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.

Fair enough, @viques - my point really is best summed up:

"You can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink."

The OP is doing the thing of expecting a teacher to parent her child better than she does.

Could she have been given another drink?
Eg tells teacher I’ve not got my water bottle (not knowing mum put 2 disposable plastic bottles in) so teacher gave her a spare one.
I took a group to a museum for an afternoon activity and they kindly provided squash/water/snacks very unexpectedly. Some of kids with me that day would have gone home with undrunk water bottles as it was winter and we had as much to drink as we wanted at activity.
I can’t understand how she sat and ate her lunch and didn’t want a drink then especially on a hot day. All the other kids and adults would be eating and drinking.

I think it’s more of an issue revising their policy on outings during a heat wave and long walks in the heat of the day.

The obvious conclusion of this is that schools will review their risk assessment and say ‘we can no longer rely on 8 year olds to follow clear and repeated safety instructions, so this trip is no longer safe.’

So no future years get trips.

I have done this - post Covid, reviewed a trip that the year group had always been on safely, no incidents, no accidents. Then reviewed the behaviour and maturity of the new year group and said ‘No matter what we do, we cannot reduce the risks to an acceptable level, because too many children will not follow necessary instructions (do not walk in the road / walk in a line rather than running off on your own / wait to cross the road / stay with your group / sit down to eat lunch / keep your coach seat belt fastened / wear appropriate clothing) and if we take enough experienced 1:1 adults, the rest of the school will be unsafe.’ That trip has never run again - it’s replaced by a PowerPoint of photos from previous trips.

Oh ffs. You’d bring it up with the school? Where the staff work with children day in and day out and would welcome £1 every time they said, ‘Break time. Drink plenty of water, put your hats on and suncream if you’ve got it’.
They have also probably done the same trip year in and year out and completed risk assessments and know the pitfalls of hot weather!!!
You'd be the parent where the staff say’ ‘Mary’s mum came in reminding us to be mindful to make sure they’re aware they need to remind the children to drink. As if we’re new to this malarkey’.
Really? How about just educate your child so that they know these things any way.

This.

You don’t know for sure whether she was encouraged and just didn’t do it, or she wasn’t encouraged. Teachers can’t force her to drink water but surely she would’ve been thirsty? At 8 I would expect her to take some responsibility as it’s not reasonable for a teacher to check how much each individual child has drunk.
It’s important to stay out of the sun around midday but unfortunately we can’t cancel everything due to heatwaves as they are going to become more common

Well teachers can tell children to drink and wear a hat. Same way parents can. If you told her to make sure she drank and wore a hat and she didn't what makes you think she was taking any notice of what the teacher said?
This blame culture is absolutely ruining the next generation never need to think for themselves because when something goes wrong no need to reflect on what lesson could be learned it's who can we complain to or sue 🙄

Also, if OP had said to an adult at the beginning of the day ‘X is always reluctant to drink without being told individually - please could you check she is drinking? She has two water bottles in her bag’, then the adult would have kept a specific eye as this was a specific risk. Without such instructions, the general risk assessment of ‘remind children to drink frequently and check bottles before departure’ would be seen to be sufficient, age appropriate mitigation.

Kid feels ill after some time out in sun ….

so what ???

it’s like saying little Mary’s legs ached after running up the hill, and she was panting and her heart was going faster !!!

newsflash : it’s normal !!

kid - I feel hot / headache / upset tummy today, been out in sun, didn’t have a drink -

that’s normal dear, it will pass 😂

This. My 3 yo can do better

Goodness me. A walk on a warm day… she will have learned a valuable lesson about looking after herself better in the heat!

this is the world we live in - it gets warm - children are better able than adults to cope with heat and it’s important they learn how to function in it rather than getting the message that they can cancel / opt out every time it’s a bit uncomfortable.

If your child is unable to drink water unless an adult prompts her specifically then I'm afraid it's on you as the parent to sort that out pronto. With our changing climate, this issue is only going to become more prevalent going forward.

Do the OP's supporters think that the teachers should hold down pupils who don't bother to drink of their own accord and force feed them with water, at the same time clamping a hand on the child's head to keep a hat in place? Cue the responses of 'abusive behaviour'!
I now this doesn't gel with modern thinking but I don't recall ever drinking lots of water as a child, '50s. There was , I think, a grotty water fountain, I dread to think about all the scabby mouths that used it!

In hot countries, life continues, children and adults walk in the heat. I am going to guess that they set out relatively early, not in the midday sun. Your daughter, aged 8, is old enough to follow your instructions which presumably were to wear the hat that you gave her and to drink the water that you gave her.

I disagree with a lot of other posters...that walk was far too much in the heat yesterday!

I assisted on a primary school trip recently in similar temperatures. We constantly reminded the kids throughout the day to drink and wear hats, we regularly offered to refill empty water bottles too. There are some kids who won’t do either regardless of how many times they’re told, or will put their hat on and then take it off the minute we look the other way.

This reminds me of the time I explained a task in detail to a class. 29 pupils started working. When I asked the 30th why he hadn't begun he said I hadn't told him what to do. When I pointed out that 29 pupils had heard the instructions and begun work he very indignantly said "but you didn't tell me!"

I'm not a teacher but when DS was in primary school I volunteered on many school trips in all weathers. We would stop for breaks, tell children to drink, make sure they eat their lunch, put things on/take things off e.g. gloves, hats etc in colder weather and invariably you would get back and there would be an angry parent because someone hadn't worn their gloves and hands were cold, hadn't drunk enough water or their lunch was barely touched and child was hungry, headache etc. I remember one child took their socks off and ended up with blisters - our fault apparently because we should have known tht their shoes rubbed and that was why they had the socks on in the first place. You can supervise children to a point but there's an age where they should be able to do as they're told by the teachers and their parents.

To be fair to the op her original post focussed on the fact as she saw it, reported by her child, that no adult during the whole course of the day had reminded her child to drink or to wear her hat.

I think the consensus is that the child, and all the other children, would have been reminded, probably more than once, to do both things.

Our school is strict on hats and it’s a very easy spot to see if someone doesn’t have one on.
No hat would have meant that they wouldn’t have been able to join the trip if one could not have been borrowed.
The drinking is down to your own daughter, she shouldn’t need someone to tell her to drink and it’s not something the teachers can easily police unless they walk around 30 children shaking the bottles to see how much was left.
The teachers should have made everyone had a hat on their head at the start of the walk there and at the start of the walk back, but anything else ie taking them off during the walk or drinking is down to your child’s responsibility.
My reception age child went on a school trip this week, they were outside having a picnic lunch etc every child had a hat on, they were all told to make sure they had a drink with their picnic but it wasn’t policed.

I grew up in australia and I am with you - the uk weather is extraordinaryly hot at the moment - not down to an 8 year old to realise its hotter than usual. school should have cancelled really but very least insisted kids wear hats they had / took water breaks. heat stroke does kill; it heats up organs.

She hasn't got heat stroke though.

I wouldn't expect a school to force an 8 year old to wear a hat. It isn't necessary as long as proper sun protection is applied to the head.

My childrens school insist on water, suncream and hats for the children however stress that the child is responsible for topping up suncream, wearing hats and drinking water as needed. We are advised to ensure the child can do this independently (unless SEN) If you felt uncomfortable with the trip due to the heat could you not have retracted the consent given for your child to attend the trip? My children's school took a 40 minute walk to a local church via the woods this week and we were informed if we would rather our child stay at school to let the teacher know.