RE school trip?

[lastnightiwenttomanderley]

DH and I are on holiday on.a group tour round China. We appear to be sharing the hotel with a couple of school groups...

For the past hour we have had to listen to them shrieking, running up and down, ringing doorbells and generally being a PITA. It appears they have put the pupils on one floor and the teachers on another...

I've been out to ask (they are clearly British and Irish) to no avail. Hotel reception speak little English and are unable to do anything. What now? There must be 30 of them out there, the hotel has plenty of communal areas away from rooms.

Feel like I could cry, am 15 weeks pg so even more in need of sleep. For added context, DH is a teacher and has taken groups abroad and agrees it is ridiculous to have no staff member around.

Send your DH out to do teacher voice?

I'd look out for the teachers at breakfast and have a word.
YANBU.

Find the teacher in charge. Find out the name of the schools and email them. Tell teacher in charge you have done this. Likely to be closed on hols now but not forever. Worst comes to worst, contact the British Embassy. Likely that they will know who these brats are.

Don't reception know where the teachers are staying?

Find a teacher

No obvious sign of teachers/staff and DH says he's not sure how his Teacher voice can top my grumpy pregnant woman (fair point!)

Reception probably do.know who/where teachers are but the language barrier really is an issue. Ashamed to admit all I can contribute is 'hello' and 'thank you', not much use!

How old are these kids?

Send dh out when they're running up and down and give them a bollocking and I'd be actively looking for the adults in charge of them.

And if you are in Group, get your organiser on the case. You've paid good money etc etc.
Little toe rags.

Oh wow, the AIBU gods have intervened!

Just listened to the mother of all bollockings in the corridor outside, swiftly transformed into the hushed 'very disappointed, letting self down, letting school down' etc etc.

Think it was an impromptu teacher patrol.

I knew MN had magical powers!

I would complain in an email. Google translate it to chinese. And send to reception.

Absolutely get your group leader to have a word. The school kids will have little concept of how much they are disturbing others, so the teachers need to be made aware.

What kind of school has a school trip to China?

Tell your DH that 'teacher voice' always trumps any other stern/annoyed voices! The kids will know a 'teacher voice' when they hear one! especially if he can do it from out of sight of the beggars so they might think it's their teacher
Or get DH to go scouring the hotel using his teacher voice - that should reveal the actual teachers!

On a serious note definitely see if you can contact the school, even if it means asking one of the kids which school they're from. That type of behaviour is not acceptable and my teachers would never have let us get away with it and nor do I as a staff member on a trip!

Crossed posts - glad it seems to be sorted OP

Is there anyone else on your group tour you could get together with and make a complaint? One route of complaint is the teachers/school but the other is your tour operator and the hotel, if they were any other group then you would expect the tour operator to sort it out.

Ah, much cross posting as I got distracted.

I'd grab the teacher and ask for their room number so you can very helpfully give them a ring if the little darlings make any more noise!

Glad it's sorted OP but still try to find a teacher if you're staying again tonight, so you can have a word and make sure they supervise the kids properly

Oh and congrats! In 15 years, someone could be lamenting your child's behaviour on Mumsnet Of The Future

friend of mine was on one as a teacher the other week.

Kids running around a 4 am.
she went to investigate.
kids had NO CLUE where the teachers were. kids about 11.

when at 5am the teacher rolled in he said ' what the FUCK is going on here'
( she could hear through paper thin walls)

I take great delight in telling you this was a fee paying school

dusts hands

The power of MN indeed: the teachers were probably drinking gin and mumsnetting, saw your post and thought, 'shit, better give them a bollocking'.

Well done! - selfish little feckers.

Get one of the kids and explain in full painful detail exactly what pain you will inflict on him/her if the noise does not stop. Make sure you explain that in China it is perfectly legal to beat a child until they bleed and that any complaint will result in the local police adding to the punishment. It is all bullshit but if you scare them enough they will behave.

Will definitely have a word with the tour operator about the hotel. Possibly also with the guide but he is being given grief from within - there's a group of early twenties girls on our tour who have never been to any capital city before, let alone left the country, and also appear to be bewildered by the Chinese food (even what I would consider to be 'basic'). They are refusing to eat anything with audible and visible disgust! Will see how the guide is holding up tomorrow.

If I can find out the schools then there will definitely be a note on return home!

Like the idea of stealth teacher voice though, will add that to my arsenal for future reference! Oh, and if anyone comes across future DC behaving similarly, you have my full permission to unleash full rage!

Hopefully I'm going to try and get some sleep now...night!

john I like your style...

"What kind of school has a school trip to China?"

Not nec posh. My babysitter went on a school trip to china - option for all the students studying Chinese GCSE and A Level at our local (inner city London, not at all a posh demographic at that school) comprehensive. It was
organised a year or so in advance so that they had plenty of time to pay through instalments, and she paid for all of it herself through babysitting and working in local burger street stall on (footie) match days.