School residential, school have said they have to go

[Y4GoingAway]

School Year 4, but it’s a first school so the final year at the school.

Apparently it’s compulsory and there is no provision in school for those who don’t go as the class teachers plus several other staff go.

I don’t want DD to go. She has a genetic condition that affects her muscles and joints. She also has an EHCP due to SN (not ASD)

The trip is canoeing and rock climbing and zip lining and orienteering. Which all sound great but schools only adjustment for DDs condition is she can sit out if she wants to, which she won’t because she never does for Forest School or PE or anything else physical, school say they cannot force DD to sit out. They have PE, Forest School and the morning mile in one day at school and DDs generally screaming in pain by 2pm, I’ve asked for her to sit out of Forest School and the mile but been told that it’s up to DD to decide and she wants to be like her friends so will push herself until she can’t cope anymore – she’s missed school the next day because of the pain and school just shrug and say she needs to tell them when she wants to sit out, while in the next breath saying she seems to refuse to acknowledge her condition as she won’t talk about it!

This isn’t about DD being away overnight, she stays away from me with ExH EOWend for 1 night and he usually takes her away for 3-4 days in the summer holidays plus she’s just done a 3 day pack holiday with Brownies. Also it’s not a cost thing, the trip itself is free, we’re being asked to donate to transport there and back either by paying school for the bus or getting our DC there ourselves.
Brownies where brilliant, they let her choose one active activity per day and then put her in the group that wasn’t doing that activity after she’d done it, so she did crafts or similar, all the girls where given the same opportunity to sit out so no-one knew why DD only did 1 per day – and we’ve agreed that next time she goes she’ll do different activities so she’s tried different things which is a great compromise. Brownies also kept her topped up on her pain medication which school refuse to give her.

They’ve told me they have no provision for giving pain relief on the trip which is the same in school. They’ve also said if children sit out of an activity they will just have to watch everyone else do it, there’s no staffing for them to have a group at the centre they’re staying in doing something else – I even said DD would be happy to do worksheets or similar.

And before anyone says “But there’s more going with school” there’s the same number at Brownies and Brownies had a bigger age range as school only take the 90 year 4s, whereas Brownies had 60 Brownies (7-10 year olds), 30 guides (10-14 year olds), and a couple of Rainbows (7 year olds) who’re ready to move to Brownies soon.

School have said if she doesn’t go they will not be providing alternative work, she will be the only one in her entire year not going and she will be supervised by “whichever member off staff is free”. She does have 1-1 TA for parts of the day and one of her two 1-1s won’t be going and I’ve offered to get her tutor she has outside of school to provide work (tutor has already offered) and I’ve been told again the trip is compulsory. Apparently they've never had anyone not go ever.

So AIBU and just have to suck it up? The trip is after half term.

No - but there are a significant number of education staff who lack both imagination and understanding of their legal obligations in relation to the Equalities Act. (Many more who are amazing of course and I have encountered both). It needs to be called out every time.

If the school cannot design their end of year residential to ensure it meets needs of their pupils they shouldn't be providing it at all. The OP's child has been in school for 5 years. It surely cannot a surprise to them that they will need to make adjustments to make sure she can take part fully.

What adjustments would you like them to make?

Where is it? Is it in Southampton?

My year five son has cerebral palsy, his year are going on a five night residential, adventure holiday, same sort of thing.
He has a one to one assistant at school but they have young kids themselves, so I am going, the school are paying for me. I've said there's no way I'm helping him with the physical stuff just the personal care and the centre say they have the staff and equipment to ensure he can fully take part and not be left out at all.
I'm sorry you're going through all this worry, it's not fair.

Op has suggested one less active option in the rotation as Brownie trip did. Most centres offer that anyway eg escape room or code breaking session not just full on physical activity.

If she could have pain relief would that make it better? I feel like that may be the easiest to solve with having her go. Can you make an appointment with the GP to amend the prescription to something like every 6 hours (at bedtime/before dinner) or as needed for pain? (Or whatever makes sense with a concrete time)

the other thing I would suggest is to get an itinerary of the activities from the school (or facility) and sit down with your daughter to come up with a realistic plan for her on things to sit out.

I’m sure there are more ides , but I’d see what could be done to modify the trip for her to participate as much as reasonable.

Mainly lack of thought and assumptions.
I’m mum to a dc with a physical disability it’s been eye opening at times.
Gosh is your x going?
In my experience activity centres are very accessible and accommodating, dc been to ten plus different ones over the years.

She doesn't have to go, it is not compulsory. It is understandable that they don't have staff or availability to provide for children not able to come, but a blanket policy for children regardless of SEND needs isn't good practice, and they should be a bit embarrassed really at their lack of accessibility. Just including by 'yeah she can tag along if her needs don't present us with a challenge ' is not ok.

Tbh, rather than fight and get into unpleasantness with school at this point, if you're able, I would take that time from work, and plan an appropriate holiday with dd based on her interests that you two will take in that week while the others are away. And document with photographs etc that she can share with school etc as to what she did. Make it something fun that she'll always remember and which did not involve her watching able bodied people having fun she couldn't, and enduring pain that they aren't, and experiencing a lot of exclusion in varied ways. Not an 'educational' experience any child should be expected to endure.

Gosh there are some dicks out there.

in a past life as an advisor for a SEN charity I took a call from a parent whose child had had his electric wheelchair confiscated and told he had to use the school’s push one because they said there was no room for it and it was too noisy and too fast. What they meant was “we don’t want your child. Please go.”

As for not administering drugs, that’s also bollocks. How do they imagine other children with chronic conditions manage? Diabetes for example.

No, I think generally society simply views disabled people as a nuisance and can't be bothered to adjust any aspect of how it operates to accommodate their needs properly beyond something cursory which isn't an inconvenience to anyone else. Schools are complicit in that IMO.

My SEN child has a similar trip ans the school could not have been more accommodating. They are even paying for a room and board for my husband so that he has that support- we’re happy for that just to be ‘on call’ whilst my husband works remotely or for my husband to take part with him as a helper. They listened fully to my concerns. I honestly think your school’s threatening approach would make me doubt your child’s safety with the school.

That’s definitely not true for school. The fact is funding for disabled and SEN kids has been so relentlessly cut that schools can’t meet their needs. Absolutely nobody who works in a school wants that.

It is so much down to the individual attitude and experience of the staff in each individual school. Some are absolutely outstanding. Some really don't get it at all.

No it isn’t, it’s how much money the school can allocate to certain kids. In some schools that will be more, which results in better training and more one-on-one support.

That’s simply untrue. If it wasn’t, there wouldn’t be complaint after complaint about children being discriminated against because they’re not the same as the “norm.” The people behaving in this way don’t even think they’re being discriminatory. They just see “not norm” as a nuisance.

From working in a school, from my experience of having my SEN child in a school, I don't agree. Many, many schools and individual teachers are fantastic, and yes their funding has been decimated, but IMO the overall attitude is still that accommodating needs is a pain in the arse, and sorry but this is not just because of funding. And it's not just schools, it's a general societal thing. I tried to sign my DS up to a trampolining class before christmas to be told that it wouldn't be possible for me to accompany him as "then all the other children would want to know why their parents couldn't be there too". That sort of thing happens constantly and it did when he was at school too. Not a funding issue. An attitude.

This 100%. People simply refuse to see it.

The attitude that has been described is nothing to do with funding. There are examples on this thread of great inclusive practice, despite the current challenges in education. The bottom line is that this school has not considered this child’s needs in planning the trip and that is not legal.

I strongly disagree. We had to move one of our DC to another school because of the attitude of her form teacher. She was a very experienced teacher who refused to make one reasonable adjustment (at no cost or actual teaching effort). Apparently DC went to school to 'improve in all areas including her disability'.

That's about attitude not money. And that teacher is now a head.

The solution in this case though won’t cost the school more money? It just needed thought when planning to pick a range of activities.
Thinking of ones DD been on there’s usually been build a campfire, bushcraft, escape room in rotation plus full on physical activities like climbing, kayak etc.

It is legal though, they only have to make reasonable adjustments and sitting at the side is a reasonable adjustment - it’s a shit one, but it means she can still go on the trip. To be clear, I’m not saying that’s ok.

I’d guess that the school are tied to this activity due to a discount being offered, which is why the PTA can cover the costs. If you can think of a way schools can introduce more staff and more training with no money, I’d love to hear it.

If you have a DC with SEN who is also extremely academically able the provision is nil; they have no idea what to do in those scenarios. It's why mine are home educated now.

What was that adjustment she refused to make?

If your daughter has an EHCP she will have a caseworker (LA), get her/him involved and ask for a meeting with school. They need to be making special provisions for your daughter to be at school, the fact that she will be the only one not going is irrelevant if she has an EHCP.

I agree. It’s shit.