Teachers go on a school trip for a jolly

[User135792468]

I have read numerous threads about teachers recently regarding school trips. Some suggest it’s just a jolly, others are outraged that teachers get a free holiday and don’t have to pay for going on the trip also.

The teachers in the article below have just been acquitted of manslaughter and have been through 7 years of hell. It was an absolute tragedy for the child and family involved. Every single parents worst nightmare. However, next time you think teachers are off on a jolly, think again.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-63150259.amp

It's no free holiday. I lost half a stone in a week the first time i did it. Running around checking up on 30 teenagers abroad is NOT a relaxing jolly.

If being responsible for a group of schoolchildren 24/7 in a foreign country - or indeed anywhere away from home - is someone's idea of a jolly, then frankly I wish them a truly bon voyage. My idea of hell (and that was sealed at the paddling through sick at 1am and more sick on the coach next day with regard to the stories shared here). This story brings home the weight of responsibility.

Did a residential for y7 last year. While it was genuinely brilliant to see shy/nervous/scared kids blossom and deprived kids eyes wide with excitement at the opportunities, it was the most exhausting four days of my life. Not one kid or parent thanked us, we had a serious safeguarding concern come to light (at about 3am), and had to send a kid home for dangerous behaviour.
However, a child on that trip recently made a moving speech in assembly about how the trip made him feel he belonged to the school (yes, I cried). Worth every moment of lost sleep, worry and paperwork.
Those poor, poor people - child, family and teachers. How awful.

Headlining the thread about teachers 'going on a trip for a jolly' has rather distracted from what is an absolute tragic story and what has been, and will always remain an absolute nightmare for the staff on that trip.
It is shocking this has taken so long to resolve and that they have been under threat of prison abroad for the fact this tragedy happened on a trip they organised.
As was said on the first page, I hope they are getting, and have been getting support throughout this ordeal, but I very much doubt if they are.
A terrible situation all round, and yes, it does make you question why you do it (teachers, and, has already been mentioned, volunteer youth Leaders across the country).

OP, YABVU for conflating this tragic incident with the repeated assertion, at least on MN, that school residential trips are a jolly for staff.

The trip was not a jolly in the first place, it was work.

Over the years I stopped volunteering for residentials because I recognised they didn't fit with my need for decompressing time. I doubt that that's the same reason my colleagues had as such trips became harder and harder to fill. It's just such relentless work, however enjoyable and worthwhile.

Nobody should be "extremely drunk" in charge of children though, day or night.

Getting on a bus and going anywhere with lots of children that are not mine is far from a holiday as I could imagine. I think I would rather 4 weeks all-inclusive in a North Korean Labour camp...

For goodness sake… seven years of hell for those poor people and you are ‘not unsympathetic’. It’s not a one or the other thing you know with sides. The whole thing was a complete tragedy.

I’ve never thought of them as jollies.
A friend’s dd had a nightmare at a foreign airport when one of the little sods was nicked for shoplifting - and that was after all sorts of alcohol/you name it shenanigans beforehand.

Have you read what the parents had to say, @jumperoozles ?

I said I am not unsympathetic, ergo I am sympathetic. So don’t ‘for goodness sake’ me.

But the real tragedy here is not the teachers, it’s the girl.

Exactly.

And the school has behaved appallingly. Aside from the fact that they should have been watching her in the water, the parents had to wait 7 years to find out what happened, as the school didn't tell them

I wouldn't call having responsibility for a group of children for 24 hours a day a holiday. My son went on a 4 night trip recently and told me about a teacher being bad tempered. I said I don't blame her after being with him and his class mates for all that time. I struggle having a few kids over for a sleepover 😮

I don’t really understand how it went to court to be honest. It seems very clear that it was just a tragic accident. But it’s awful that the parents were not told what happened. I guess it had something to do with legal procedures ongoing, but it must have been agonising for the parents.

OP YABVU for conflating this tragic incident with the repeated assertion, at least on MN, that school residential trips are a jolly for staff.

Exactly - OP, I think your post is grossly insensitive to this tragedy. It's completely separate from any views on whether school trips are a 'jolly' (not something I've seen really, more the assertion that people think it).

This is a very specific isolated & tragic case, for primarily the girl's family, as well as the teachers & school.

It's two tragedies, one more serious than the other, but it is still terrible for the teachers.

RIP Jessica.

The schools behaviour was truly inhumane and shameful.

The Principal should have been named.

How they could stand by and put the parents through years of unanswered questions I don't know, probably on the back of legal advice.

Where do you get this from? I re-read the article & the others linked.

All I can see mentioned is that in 2016, a year after the tragedy, the family still had not received answers.

The process by French authorities took all this time - and while it was ongoing, the school would have been unable to comment or otherwise provide information.

I'm not sure why you are so critical of the school - and the head teacher was named in the earlier articles.

A jolly? It looks like hell. I think the only time teachers relax (and then probably only slightly) is when everyone is accounted for, bums are on seats and the coach is taking everyone home!

There’s more detail on some other news sites. I won’t link to them all but in essence the parents were not told any details of what happened, which hugely exacerbated their anguish.

However, I am mystified as to why the teachers were on trial at all.

I remember going on a trip with ky dd class when she was 5. I was with several other mums. It's such a shame they don't really allow this so much anymore
We all had 3 dc each. One of my group had a stinking cold and I spent all day wiping their nose because otherwise they would have rather let it drip down them no matter how many tissues I passed them,
It was a small village school though so everyone knew everyone and everyone cared about each other's dc. But was so hard and I only had 3 dc to look after! If they needed the loo etc parents weren't allowed to take the so teacher was responsible for all of that. Was hardddddd, a jolly it was not.

Saying about the time in lieu thing though, are teachers forced to go on the trips then? I've never had time in lieu for work trips including those abroad to far away places with a quick turn around back home which is exhausting but work still has to be done when you get back anyway,

Scout leader here. You spend the entire time on edge when you go away with them, you have to be constantly thinking, alert, risk assessing on the move, remembering who is allergic to what and who needs meds when. Plus dealing with behaviour. It is exhausting!

Work recently asked me to think about going on the annual Ardèche trip. I'm a French speaker and they need an extra person. I looked at it quite seriously. 10 days, France, some really lovely activities and experiences. On paper, maybe. In reality? No bloody way. Too much anxiety. My colleague who does go looks like he's been through an ordeal on return. Little sleep and hyper vigilance out on the water with the students. Somebody always gets ill or terribly homesick. It's not a holiday.

🙄who the hell thinks it’s a “jolly”?

I’m yet another parent who has never heard anyone suggest this.

The French legal system doesn't work like the UK one.

In very simple terms (and as best I understand it) in France if there's a accident that causes fatalities then there's almost always a starting assumption by the authorities that somebody is to blame and that somebody will end up being sanctioned. That then means often as not mean the case has to go through the court process before a decision is made that whatever happened was a tragic accident.

That applies across the board - even for what appears to a straightforward motoring accident people can find themselves being briefly taken into custody, cautioned PDQ, and then hopefully released on bail with a view to a possible trial in X months/years time if the investigating magistrate who gets appointed to look at the accident in detail thinks there might be a case worth pursuing.

I hasten to add I haven't followed this case in detail and don't know why the process took so long, it might be interesting to hear more from anybody with a better understanding of the system.

@notimagain

I was going to write a similar post - I don't know the system in France well either but through a work situation some years ago had experience of how the legal system worked & it was similar to this situation and how you describe it.

It's not exactly the same as saying they were on trial like it would be in UK / Ireland - the prosecutor had proposed that if the judicial hearing had found against them, they could face a 3 year prison sentence. The judicial hearing was the starting point, which did not find cause to uphold any charge against them. It's dreadful that it would take 7 years, and unimaginable for the poor parents, left in limbo.