In thinking year 10's shouldn't be able to have free reign in London

[Verbena37]

DD just came home with a music trip letter. The trip is to see a major London show which I was really keen for her to go and see.

However, it says they'll arrive and then have 'free time in London', with staff staying in one place and giving the kids a mobile number if there's an emergency.

I'm totally not happy with this. If something major happens, then the medical forms aren't with the kids and the teachers might be miles across London. It doesn't say a specific area, such as Covent Garden.....just London.

My DD, as I assume many others, don't know their way around London and I think it's quite a daunting city for kids who don't know it.... some of them will only be 14. DD will have just turned 15.

Why have a theatre trip that has free reign in London attached to it?

I can temember going to franch at that age with the school and being given free time of 3 hours to go round with friends on our own.

Talk to the school there will be rules etc...

I understand your nerves but I'm sure they'll be fine. Best check what the plans are though to put your mind at rest.

When I was 16 about 100 years ago we went on a school trip to Rome and we were allowed a lot of free time. One night a friend and I bumped into a teacher who'd been out eating and drinking near the Spanish Steps - we'd been flirting with boys - and shared a cab back to the hotel with him. I didn't speak Italian but the driver was clearly congratulating him on picking up two young girls and taking them to his hotel room. My teacher was horrified.

It would never be allowed these days. Though we had a wonderful time, I think that's probably for the best

My & my friend got lost in London in year 10 when given free reign -1999. The teachers gave a meeting point , we were both a bit dizzy and couldn't find the meeting point. The class went onto the museum, we waited in the same place & an hour later got found by a teacher who was looking for us. We could see all the staff were relieved as they didnt have to tell school, it was a year before everyone had a mobile phone so really scary.
I think if we had a phone it would have been better, the school started taking a mobile & gave all pupils that number when on trips as a result of the incident.I don't think kids that age really want to go gallivanting around London. We were so scared & just wanted to find our class we could have gone anywhere but waited in one spot.

DD and her friends haven't yet gone to our nearest city on their own

By 15, they probably should have done. They could be going off to festivals/travelling/holidays in a year or two. University/living alone after that. When do you plan for them to learn about looking after themselves?

DD and her friends haven't yet gone to our nearest city on their own....only dropped off into the cinema etc.

And yet she's nearly 15??

I think that answers your own question - "Why have a theatre trip that has free reign in London attached to it?"

For the same reason schools have to do lots of things they would probably rather not, but the parents simply won't step up and do it themselves.

In this case it's allowing teenagers to develop perfectly normal independent traveling skills, outside of the confines of Mummy and Daddy's car.

I went on a day trip to France with the school age 12/13. We were dropped off at Calais about 11am and told to meet back at the coach park at 4pm - which we all did, despite the fact even mobile phones hadn't been invented.

YABU, at that age they should be more than capable of going around in small groups (minimum 3), with their phones on them and an emergency card with phone number on (for when their phone runs out of battery/ gets dropped in the Thames)

At age 12 I was travelling into London with friends
At age 13 went on a trip to Germany and travelled in small groups around Cologne, which is a much smaller city, but still unknown and using a foreign language, at a time when mobiles didn't work abroad.

I would have no problem with that.
However i find it ridiculous that i just had to write a letter to my dd 19 college to say it was ok for her to stay in london after college trip as she has a weekly class in stratford and wont make it if she comes back college for 5.30 and have to go back into london again

I'd not have a problem. But when I was thirteen (yes I know!) I was allowed to roam Europe on a school trip!

It was brilliant but my parents would have had a heart attack and no child of mind will be allowed to do the same!

Great thread OP - perfect timing as dd (13) is going into London tomorrow with 4 other girls for a shopping trip. I was a bit apprehensive but didn't want her to miss out. Am now satisfied I'm not being a neglectful parent in allowing her to go

YABU It will be fine and totally normal in year 10. Summer holidays of year 8 is when most of my friends kids and mine were allowed to travel into central London with friends with strict instructions to only go to Covent Garden, Oxford street and Soho. They will have strict rules as to where they can and can't go and if they get lost they should either ask a black cab driver for directions or put their maps on on their phone

She will be fine, but I can see why you'd be worried.
I remember going to London in year 9 to the imperial war museum. My mum and plenty of other parents wanted it cancelled as an hour before we left for London there was a suspected bomb on the tube and it had all be cordoned off. We still left and it's almost 2.5hours each way from where I lived.

The trip involved going round London on different forms of transport in groups of around 8 with one teacher per group, apparently to teach us about different ways of getting around the city. We were the unlucky ones and got sent on to the tube which was full of police and then on to the railway line going up to canary warf then walk in to London filling in worksheets. We had to go round as a whole year group round the imperial war museum and then once they'd worked out we could all be trusted they let us all loose in groups of 4 or more just as it was getting dark.
The rules were pretty clear.

1. Do not leave any member of the group on their own, even if you fall out.
2. Keep phones on, but in pockets at all times. No flaunting your phone or iPods.
3. No catching buses, trains or the tube.
4. We could only go from Leicester Square to Covent Garden and had just over 1 hour. It was so cold that most went back before that in the hope we could leave early.

Out of the 40-50 students I vaguely remember only 1 going missing at it was the first time anything like that had happened. (caught a train to see his pregnant girlfriend who'd just texted him to say she was pregnant...)
So it's very unlikely anything will happen. We all knew we would never hear the end of it if we had gone missing and it would have been pretty difficult to get home again if we had missed the bus.

In Year 7 we were allowed round a theme park for an entire day in groups of around 4-6
Year 9 - London
Year 10 - London again
Year 11 - Belgium - Allowed to walk around for 1 hour in a small town, looking at the different shops and stocking up on food for the long journey home by bus.

In year 8 there was a fun trip to Disney where they were unsupervised pretty much the whole time except meals.
Year 11 there was a trip to USA/New York where they stayed for 2 weeks and had free roam the majority of the time.

The school were amazing at getting us out of a tiny town in to large places which most parents could not afford to do as a family so I can't remember many if any people not going on the main school trips. It was the highlight of the time at school for a lot of us.

I'm sure your daughter will be fine and have an amazing time but as someone with extreme anxiety over my son not being with me I know I'd struggle too. I just try to remember the fun I had and wouldn't deny a child that.

(Sorry, slightly longer than intended.)

Ooh a lot longer than expected. Anyway hopefully that clears up how the trip may run. They won't be allowed on tubes or buses on their own. Of that I'm pretty certain

rein

I'd say that's perfectly normal, even expected at that age, to be trusted with some free time.

When I had just turned 16, I went on a school trip to the USA. Once the day's itinerary had be completed, we were actively encouraged to go and explore so the teachers could get pissed in the hotel bar

It was fab. We had no curfew when we were in New York, so we just.. explored. In DC we had a 10pm curfew, but spent a happy few hours monument-jumping in the dark before then.

It's definitely one of my favourite memories from my school days.

It's fine. Pre-mobile phones and coming from a small village, my friends and I used to go up to London for the day regularly. Having been a teacher, I have let yr9s have free time in London and Paris. In fact, thinking about it, when I was in yr 9 I had free time in Bonn and Cologne and in Yr 10 in Marmaris. Honestly, go into London on any weekend and you will see loads of teenagers out in groups, perfectly fine.

I used to get on the train on my own and go to the West End of London and shop on my own at the age of 12!

They will be fine, and need the life experience.

I appreciate things have changed but when I was thirteen we got sent on a trip where at the other end we got sent off to sleep in houses with locals who had responded to an advert in the local paper to put up visitors.

It wasn't a school trip, but a music group.

Imagine the uproar now. No police checks, in a few houses we got wine and beer. Best trip of my life and taught me a lot.

Oh, it was three weeks and in New Zealand
And way before mobile phones etc.

I wouldn't hesitate to send my kids on the same.

We had free time on some of our UK school trips from year 8. Teachers were around in hi vis jackets & pre-arranged points. but you were expected to roam around - it was a great learning experience.

YABVU, year 10... come on!

Alexa, yes.....saw I'd written reign instead of rein. Oops.

at that age yabu.
one hour with clear instructions about when and where to meet up is totally sensible and reasonable.

Free rein (sic, as, in horses' reins being not pulled in too tight so they can have their heads a bit) is fine.

They are 15.

Quick update. Dd had a fantastic day in London with her friends. No disasters befell any of them and she is so pleased with herself! She came home exhausted and soaked with a bagful of tat and a load of selfish. OP hopefully this gives you some confidence that your Dd will have a ball? X

Why would they need medical forms? I assume you don't make your child carry a medical form if she goes into town with her friends?