teacher refused my request to be a parent helper - why?!

[tigermoth]

My year 1 son's class are going to a local park for two hours tomorrow. The teacher said parents could attend. We were given only a few days notice, but as my son really wants me to go on a trip, and I promised him I would try, I arranged to have time off from work. Job done, I thought.

I spoke to the teacher in passing this morning. She said she was not sure I could go as lots of parents wanted to attend (huh?). I told her not to worry about me taking up a seat on the coach as I would be driving there in my car.

The teacher put a note in my son's bookbag. I read it this evening. The note says I cannot go due to demand for places. What on earth is that all about!! The children are walking in the park, looking at various plants and animals. Why can only a set number of parents walk along with them? It is a park, for goodness sake!

Please give me a plausible explanation. I am going to query why I have been refused admission tomorrow at 9.00 am, so any replies before then would be really appreciated.

It is cos its in school time???

So what happens to pre-school children or children who are home-educated? I can't see why insurance companies would want to differentiate between carrying children at one time or at another.

I mean because when its in school time, the school are responsible for their well being, and the school would want to take away any further responsibility if any accidents happened ?? maybe, perhaps, dunno ??

If you are working or volunteering for a school then requirements are different than if you were just transporting friends children. Schools have to have public liability insurance and using private cars require business insurance.

We run an out of school activity (so come under the same regs as independant schools) and wouldn't drive the kids anywhere.

Stil I expect your ds's school know what they are doing.

Just a thought but is it possible that v young inexperienced teacher is a little intimidated? A teacher friend once told me of a parent she'd had words with offering to help out and being refused on grounds of 'enough helpers, thankyou' She admitted that as she grew in confidence and experience she realised that it'd been a missed opportunity to learn more about both child and parent. Apparently she later got to know the parent better and felt daft that she'd been so worried that the situation could have been exacerbated by the parent helping out.

On insurance issue don't teacher's act as parents unless parents have taken responsibilty for something? Sooo if the parent says it's ok for another parent to transport their child then it counts as though you're taking them home from tea at your house?? Possibly...

The insurance thing was covered, I think (hope) because the head asked all driving parents to bring in their driving licence, MOT certificate and insurance docs - drivers had to have fully comp insurance. These docs were checked over in a special meeting. I assume this was in order to satisfy the school's insurance criteria.

Kassie, yes, I do think the teacher might feel intimidated by parents. This is her first year of teaching. She really looks like she is working her guts out and I picture her collasping with exhaustion every night. When we have parents meetings, I feel she can't quite relax and shift out of teacher-talking-to-pupil gear - so I end up feeling a bit'told off' and talked down to.

It must be a very hard year, and she seems to have has set herself very high standards. I gasped in disbelief when I saw the itinerary for our 5 hour park trip. We visited 3 museums, had a half hour stop to sketch a landmark, had lunch, and there was lots of walking in between. I was really impressed by her control of the class. though.