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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Drinking on a school trip?

333 replies

Flower64 · 03/09/2019 16:19

I contacted my child's school after a camping trip to ask about the teachers drinking on one of the evenings. My child said there was a lot of laughing, screeching and in her opinion the teachers were drunk. She's 13 so not a young child and I think she'd recognise someone drinking. I got an email reply today and part of it says "some staff did stay up later than the children one night, but at no point were any staff drunk. As an additional precaution two staff members consumed no alcohol at all".

AIBU to surmise then that the remaining staff members did have a drink - but in their opinion they weren't drunk - and is this actually acceptable? I don't think any teachers should be drinking on a school trip but now I am doubting myself and looking for opinions please!

OP posts:
ScreamingValenta · 03/09/2019 16:37

Oh, cut them some slack. Being a teacher nowadays sounds like the worst job in the world - they deserve to relax with a drink.

I remember my school trip to France back in the 80s. We had a visit to a vineyard with an opportunity for discount purchases ... all the teachers got back on the coach with huge clinking carrier bags! We students got given miniature sample bottles too, but the teachers collected them up to hand over direct to our parents ... spoilsports! Grin

NerrSnerr · 03/09/2019 16:37

Can't believe you actually contacted the school about this. Maybe you need to practice your sad face and contact the local paper.

HarryElephante · 03/09/2019 16:38

Teachers laughing and relaxing?

Someone call the police!

ghostyslovesheets · 03/09/2019 16:39

YABU

teachers giving up their free time - without pay - to take your child away and you begrudge them a drink and a laugh

do you NEVER drink at home then?

IWentAwayIStayedAway · 03/09/2019 16:39

YABU. volunteer next time as that will be a few less teachers wanting to help out. Posts like this are why I refuse these trips!

OtraCosaMariposa · 03/09/2019 16:39

Some were drinking. Others were sober.

If I were taking a group of 13 year olds camping I'd certainly need a drink. And I wouldn't be going again next year given that one of the kids went whingeing to her mother about it and the mother felt it appropriate to complain to school.

Fuck that for a game of soldiers.

5foot5 · 03/09/2019 16:40

Agree with all other PPs, you should be grateful to the teachers for giving up their own time not carping on because some of them had a drink.

But I'm from the days when kids regularly caught their teachers down the pub after school.

Ha ha, yes. DH said he can remember when once, as a VI former, he and some mates sneaked out of school on the last lunch time of term and went to the pub for a quick one. They had only been there a short while when a group of the younger teachers came in on the same errand! Apparently one of the teachers came over and said "We haven't seen you and you haven't seen us. OK?"

IsobelRae23 · 03/09/2019 16:41

I used to go ski-ing a lot with school 14-18 year olds. All the teachers had a drink, and we’d have a few sneaky ones. Teachers are saints to do this! Ds is going to Canada next year, and I can imagine the teachers needing a drink with them lot- they don’t stop talking! I’d never begrudge a teacher doing that, as there are always at least 2 not having a drink in the night. Plus when we talk ‘a drink’ we aren’t talking drunk, just 2/3 glasses or pints at the end of the day. I’m just grateful teachers are willing to give up their spare time/home-life/kids for a week, to give my child an opportunity I could not afford on my own.

Solihooley · 03/09/2019 16:42

Um, I’m pretty sure teachers getting drunk is part and parcel of school trips. Ours used to get completely hammered.

pointythings · 03/09/2019 16:43

You will be mercilessly mocked in the staffroom, OP. And rightly so.

ELM8 · 03/09/2019 16:44

🤦🏼‍♀️

BedraggledBlitz · 03/09/2019 16:44

Its embarrassing that you contacted the school. They are adults and capable of making judgement calls.

GetUpAgain · 03/09/2019 16:44

Is this a reverse? I have no problem with this, I am grateful for the teachers going on the trips!

lyralalala · 03/09/2019 16:45

There’s a ratio of teachers to children. If a teacher drank and could no longer act as a responsible adult then that ratio no longer holds. In my opinion there should be no alcohol when looking after minors on a school camping trip.

That ratio will be 1:30 legally so as long as there was no more than 60 children the 2 teachers are fine.

Slazengerbag · 03/09/2019 16:45

Did your child see the teachers or just hear them. I’ve been with many friends where we have been sober but a lot of laughing going on.

I went on a 6 day residential in June. There was 75 teenagers who were up at 7 and in bed at 10. I did not get paid any extra to go. Personally I don’t drink so I was sober and so were many of the other staff. As it was lovely weather there was a few who had a glass of cider or two but nothing more. They also did not drink until the children were in bed.

What are you wanting to complain about? There was staff not drinking so if anything happened they would of sorted it.

IsobelRae23 · 03/09/2019 16:45

@5foot5 OMG that happened to us too! It was a sporting event, and our A Level history teacher allowed us to go up the pub as we were begging so much. We thought we were going to be in trouble when the teachers walked in, and the one. came over, until he said similar to what you wrote😂 Those were the days!

RedPanda2 · 03/09/2019 16:45

Oh dear OP. YABVU as you've probably gathered. You should probably email and apologise for complaining

Sotiredofthislife · 03/09/2019 16:45

Urgh. Just....urgh.

EmperorBallpitine · 03/09/2019 16:46

You sound fun. There were two designated on duty teachers. These are not babies we are talking about, but teens who theoretically are perfectly capable of being left asleep without a strict 1:10 ratio in place.

SarahTancredi · 03/09/2019 16:48

Those were the days!

Got even better at college. You got pissed with, played pool withand shagged the staff there Grin

AChickenCalledDaal · 03/09/2019 16:48

I thought this was going to be about sixth formers taking advantage of more lenient alcohol laws abroad. Which also happens.

A few staff having a drink in the evening while away with teenagers sounds perfectly reasonable, as long someone was sober enough to deal with an emergency. Which it sounds like they were.

scarecrowhead · 03/09/2019 16:52

Call the fun police, and then please volunteer to run the next one - for no money, in your own free time

Nottobesoldseparately · 03/09/2019 16:52

Wouldn't bother me. I'd expect it.

Geography field trip, in the Yorkshire Dales. Teachers took it in turns to go to the pub, although we did point out they could just leave us all.

Guide camp..... the leaders all got slaughtered when we had been sent to bed.

Exchange trip, everyone, including us students all drank.

6th form? Our head of year actually took us to the pub himself!

ShadyLady53 · 03/09/2019 16:53

I’ve been on two residential trips as a trainee teacher a few years back now. One a top UK public boarding school, another the local state catholic high school.

On both trips I was the only member of staff who didn’t drink alcohol and I was appalled at my colleagues for getting drunk. It was a huge eye opener. On one trip 12 bottles of wine were smuggled in back packs to share between three colleagues on a 2 night trip.

At the Catholic high school one teacher behaved inappropriately with year 11 students due to being drunk (talking about sexual relationships with other teachers, some of whom were married, commenting on their genitalia and how good or bad they were in bed), also spoke inappropriately about other students (ones they liked and disliked for personal, hurtful reasons). The member of staff was never disciplined.

herculepoirot2 · 03/09/2019 16:54

Provided they weren’t doing anything inappropriate, they were acting perfectly legally. There were completely two sober adults to deal with any issues, and the teachers who did have a drink won’t have been swinging off the lampposts either.