To be cross with the school (school trip related!)

[schooltripwoes]

DD is 7 and has been on a school trip today. It's been a sunny day and the class spent a lot of the time outdoors.
I have just picked her up from school and her cheeks and ears are bright red - as in they look like she's caught the sun. Suspicious of the fact that her sunhat was rolled up in the same way that I packed it this morning, questions were asked and she confessed that she 'forgot' to wear her sun hat. She had suncream on before leaving home, and says she applied more at lunchtime (but 7 year-olds aren't great at this job, as I'm sure you know!). So I'm fuming that she didn't wear her hat to keep the sun off her face.
Whilst I accept that children need to learn to look after themselves and have some degree of responsibility, AIBU to expect the teachers to gently remind infant school children to wear their sun hats when they're spending the majority of the day sat in the sun?

More gormless than bad really. She’s only 7. She probably did forget.

So its ok to complain about the teacher but the child is blameless? the OP must have drilled her child about the danger of the sun. So why didn't she remember to wear her hat? She needs to learn the importance of wearing a hat in the sun - how will she learn for herself if her parents just blame the teacher?

I help on a lot of school trips and while it is difficult keeping everyone alive without worrying about every minute detail, I'd say in this instance OP YANBU. Sun stroke is a real and serious condition and any school trip conducted in the summer should fully take into account weather. This includes checking everyone has a hat and making them wear one if it is hot. We did one last year which was broiling and the teacher in charge found an alternative place for lunch sitting so we were all in the shade, because there was a concern the children were getting over hot.
Also, on a very cold day, the teacher and volunteer parents will bring extra hats, gloves, and check visually before getting on the bus that everyone is adequately clothed.
These are fundamental things to do on an infant school trip

Sun protection is a hundred times more important than anything else. Any adult responsible for children should ensure they are safe in the sun, or the trip should be cut short. It is reprehensible to allow a seven year old to burn. People need to grow up about this. No hat should mean no outdoors.

In our school even if we said on the trip letter suncream and hats, a significant proportion of children would not have either. How would we know who has or hasn’t? And we can’t just leave them behind as the parent has paid for the trip.
I would remind all children and ask them to top up at lunchtime tbh but I can see how it happened.
I may or may not have suncreamed a particularly fair and completely unprotected child on a trip one time with my sensitive factor 50. Not something one should do but I couldn’t watch the poor thing frazzle.

I think the main issue, and several of the replies here support this, is that sun hats aren't seen as a must for children being outdoors in the UK summer. I feel quite strongly (can you tell ) that they should be non-negotiable if you're spending more than 30 mins in the sun. My kids HATE wearing their hats, despite my best efforts, and if they can get away without wearing one, they will.
The photos of the trip on the school blog show around only 20% of the kids (at most) wearing their hat, even when they're all sat in the middle of the field eating lunch in the blazing sunshine . This was a trip for 4-7 year olds that was outdoors from 10-2 in the open countryside (no shade) and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We were told to pack a hat, and bags were checked on arrival in school for suncream, hats, lunch, water etc., so to me it's very odd that there wasn't more of a push to get the children to wear them. The

If every child had a hat and they knew this then yes it should have been enforced.

Why wasn’t she wearing her hat when she left home in the morning?

Why wasn’t she wearing her hat when she left home in the morning?

She was. Then when they arrived at school, they were told they'd be going to assembly first so hats and jumpers etc. needed to be put away in their bags. I folded it for her and put it in the mesh pocket on the outside of the bag so she would see it and wouldn't forget to put it on. Except she did forget

I do think a lot of posters have given the OP too much of a hard time. The opening post was possibly worded too strongly, but what she was doing was having a rant on an anonymous forum, not a snotty email to the teachers on the school trip. If she had sent them an email like that she would have rightly been given a roasting on here.

She does also know what she's talking about, as she's helped out on school trips before. I think she has a good point, sunstroke can be very serious, as can bad sunburn. Yes, of course her DD should have remembered to wear her hat herself, no one is disputing that, but the staff on a school trip are responsible for keeping the children safe so it's fair enough to flag it up. One boy had blisters on his head, so clearly there are questions to be answered.

I find it quite funny how on Mumsnet some posters seem to think teachers are beyond reproach, and no one should dare to suggest that they might be at fault sometimes.