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.

Haha she’s definitely getting sent to school before the 48hrs is up isn’t she?

Well I mean you would truly have to dislike children intensely to apparently spend all day with an 8 year old knowing she hadn't drunk anything or worn a hat and not remind her to do so whilst watching her develop heatstroke which is what some posters yourself included believe happened...

Feeling your pain! 18yo DC2 does not cope well in the heat Yesterday I told them it would be 31 degrees. They came down in a tight stretch velour playsuit. With tights.

During the last heatwave a few weeks ago I was a parent helper on a KS2 trip so ages 7-11. They left school at 10 to climb a nearby hill, arriving about 12.30 (so 2.5 hours on country lanes, mostly uphill) then after lunch and a play we walked back to school for 3pm. Lots of water and snack breaks in shady spots and hat wearing expected but we couldn't enforce individual children doing these things. Everyone healthy and well on our return to school. If individual parents felt their children needed specific support to drink water they should probably have volunteered to go instead of me or spoken to the class teacher in advance.

I have never understood why most schools do trips this time of year. Its always boiling. Why not do them in the cooler months.
I agree at 8 they should have some responsibility for drinking . But also at 8 the excitement may make some not be sensible in that respect.
Also really just needs common sense from teachers to stop all the kids for 2 mins and say right everyone have a few sips of water. And then repeat that during the day.
I think most teachers hate having to do the school trips and just try to get them over with as quick as possible

I find it very unlikely that staff did not prompt hat wearing and drinking water. I'm in a secondary school and prompting children to take off jumpers, drink water, rest in the shade if they can at lunchtime etc is all very routine if the delivery more 'why haven't you done x y z' than remember ro do do x y z.

If its any consolation I remember a few post school headaches in primary school in the 70s and 80s because I couldn't be bothered to use the water fountain. And I did learn about hydrating the gard way than listening to adults. The lesson may well stick now.

She should have had someone next to her at all times prompting her to drink

Is this a joke? I'm asking that as a genuine question. Surely you don't actually think that's even remotely reasonable/possible?

Our kids are going to have to get used to doing things in hot weather - these longer, hotter summers are only going to get worse. People all over the world have to cope with walking places in the heat, we need to prepare our children for this being a regular part of their lives.

There are people that don’t feed their children breakfast before they come to school, they have no teeth because they don’t monitor or enforce brushing and send them without glasses that are prescribed and needed. Those adults still have those children in their care. This is something that teachers see every single day and not just one child in their class. Children are almost never removed from the care of their parents and being sunburnt or having sunstroke on the hottest day of the year would not even pique the interest of social services if it were referred to them by a teacher.

Are you absolutely sure no one said anything about having a drink? Ultimately, it’s more than our jobs are worth to not say anything in hot weather! At the end of the day, though, we can’t force anyone to drink

(…however, I spent all of Thursday outside, manning the throwing event on two of our 4 Key Stage sports days; not only did I get burnt on the back of my neck , ( even though I had cream on , but forgot to bring a hat) I barely had a moment to have a drink myself!!! Let’s just say I suffered the next day…)

The other thing is we’ve been telling children to take off their sweatshirts /cardigans in this weather but some seem hell-bent on keeping them on! In the winter when we ask them to put their coats on because it’s freezing, they want to be out in their polo shirts! We just cant win! It doesn’t matter how much we ask them to do something, there will always be those who insist on not doing it! And always those parents who think we are neglectful.

Was about to expend some energy responding to this but then decided I just can't be arsed.
I mean, really!! 😡😡

I would love to see this poster get 30 children to even stop and listen for more than 30 seconds haha.

If you find it difficult to make sure 6-10 children are drinking their drinks then you should probably have a lie down.

Ugh,yes, that’s weird behaviour

Oops, posted on wrong thread!

She is 8 and should know better.

Hopefully she has learnt her lesson.

As a TA I can guarantee you that the teachers/staff would of told them as they left school to put hats on heads and walked 20mins then stopped and told them to drink then at the museum encouraged them to drink more, the same at lunch and both things repeated on return walk.if a child didn't have a hat on, they would of been told to put it on and if didn't have one then one would of been found. She may be 8 but both their faults- your daughters fault for not doing it, but also staff should of been monitoring more closely

Quite easy with the right voice tone

How many classes are 6-10 children? We have 32!

In school there is often no stopping children wanting a drink and getting up to grab one, especially when it comes to actually doing their work with many congregating around the drinks bottles. I think they made a choice on not drinking (I have one child that will drink loads and another who is like a camel and barely drinks anything) maybe you need to be talking to your daughter about why she didn't have a drink (too busy talking, looking at things, doing activities maybe?)

That was exactly my thought. Perhaps they had jugs of water/squash and paper cups at the museum, and gave all the children some. Or perhaps another child who had a more "attractive" drink, e.g. squash, shared with OP's daughter (and she doesn’t want to tell her mum that).

Really if teachers plus ta plus volunteering parents can't manage to get children to drink some water on a very hot day. When the outcome is heatstroke. Then thats a even bigger worry .

You t have signed a permission slip and hence must have known the plan for the day. If you felt strongly about it, why didn't you revoke your consent?

I agree with you. Eight is still young, too young to fully understand consequences. Just because she know she should do something, doesn’t mean she understands the risks from dehydration! Some people on mums net are just plain stupid!

I would be cross, and I’d let them know. They are quick enough to berate parents for sending them to school with anything resembling like something fun to eat, absences that aren’t evidenced by a doctor! I would say it was negligent to be fair. Who lets a kid of any age walk for 40 minutes without a hat, or makes sure they’ve had a drink. My nearly 19 year old went out sunbathing to a park with a friend yesterday, I still reminded her about sunscreen and a hat, which she wasn’t originally going to take. We all need reminding of things sometimes!

Did you not know the details of the trip before hand? Surely you already knew where they were going and how they were getting there? Why did you not raise any objection to having to walk 40 minutes each way? And why did you not tell your DD to make sure she drinks enough, or ask a teacher to please remind her? Or something to ensure she remained safe on this walk you must have known about?

Unless there's a drip feed coming up about you not being told they were walking - which I doubt, then I'm afraid the responsibility lies with you and your DD.

And for what it's worth, 40 minutes isn't that long. Some children walk that to school daily.