To think the school were neglectful?

[frogshead]

Dd (8) went on a school trip yesterday in a heat wave, 40 minutes each way walking to and from a museum.

I sent dd with 2 bottles of water and she didn’t drink either of them and a hat which she didn’t wear.
She arrived home with a headache and has had diarrhoea since.

I know this was partly down to her but she is juts a child and nobody encouraged her to wear her hat or drink anything all day.
I applied sun cream before she went so at least she had that.

Not recognising thirst and not drinking anything at all on a hot day is very unusual behaviour from an 8 year old unless additional needs.
Also agree Op hasn’t said actually got heatstroke. Headache fair enough.
Diarrhoea isn’t a symptom. More likely to have an upset tum due to sandwich not being packed with ice packs or girl eating lots of her friends sweets etc.
Walk presumably would have been beginning and end of day not hottest part. If museum is old it could have been cool inside.
Think about it from teachers point of view. They want the children comfortable so they aren’t moaning, usually there will be breaks, lunch at usual time and plenty of loo stops factored in.

What's your daughter's explanation for failing to wear a hat when told to?

Precisely.

It's pretty baffling that she had two bottles of water with her on a very hot day and hadn't the wit to drink them without someone at her elbow "encouraging" her.

Assuming you knew about this trip, that they were walking and lets be honest we all know when its hot, why then did you allow her to go? If you know that at 8yrs old she is not capable of drinking her water, then keep her at home with you for future school trips or perhaps go with them, and support them rather than trying to blame them !

Anecdotally as a teacher, in the dozen or so times in the last decade or so that a parent has made a complaint about ‘not keeping their child safe’ , the only end point has been their own child missing out on stuff.

They would have lost the opportunity for a trip, it's not easy to rearrange trips this late in the school year or get parent helpers at short notice.

There were choices here. You chose to consent to the trip, you could have withdrawn consent but chose not to so you must have felt she was adequately prepared. And she chose not to drink the bottles of water she carried around all day.

For what it's worth, my yr 4 kid had a similar trip on Thursday in London. She drank her water, filled it when she was given the opportunity and drank some more. Simple.

Other schools are cancelling trips and events in this heat - my son's primary has just done so. I think that's too much walking in this heat, so while I agree that teachers can't watch 30 kids' water intake, the decision to do a school trip with those characteristics in this heat wasn't wise.

I live in Spain. The hot part. Here schools finish 18-22 June every year rather than in July, because it's hot. By the time it gets to over 30C on a daily basis, so June and September, they don't have to wear uniform and half-days are implemented. Because of the heat.

By June, there are no more school trips. There's no way our school would even consider a trip that involved walking for 40 minutes with a temperature over 30C. School trips happen in May but hats are mandatory, also suntan lotion and water drinking. We just wouldn't do this trip in June.

And I don't know if diarrhoea is an official symptom of heatstroke but when the weather does warm up a lot here, there's always a load of kids off with diarrhoea. Mine certainly get diarrhoea from the heat and so does my husband.

I get that the UK isn't used to these temperatures but people - and particularly schools - need to adjust.

In hot countries additional numbers of people die from the heat

Do they die due to a 40 minute walk when they have a hat and water with them when they're not even walking at the hottest point of the day?

DD2 used to forget to drink - she still does now at 16 if pre-occupied. She has ASD and ADHD though we didn't know when she was 8. I wouldn't expect teachers to stand over them and make them drink but a little reminder would be nice as it's hardly an uncommon thing, it could be 6 or 7 kids plus in a class of thirty.

Your child is 8, not 4. Teachers can’t go around every kid and force them to drink and put their hats on. Other than reminding the children to, which not all kids will listen to, what can they do?

It wouldn’t have entered my mums head to complain to the school if I hadn’t drank enough on a hot day.
Parents today are something else!

40 min is ridiculous to make kids walk in the heat. That part yanbu about.

the only person you need to be angry with is your dd. She’s 8. 8 years old enough to know to wear a hat
and drink water. This is why kids are so so unable to do basic functions , as they need to be babied. I’m certain the teacher would have told them. If she ignored then unfortunately these are the consequences and I would tell her that.

This is why I wish parents would volunteer to come on school trips. Trying to keep 30 kids safe when there are only 3 adults is no mean feat. We can tell them to wear their hat/drink water/keep hold of their bag/go to the toilet till we're blue in the face, but there will still be those that refuse to wear hats/lose hats/refuse to drink/lose their bag/refuse to go to the toilet. 🤷🏻‍♀️

ideally teachers could have reminded them but 8 is old enough to take responsibility for drinking when thirsty. Hope she feels better soon.

Even if the museum is free entry for normal visitors if they’re going for an educational visit there may well be a charge, depending on what they’re doing (eg hands on learning, demonstration) and whether they’re using a facilitator at the museum.

Even if it is free a lot of time will have been spent on preparation, doing risk assessments, working out the timings of the day and getting parental consent which would all be wasted if they cancel because of a bit of hot weather.

I'd have a polite conversation with the school/teacher - saying she's been unwell and you think it's down to dehydration so what happened.

Could she open the bottles, did she ignore reminders to drink, is she a child who doesn't get thristy and needs a special eye kept on her going forward.

I'd go in with a polite calm what happened and how can I prevent this happening to her again.

Oh, they would have been reminded!

The only thing I’d be saying to the teacher is ‘thank you for taking the kids on a trip, it must’ve been difficult in the heat’.

8 is old enough to know you need to drink water when it’s hot. She’s not got lasting damage and has hopefully learned a lesson from feeling unwell.

How would you want this to look in practice? Every ten minutes they stop the children and one by one the staff watch each pupil, eagle eyed as they take a sip of their drink? Or is it just your child you wanted them to make sure drank enough?
At 8, she should be entirely responsible for drinking her own drink.

Many from a stubbornness or lack of intelligence to put their own hat on their heads or to drink from their water bottle on a 40 minute walk in an urban area.

How about you read my post properly.

She had water with her. Why on earth didn't she drink it if she was thirsty? Is there a reason she was unable to?

It wasn't the best day for it but usually you can't rearrange school trips at shirt notice. People would also complain if it was raining! I'm sure the children were told to wear a hat and take water. I assume your daughter left hers behind and didn't tell anyone. If she had told someone I'm sure they would have done their best to get her some water. Maybe that should be the basis of your discussion with her

When we worked in a Med country schools finished at about 12.30 from the start of June to the end of September or thereabouts. Our usual time for getting to the beach was about 1pm!