Mobile phone ban on overseas school trip

[anotherglass]

12 year old son is due to go on his first overseas school trip to Belgium later this month.

There is a strict ban on children using mobile phones during the trip.

Part of the trip will involve a period of up to 2 hours where children will be allowed to wander around an open, retail precinct - unsupervised. Teachers will not be far and kids will have cards - in the local language - to hand to someone if they are in trouble, during this activity.

Parents were not made aware of this unsupervised element of the trip, prior to making payment.

I am nervous not only about this element, but also the fact that there is a heightened risk of terrorists attacks during the period of the trip, which coincides with Euro 2016.

AIBU to insist on son being allowed to take his mobile phone on the trip?

[Footle]

At the risk of going on a bit, because I've bought the T shirt on this subject , the anguish of getting no response on a mobile when you know your child is actually in danger, is horrible. I think the school's decision is based on sound reasons .

[LyndaNotLinda]

Oh really traf. RTFT!!!

[trafalgargal]

I think you should cancel the trip for your son.

If at 12 years old he isn't capable of staying safe in a shopping centre then the trip really isn't appropriate.

Agree with "How do you think having a mobile would protect him in the very very unlikely event of a terrorist attack"

[PacificDogwod]

I am sorry you were so worried, v understandably worried.

But really has this not shown you that whether or not your DS had a phone made no difference to the outcome?
I hope he had/has a great time on his trip.

[Footle]

I mean, something similar to what you feared, but we experienced the reality.

[Footle]

OP, I experienced something very similar - one of my children had a life-changing accident while on an organised holiday, between years 7-8. There were no mobiles when this happened but we were contacted soon afterwards,and got there as fast as we could. I'm as bad a catastrophiser as the next person, but the reality is a different matter.

[ilovesooty]

I don't see that him having his mobile in this situation would have been either necessary or helpful.

[HairyMoose]

Geez wmobiles weren't even invented until I was 17/18. Went to about 8/9 school tours including a five day out door hike with abseiling in Lesotho where my friend and I did lose the group when we were on our walk back and we ended up hitching back to the campsite 😂😂. But all I got from these are really good and funny memories. We never had phones at all.

[WreckingBallsInsideMyHead]

How would you have felt if you were trying to ring him and not getting a reply? Because he was busy or forgot to charge it?

[teacherwith2kids]

Apologies, I realise that you said that the location of the shooting was an hour away from where your DS was staying - was it on the itinerary for today?

I do appreciate that 'shooting in Germany' would have been a bad moment, but when it was 'shooting in cinema in Reading' and you know that your DS was staying in Oxford and the trip today was not to Reading (choosing 2 places in the UK an hour apart), that would have been OK IYSWIM? Especially as the school confirmed that they were fine in a timely manner?

[smallfox1980]

It wasn't patronising, just reality really.

[LyndaNotLinda]

I can imagine that was very scary. I think you shouldn't allow your DS to go on school trips again tbh.

[teacherwith2kids]

Was it the same town, and was he going to the cinema? If it was, I can understand the horror of it from your point of view - just as my parents and PIL had the horror of realising that the 9/11 Washington plane crashed into the Pentagon, only a few 100 yards from where DH was working, and then there was for some time thought to be another unaccounted for plane somewhere over Washington, where we were all living.

They couldn't ring us, of course - the phone system was overloaded.

[teacherwith2kids]

To be honest, your DS, unless he was in the same town as the incident, would probably have been blissfully unaware of the events - so a scared mum ringing him would probably have been dreadful from his point of view, however reassuring you might have found it. The staff would then have had to deal with a bunch of partially-informed and potentially very upset children, all possibly ringing and further worrying their parents, who also might have been at workplaces which had no up-to-the-minute news.

As it was,. the staff could manage and control the situation at that end and inform you in a very timely way.

Horrible for you, of course. From your DS's point of view, much, much better.

[anotherglass]

mallfox1980 - thank you for the patronising comment. Very kind.

footie - I hope you don't have to experience anything similar.

[Footle]

Your worst nightmare was probably your son being hurt. Happily, he hasn't been.

[smallfox1980]

You do realise that the mobile phone network in that area would likely have been over loaded and you would have been unlikely to get through anyway?

The school have managed to contact you and all the other parents quickly which is great. A mobile phone may not have been much use.

[anotherglass]

UPDATE: My son went on his school trip without mobile phone or other means of direct contact with us.

This afternoon, a gunman opened fire in a German shopping complex an hour away from where they are staying on their school trip.

Son is in Germany not Belgium as I said in original post ( I did not want to out myself ).

This was my worst nightmare.

The school has confirmed that everyone is OK - but it was sickening seeing the news of a shooting breaking on my work PC - with no way to call him directly to check if OK.

I hope no one else has to go through this.

[LyndaNotLinda]

DS doesn't even know when/if I have conversations with the school about stuff. How on earth would your DD know that your complaints 'backfire'?

Anyway, as pp have said, a decent risk assessment for any school trip should include letting parents/carers know if something has changed. It shouldn't rely on children having phones on them to alert parents. That's completely crap and puts your children at far more risk than if the school took proper responsibility for communication.

Seriously, that's an escalate to governors/LA/Ofsted safeguarding concern.

I can't believe there are any schools nowadays who don't text parents at least once a day. More than half the texts I get are from school!

[ilovesooty]

Ah, I see you're off. Your hostility to teachers is fairly apparent in your last post anyway. I'm not sure why I've bothered to engage with you really.

[ilovesooty]

I didn't say you were lying about what she told you. I meant that you appear to have no hard facts therefore it's speculation.

And I could tell the difference between parents and the children I taught. I didn't, by the way, talk down to children simply because they were younger. I'm sure the teachers you know don't do that either. However if your attitude is evident in your dealings with them I'm sure you're well known if your posts here are anything to go by.

[PacificDogwod]

Learning how to deal with feeling bored is good for us

Just sayin'.

[Marynary]

Nice bit of selective quoting there, Mary; as I'm sure you remember, I also made it clear that I can't possibly know whether these things were so or if you simply ignored something which didn't suit

The implication was/is pretty clear Puzzledandpissedoff What exactly would be the point of making anything up on a thread like this? Anyway, as it is all getting quite predictable now (as with all threads concerning teachers), I'm off.

[Puzzledandpissedoff]

Nice bit of selective quoting there, Mary; as I'm sure you remember, I also made it clear that I can't possibly know whether these things were so or if you simply ignored something which didn't suit

Seems I may have touched a nerve, though ...

[Marynary]

I thankfully don't have to deal with parents with your attitude any more. They were enough of a pain in the arse then but fortunately were in a minority for most of my career.

Thankfully I don't have to deal with teachers with your attitude. The ones I have met in real life seem to be able to tell the difference between parents and the children they teach.

And as for your "unofficial and anonymous" allegation about teachers taking out parental complaints on pupils that's seemingly no more than speculation.

Of course I must be lying about the fact that DD told me complaints sometimes backfire too.