School safety procedures

[Pambilaga1608]

AIBU to be unhappy that my dd's school took them on a day trip to a boatyard and then on a rowing boat with 10-12 children on each boat quite far out to sea and not wearing any life jackets! There was 2 teachers also onboard who also have young children and should know better. They posted a video on Facebook and a few parents are simply 'liking' the video whereas myself and a couple of other mums are upset. The children's faces are beaming with happiness but anything could have happened. Next week my daughter is due to go on a three day trip with the same teachers where they are doing similar activities like canoeing etc. They are 10 and 11 yr olds and I'm worried as they are too young to know better. Should I raise this issue with the school?

Are you in the UK?

I'd certainly be raising it as an issue and I'd also want sound assurances that future activities are adequately risk assessed and monitored by competent people. Very foolish IMO.

Normally on this sort of thread I'm firmly on the side of the school. However in this case I don't think you'll be the only parent mentioning it to school! Wtf were the teachers thinking?!

Yes. (Scream!) How far out to sea? Any rescue cover? And depending on the age of the kids , that sounds inadequate supervision.

Sorry - you gave ages, but that still sounds wrong.

What country are you in?

This can't be the UK. I'd literally be calling bullshit I'd it was claimed to be.

YANBU at all.
The school staff who organised the trip should have done risk assessments for every eventuality and the boat trip wold indicate life jackets required for every child.
I'm amazed the boat company would risk taking them out with no life jackets.

As well as complaining to the school and governors, I'd be complaining he Outdoor school trip dept. of your LEA.

Is this in the UK and when was this seeing as it's half term for most UK schools?

Should you raise it with the school when your child is going to go away with the same teachers? Yes, yes you should.

Report them.

If you are in the UK you must know your dds school will be castigated over this and even pics on fb of other people's children is not right.

No, we are not on the UK. The school is a very 'English' school though with English teachers and English heads. This is one of the reasons why I just can't understand the stupidity of taking these small children into a dangerous situation like this. It was our half term last week , the trip was yesterday and the three day trip is this coming week.

I'm not sure why you wouldn't raise the issue with the school though?

Sorry I forgot to mention the distance out to sea. Land was in sight but if anything had happened it would have been disastrous. It was a lot further than I would have thought safe.

At sea I'd say a life jacket was essential. In a quiet non tidal shallow river or lake, I'd not be so concerned.

The activity itself is fine imo, but the no life jackets is absolutely appalling. I've been on speed boats where no one is remotely likely to end up in the water but everyone still has to wear s life jacket. When I've taken brownies to water based activities they've always had life jackets and helmets, which has been insisted on by the people running the activity, and of course the leaders fully agree. It wouldn't even occur to me as an issue because it's such a basic!

I know people do water activities like rowing without life jackets, my father used to row and didn't wear one nor did the rest of the team. But school kids who've never done the activity before, who might panic, might not be strong swimmers, might not know be able to get back in the boat, life jackets should be a matter of course.

I rarely advise people complaining to schools but in this case totally justified

Not in the UK so different rules, but the risk doesn't change. Big groups of kids muck about and can tip boats. Or boats can tip for other reasons.

Life jackets - not buoyancy aids - are not a guarantee but can certainly help.

We are still in Europe. The same safety rules should still apply. Their teachers are English too. There's a huge English community here and the children are taken out of school regularly and it can be a little too laid back in some respects. The school is small and they don't like you raising 'issues' of this nature. I will def be saying something to them.

That is totally unacceptable, and I'm all for not letting H&S 'go mad' as it were.

One more thing to add, is one of the boys is disabled!

Update- they wrote on fb that all precautions were adhered to, that there was 2 life rings, and besides all of the children can swim!! Rediculous. I wrote a very decent reply and now I've been ticked off via email about putting anything negative about the school on fb even though they were replying to parents concerns via this method. All o did was to reply to her comments about it being ok as they can swim. I then replied that considering the gravity of the situation then o feel this is a trivial complaint. See how they have turned it around that I'm the baddie considering our children's lives were put at risk.

Sounds awfully negligent. Complain, complain, complain!