Help!? School trips and terrorist attacks

[mummysparkles95]

My son is 10, he is due to go on a school trip to london for 3 nights next year and his school is also invited to go to young voices in manchester arena in the next couple of months, my anxiety us through the roof, with terrorism attacks being so common lately and threats made towards school children and schools, it seems like a easy target and im thinking about not letting him go, but theb i also feel so selfish and mean making him miss out, does anyone else feel the same or if you was in my position would you let him go? Thanks 🩷🩷

They'll probably go on a school bus, it doesn't really matter.

In the past 20 years, my partner was caught up in central London during the bombing and I left London Bridge area just before the attack. I don't live in constant fear but I don't view the attacks as being rare either. Once is more than enough.

It is absolutely normal for human beings to have a temporarily increased level of anxiety after incidents.

what a pointless, rude and sarcastic post.

Thanks for all the mums that have put my mind at ease and been polite. My son will be attending his trips along with his other 3 trips he has this school year. For the ones that have been rude i would advise you to seriously have a word with yourselves. There is no need at all, this app is to ask for advice in a friendly environment, what happened to supporting eachother and being nice?

What schools have been put on lockdown due to terrorism? There has been one terrorist attack in the UK this year which was in Manchester but as you talk about going to Young Voices in Manchester it sounds like you’re elsewhere. Where else might have schools been locked down due to terrorists?

In which case you (and OP) need to get some help for your groundless anxiety

Whilst not exactly on lockdown, Jewish schools in London have had increased security for years, well before Gaza.

Yes, outside London I'm sure you're right about the bus for school trips, but I was responding to a poster who was talking about travelling to Southampton by train.

Here in London we frequently see kids on school trips travelling around on public transport. So much better than coaches on our congested streets. I take my hat off to their teachers, TAs and parent volunteers - I remember what hard work it is looking after kids on a school trip, but also what good fun it is. When my children were at primary school in the 90s and early 00s some kids from their school (inner London) had never been on public transport, never been taken to the museums and galleries in Central London (free after 1997) and in some cases weren't allowed to go on day or residential trips because of parental anxiety. I always felt sad for them. So much amazing stuff to do in London and they were not tapping into any of it.

OP my child performed at a very busy open air event in London recently, security was rubbish as far as I could tell (but maybe I just didn't notice) but it felt very safe despite the crowds etc.

Having lived in London for decades, I don't think terrorism is on the rise. It's been more or less the same.

So I had the exact same fear about young voices. I made the trip to go sit in the audience as I felt like it was better than me sitting at home worrying. As it was I was quite impressed with the level of security that went on. I do totally get your fear though. On a side note young voices is a very long night and mine found it quite boring.
I wouldn’t be keen on the London trip either but I suffer from very bad anxiety.

Would it be ‘quite understandable’ for me as a Londoner to say my anxiety was ‘through the roof’ and I was considering preventing my child coming on a farm visit close to where you live because on average 5 people a year are killed by cows? ( more than twice as many as have, tragically, lost their lives to terrorist arracks this year? )

I posted on mumsnet as a safe place so i could ask fellow mums not to be shot down in flames. What happened to mums supporting eachother?

What I love about MN is that people will be honest with each other, which, ultimately, is being helpful. You might not want to hear it, but people telling you that you are being completely irrational is FAR more helpful than people fuelling your irrational fears.

So, from all the posts I've read, people are being helpful and supporting you to see that you need to address your anxieties rather than stop your dc going out and living their lives.

Maybe one or two unfortunately OP and others have mixed up terror attacks with every day lunatics attacking schools

And yes we had one locally last week I live in a market town nothing much happening here then a high school went on lock down thanks to a nutter suddenly everyone is all "vote reform" "somebody THINK OF THE CHILDREN" 🫤

The threat level for the uk on the government website is substantial meaning it is likely there will be a attack…
To put this in context OP, substantial is the middle of the 5 levels of alert possible and a quick Google tells me that at no point, since 2006 when the government started issuing the alert levels, has there been a period when an alert level lower than substantial. There have been quite a few time periods when it has been severe, and a few short spells at the highest level, critical, but we have been at substantial for the majority of the last 19 years. This is nothing new, it's just that it hasn't been publicised as much. Try not to worry too much. Obviously nobody can give any absolute guarantees but it it is highly unlikely that your son will come to any harm on his trips, let alone be involved in a terrorist incident.

My children have been to young voices and school trips to London, residential
trips etc. I’m never completely anxiety free about it, but I would never want to pass on my worries to them or make them miss out on things. You could never predict when or where something might happen, but we can’t all live scared and never leave our houses, so you just have to carry on as normal!