Child unwell on school trip

[G172125]

My son is currently on a school trip to Disneyland. He started to feel unwell with stomach pains and vomiting. He got split up from he’s group and was left alone in Disney village. I managed to get hold of the teacher to let her know and she said she would go to him. My son then text me and said she said she Can’t go to him because she is queuing for a ride. Nobody bothered to go look for my son for two hours. Aibu to make a complaint about this and take it further?

Filed in what list ??

too busy on her holiday to bother

Ah come on OP, be fair.

School trips are the most stressful, exhausting, relentless things teachers do. In their own time. Which they don't have to do.

The ONLY reason we do them is for the kids, because frankly, they are a horrific amount of additional work in advance, you're constantly on alert, and the sheer weight of the responsibility for all those children is enough to keep you up all night. Then there's the ones who don't follow rules, or try to sneak out, or buy alcohol, or lose something important.

A "holiday" it is not.

In fairness ours does

Your focus on this being a 'free holiday' isn't helping. I'm sure the teachers would much rather be there with their own children than yours! Having taken children away on residentials, I can assure you it's not exactly a relaxing holiday.
The teacher would have made an assessment when they spoke with him regarding how ill he sounded, if he had been critically unwell I'm sure they would have sought medical help for him.
I would be annoyed with his friends, on these trips its always drummed into them to go round as 3's or 4's, so 1 can stay with someone if any issues and 1 can seek help. They were given instructions, they didn't follow them
I think there must be more to this, have you spoken/messaged with the teacher?

Stating she was too busy on her holiday is opinion not fact. Hth.

Fair enough I wouldn’t like to go on one and be responsible for other peoples kids. But I wouldn’t be leaving them alone and Ill for two hours whilst I went on a ride either 🙄
.

I'm a teacher and a regular trip leader. If a child...even a sixth former rang me to report those symptoms I (also the first aider) would want to check them over. I would also not be happy at a child being left on their own by friends. We always insist students remain in groups when being remotely supervised. I would be very unhappy with the teacher saying she couldn't come because she was in a queue.

I am confused about the timeline.
He called you and you managed to speak to his teacher....and only then did he managed to WhatsApp her?
And after telling you she would.go and find him, she told him she couldn't.

These trips aren’t a jolly for teachers. I’m taking a large number away this summer holidays, it is costing me £££ in extra childcare plus extra food/snacks whilst out and about - it’s not all covered. I’m unlikely to sleep properly whilst there due to the responsibility and will need around 2 to 3 days sleeping/doing nothing to recover.

However as part of our risk assessment, we always have a checkpoint staffed at all times when we let the pupils go off in groups so they know where to find us and there’s at least two staff there so one could go in an emergency. I would not be impressed with his friends going off - it should be drilled into them you don’t leave someone and if someone needs help, one stays with the person and the other goes to seek help.

I wouldn’t complain now, but wait until your DS is back. Then wait until term starts (no one wants this on their holiday) and just ask what happened and what is the risk assessment for theme parks/sending off in groups. Then consider your next move and what you want out of it? Personally, I’d be happy with a review of the risk assessment and assurances that it wouldn’t happen again. I wouldn’t otherwise want to make a member of staff’s life difficult especially as they’ve given up their holiday to take my DC away.

My school had a Disney land trip too also coming up to exam season funnily enough but for year 13

Having had two parents as teachers I know first hand that these trips are not a holiday and are hard work 24/7. But for those who are saying he is 16 he should be fine, remember these are covid kids, they'll have missed earlier school trips experiencing being away from parents. My daughter is 16 and missed all the end of junior/ start of senior school trips so I would not necessarily expect her to be the same as I was at that age.

Ridiculous isn’t it? People actually taking the piss because a distraught 16yo, sick and alone in a foreign country called his mum. There’s a failsafe way to find which ‘side’ is being unreasonable, and that’s to imagine the replies if it was written from the other perspective. Just imagine if it was ‘I am the designated teacher,with the emergency contact no who is responsible for a group of children we have taken abroad. One has just phoned me to say he’s feeling extremely sick, is in pain and vomiting. His group has left him and he’s sat on a bench alone, needing assistance. However I’m stood in a queue for a ride I fancy going on. Aibu for leaving him on his own for 2 hours so I can go on the ride’. They’d get fucking torn apart!

As lots of people (including me) have said, there are many reasons why that particular teacher may not have been able to come right then.

For me I was queueing with a disabled child (I wouldn't go on most rides by personal choice!) and I couldn't leave them.

As others have said, there is also a duty rota on residentials because it's illegal not to have breaks in working hours - and that stands even on trips.

This is why you need more information, because at the moment you've not got the full picture, and, in the words of QEII, "Recollections may vary."

Obviously if it happened exactly as your son said, then yes, raise a complaint with the school. But get the full picture first - I've had plenty of experience of parents going off half cocked, and then having to show what ACTUALLY happened, and people who feel unwell understandably feel and interpret things differently to when they don't.

Ours posts all sorts! A couple months ago it was one teachers 50th and another’s 40th. All the teachers went to the races and put photos of them clearly pissed on the schools fb page

Ok but there are 9 teachers not one of them could go to him?

I don't know why people are being so mean, Op. Bet if it was their 16 year olds they wouldn't be saying the same. He's 16, a minor under the care of the school. He is their responsibility. It must be horrible being ill on a school trip then to top it, he is left alone. Poor lad. I am totally against helicopter and pandering parents but Op you definitely aren't being unreasonable to be concerned. It's not like you can go and pick him up.

Most 16 year olds would have done several residentials by now, even with Covid. My daughter did one in year 2, and will be doing in year 4 and year 6. At 8 years old she has also already done 4 residentials with girlguiding over past 2 years, so by end of junior school will have done over a dozen.

For current year 11's covid would have started when in year 8 I think? So would have only missed them in 2020-2011/years 8 and 9? We restarted residentials late 2021.

None of us can answer this question, which is why you need to speak to the school and find out what happened.

It's not a great example, but my dd has told me her dad wouldn't pick her up and she was forced to walk home, and when I've checked with him, she's actually said to him, "Will you come?" and he's said "Yes, in half an hour when I finish work" and dd replied, "It's fine, I'll walk." and then relayed to me that he wouldn't come and made her walk. Not that he had said he would but she'd just have to wait.

Anyway, point of that is, had I just accepted her version, which was true to HER, then I'd have been really pissed at her dad, but after I asked him, then her, she said, "Well, yes, I did say that, because he wouldn't come!" and we then had a conversation about the full exchange.

You need the information, then decide what to do.

When your son called you to say the teacher was not going to come check on him, did you message/call the teacher and say 'I'm really worried, could someone go and make sure he is ok'?

@G172125 where is he now? And do you know WhatsApp is down for a lot of us?

I bet most people wouldn't like their 16 year olds in a foreign country on their own whilst throwing up. I should like to think that this would be more important than queuing up for a ride even if its with a child with SEN

I'm not sure what you would do to "take this further".

How is your DS now? Has he stopped vomiting? Has he been taken back to the hotel? Is he sharing a room with another child (I wouldn't want to be that other child!).

I would want to know what the risk assessment was regarding a child brining I'll, and would ask if procedure was followed. It probably was, and then I'd thank the staff for looking after my I'll child. I'd probably give them all a bottle of Prosecco to help them recover.

And as a parent of DC who refused to revise at home I love that the school has allowed Y11s to go to Disney. My DCs school had them in extra revision sessions over the holidays.

I agree.
I feel for you OP. No matter who's in the wrong or right here, at the end of the day you've had a distressing call from your DS who is away in a different country and that's really tough.
I hope he's OK and gets back to you soon.

Yes I did she said she was on her way to him I sent her a screen shot of he’s location so they knew exactly We’re to find him. I messaged her half hour after this because nobody had gone to him and she said she was trying to ring around he’s friends

To be fair in that situation I'd have called a colleague and asked them to go.