phone on trip to London?

[yummumto3girls]

I need a quick poll on whether I am being unreasonable to insist that school let my DD take her mobile phone on a school trip to London. School have said no phones as worried they will be messing around texting each other etc They are also visiting houses of paliament and not allowed them in there. However this is a big trip for her, leaving Devon at 5.30am, and I am worried about her safety. I know school will have everything in place but what if she got split up, if she has her phone she will have a way of getting help? AIBU She is 10 by the way.

DD2 (11) has just been on a week-long school trip to Italy without her mobile phone. It never even occurred to me that she might get lost, or that she wouldn't know what to do if she did. YABU, I'm afraid.

"ust wanted to say that if you are concerned it wouldn't hurt for you to have a chat with her about staying safe- making sure she listens carefully to instructions, keeps the teachers/ adults in sight etc. And that if for any reason she were to get separated from the group (but she won't!) to stay calm and talk to someone in uniform (preferably police)."

Don't do this. You mustn't let her know you are even remotely concerned or she will get worried herself - or get worries about leaving you home worrying. The school will have it covered.

lol clam

dd's hazard awareness thing (as part of some London Citizen thing they do at Junior school) involved learning what they needed to report from a crime (how to describe someone, the colour of their hair, how tall they were), in their case it was some sort of street crime that got mocked up. I'd rather the bull in a field scenario ;-). Though she did come back saying she wanted to be a policewoman (aaaah).

The teachers will have a system to make sure they have all the children at each point along the way. I have taken pupils to London many times and we have never lost anyone. We are very aware of our responsibility and we care about the kids too.

When we take kids away we don't allow them to contact home either unless there is an emergency as it breeds homesickness. They are fine as long as they don't speak to their parents and have a great time.

I have a 10 yo dd too and I know you must be anxious but this is an important part of her growing up for both of you - please remind me of this when I am freaking out before I send dd on summer camp for 2 nights this summer!!!!

Put a piece of paper in a secure pocket or rucksack pocket with your mobile number in or the teacher's mobile number so she has contact details for people. Have a general chat with her about if she ever gets lost/seperated from who she is then what to do. I've told my DD about going into a shop and asking a sale's assistant for help or if there is a mum with young children to ask her.

The school must have some system in place/have done a risk assessment about how to prevent kids from getting lost or at least finding them asap if they do.

I have memories of 60 of us going on an art trip to London when we were 12 or 13 and the art teacher set off across Covent Garden with a big umbrella held as high as he could (height of summer, not raining). We had to fight our way through the crowds following the umbrella at all times. Great fun.

She will be fine. There won't be much you can do from Devon even if she did get lost. I doubt the teachers are going to be giving out their mobile numbers since phones aren't actually allowed.

Honestly yummm I'm sure everything will be ok.

I let my DS1 go away on a PGL holiday when he was 7. I then spent ages fretting about him, regretting my decision and so on. Phone calls were discouraged.

When I saw him a 3 days later the first thing he said to me was 'Can I do a full week next year?'

So much for worrying!!

Also as someone who works wiht kids (not in a teaching enviroment) you would not belive how much a pain in the arse mobiles are.

I was walking with a group of teenagers and the rule is no phones on trips. However they use their phones as cameras. We were walking along an edge on Ingleborough and one girl was not looking where she was going and frightened the life out of me. I thought she was going to fall. She claimed she was taking photos but she wasn't - she was texting.

Then there's the time you are sat in a minibus and they have the music on their phones turned up really loud......... sigh need I go on about how much of a pain.

Also if there is an incident which we had once, they can cause problems. It was fairly minor mountain bike accident but need hospital treatment. As we are assessing the situation and dealing with it then we have parents already ringing up asking what the hell is going on. When this happened I was truly baffled as the incident had just happened. Turns out one of the group members had took a photo and sent it to his dad who passed on to the other lads dad!!
All it did was cause unnecessary panic and one of us had to try and deal with a parents demanding answers. This left one staff to deal with an injured person and hyper kids!!

Bloody mobiles!

You can use coins in some London pay phones. I rang home (outside London) from Charing Cross Station last weekend. You need sixty pence worth of coins to make a call to an outside London number. The ones that don't accept coins have "Phone cards only" banner on the outside.

I guess that in London, particularly at a station, there's often the luxury of having a couple of boxes together. Meaning one can be coin-operated. In a rural location they'd have to choose one or the other.