Angry Mum vs School. Who is Being Unreasonable?

[strawberrisc]

9 year old sneaks onto school trip. Gets mild telling off at home then parents blast the school. Who IBU? www.facebook.com/922716137773390/posts/2145294778848847/

I think the 'punishment' of 'not going on anymore school'trips bizarre as she wasn't going on this one! I think I agree with a previous poster that this may have been orchestrated by the parents. They strike me as the sort of people where everything is everyone else's fault but never there's. And yes L'evea is a ridiculous name and really says it all about this family!

I am also at a loss as to why they went to to papers to do obligatory 'sad face'.

The kid was naughty and has been punished (it doesn’t say the telling off was mild, and she’s not allowed to go on any more trips). But this is quite seriously a major safeguarding fail. Imagine if they left a child behind somewhere because they didn’t do a headcount? I think it’s fair for the parents to be furious.

How on earth did they manage to go all the way to Wales with an extra child? I can't read the article, don't have Facebook but if I was a parent with a child at that school I would be a bit concerned about letting my child go anywhere with them. How much of a madame this child is is irrelevant. If she had been caught before they left it wouldn't be in the paper and she would have been given an appropriate punishment.

Yes, it’s a safeguarding issue. They now have to consider sneaky little buggers like this trying to sneak onto trips. No one would’ve thought a child would be deviously try to sneak onto a trip when at 9 you KNOW what you’re doing is wrong. It’s a case of having to think of all possibilities and this is clearly a new one. Schools will now have to think of ways kids will be sneaky and out in place procedures to guard against it. I think rsther the school shouldn’t allow her on school trips again. What 9 year old thinks this is ok to do? Serious CF madam in the making. The mother posing with the child for free press is not setting good example. Blame the school when the child was told no but is going to do it anyway (go on the trip).

Oops with the teachers, head count should have been done, but the girl is probably loving the angry face publicly she is getting and making a show of it. Yes she is 9 but she planned it well so not as though she is a shy little innocent girl. Probably make a great M16 agent when she is older.

And I can't help agree that mum probably put her up to it.

How on earth did they manage to go all the way to Wales with an extra child?. they didn’t.

I can’t be the only one who thinks this is “look, I haven’t got £150, just sneak on the bus, keep your head down, and they’ll just have to take you”, can I? Reeks of it.

^ This. The mother smacks to me of all out entitlement.

The school should have made the parents come and get their daughter rather than the head teacher having to use his own car to meet the ungrateful sods.

She hid on the bus. Other pupils lied and helped her hide. A register was taken before the bus set off.

I'm not generally a big fan of teaching staff but on this occasion I feel for them.

They school need to be held to account. Full register and head count must be done throughout trips. When you and arrive and during small group activities. We have a fairly local school where a child was left behind after a trip. The fallout from that on staff mean that you take your job in your hands making a mistake.

She shouldn’t have even been able to get to the point of getting on the bus! Nobody has denied the child was wrong but I can’t believe how many are trying to defend the School. They need to have a very close look at their policies

Most schools will pay for any children that can't afford the trip. Lots of them use pupil premium funding to cover experiences like this for children that receive it. Residentials like this can be great for building self esteem, cementing friendships, teaching resilience etc.

The girl shouldn't have done what she did, and I'd be hugely surprised if she planned the whole thing without any adult input. But the school safeguarding procedures have failed. They should have done a headcount more than once before setting off and the register should have been taken back in school which would have identified the girl as missing.

If a child is being actively hidden on a coach under people's feet or under a seat they are going to be missed. She's a little madam.

God you can tell by the arrogant stare inti the camera that she's a cheeky little madam and no mistake

It's a bit odd that the father says "But the school knew she wasn't going on the trip. How was she allowed to get changed out of her uniform into her own clothes without anyone noticing? How did the girl even have her own clothes in school with her that day?

I can understand parents wanting to challenge the school on safeguarding, I can understand them going to the press to bring extra pressure ... where it becomes unacceptable is dragging your child into your argument and plastering their picture all over the local paper.

But piper how did she also avoid the headcojnt each group leader should have done? The headcount before leaving school? The being counted into the bus?

The best part is the aunt and her comments on the MEN FB article.

What are primary schools doing running trips that cost 150, therefore ensuring some pupils can't go? £150 when they're 9, £500 - £1500 when they're 16! Schools are not quite as 'inclusive' as they should be. Surely most have a fund to help out those who don't have the money for school trips though? No child should be excluded.

I can understand parents wanting to challenge the school on safeguarding, I can understand them going to the press to bring extra pressure ... where it becomes unacceptable is dragging your child into your argument and plastering their picture all over the local paper.

They're simply lashing out and causing a big fuss to deflect them and their child of any wrong-doing. Playing the victim and using a child is a shitty tactic.

I'm sure the child's friends will spill the beans to their teachers and parents all about how 'L'Evea' tried to get a free trip and her parents knew all about it.

She had a bag full of clothes ffs.

The school is totally at fault. If they didn't know she got on the bus how did they know to look after her, get her back on the bus etc?

I dislike the going to the local papers part but she should have been spotted before the bus went. A walking up the bus head count would have picked her up. You are supposed to check seat belts are fastened and I find it hard to believe she wouldn't have been seen whilst that was being done.

Are they really called leaver and remainer and fell out about the EU politics?

It's hilarious, right down to the devious look on the kids face in the compo pics 😂😂😂

"But the school knew she wasn't going on the trip. How was she allowed to get changed out of her uniform into her own clothes without anyone noticing?"

Perhaps the parents should 1st consider how she was allowed to stash civvies in her school bag and leave home with added bulk/weight in bag. They are fast to point a finger, but appear to have a blind spot with regards to their own ability to be hoodwinked by their daughter.

If they did not do so, the school should have done a headcount. I'm in TEFL. Our standards, particularly those of decades ago which was the last time I put myself through the hell of taking small children on a trip, tend to be lower than state schools, not least cos we don't/didn't have OFSTED ready to pounce on us. But even I managed to realise the need for and use frequent headcount at every "we are moving off somewhere" point. Kids can be sneaky little buggers at worst, and clueless when distracted at best. They can have "cunning plans" that have the capacity for awful outcomes. You need to count them to make sure you have the right number of them at all times. And look at faces. We almost left one place with a kid from another organisation's group, while one of ours was in a loo having decided to just wander off for a pee without telling anybody. That was my last trip. I don't want that kind of responsibility for other people's children. Especially the kids who haven't benefited from the strongest of parental boundaries, with parents who look everywhere except the mirror when deciding who to blame for their child's latest high jinks. I take my my hat off to any teacher willing to take kids away for the day, let alone overnight. Personally I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than ever do that again.