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Extra-curricular activities

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School trips or journey

19 replies

lollypops1182 · 21/03/2018 14:14

Would you allow your child to have gone on a school trip if you knew the teachers would be drinking alcohol??
This is what happened at my school and the repercussions of this injured children.
And I was told that if teachers were giving up there time to go on trips this was allowed!!!!!
What's your views please

OP posts:
BringOnTheScience · 21/03/2018 19:35

I think that you need to establish the facts. It's quite a serious accusation to make. If the teachers' drinking contributed to chn getting injured then that would be for school and higher authorities to investigate and take action as appropriate.

GinaLinetti99 · 21/03/2018 19:48

In what way did the alcohol contribute to the injury?

The only time I've ever heard of this scenario was an instance where the teacher who drove the minibus had a drink, then couldn't take an unwell child to hospital in the night. This is obviously totally unacceptable and I believe the teacher was disciplined for their actions.

lollypops1182 · 24/03/2018 11:22

She broke her arm on the Wednesday and no one could take her to hospital so she was with broken arm till the Friday when she came home.
Also they should not be drinking if I let my child go in there care I'm sure they could obstaine from alcohol for 4 nights

OP posts:
LIZS · 24/03/2018 11:23

Usually at least one would not drink, could they not have taken a taxi? How old is dc?

2cats2many · 24/03/2018 11:25

More info required.

youngestisapsycho · 24/03/2018 11:28

No one could take her to a hospital between Wednesday and Friday??

RoseAndRose · 24/03/2018 11:29

I cannot believe that all the teachers were too drunk for any of them to deal with an injured child all the way from Wed to Fri.

What exactly happened, and why did the teachers drinking have an impact on chain of events?

Witchend · 24/03/2018 15:41

Has that actually been what the teachers said?

My ds (then 8yo) broke his arm on a residential (not school). He was a bit upset, but then told them it didn't hurt because he didn't want to miss out on what they were doing. He could do all the movement tests without a problem.
When he got back I noticed he was occasionally not picking stuff up with his left hand (he's right handed) when he normally would.
He admitted it was a little sore, but not much more.
Then we went to play tennis and first backhand and he was in clear pain. GP at the courts who tested his movements and still all fine, but he thought it needed checking as there was slight (very slight) swelling.
So we went to A&E and he'd broken it. (SS were involved due to length of time before reporting)
He wrote a gruesome letter to his dsis who was still at the camp for her to pass on, and made the most. :D

The person I was most cross with was him for pretending all was fine because he didn't want to miss out. It wasn't that obvious unless you knew him well or tried to play tennis, and he should have told them it was still hurting.

lollypops1182 · 27/03/2018 11:22

Ok she was pushed over in the dinner que by the horrendous child of the class she reported it to a member of staff right away, she was then sent on her own to see a member of pgl staff (on her own) the skin was all of the palm of her hand Pgl staff did not clean the hand or check just gave her a plaster and sent on her way.
After lunch she was starting to feel more pain in arm and knee but when she looked at her trousers they looked wet so she went to toilet to check her hand was sore when pulling trousers down as she pulled them down her trousers were stuck to her knee so she let a teacher know and again she was sent to see a member of pgl staff alone and again her leg was not cleaned and she was given a plaster.
Later that night she went to see a member of teaching staff for calpol when entering the room there was (bottles of wine on the table and wine glasses) so she explained that her arm was very sore so they gave calpol and sent on her way.
The teachers checked on the children at 10 pm every night and never seen again till morning on the evening of the Thursday another child was very badly injured her finger was shut in a door so two teachers took child to hospital leaving 5 teachers at camp with 58 children.
So this is my points

  1. there were not enough staff for the children.
  2. they were drinking and the school knew about it (head teacher said this was allowed )
  3. my daughters injurys were not taken care of ie washed or cleaned taken to hospital or seen to at any point.
  4. teachers decided to do the trip so by regulations they gave up there own time drink was not needed.
  5. a parent was there and witnessed it all happen ie my daughter being pushed.(but she was not allowed to help her)
  6. a head teacher said it was ok for teachers to drink on school trip.
OP posts:
LIZS · 27/03/2018 11:52

So they were sober enough to take another child to a and e but not yours. Clearly they were not aware of the extent of your dd's pain or injury. I doubt all 7 were too drunk to deal with it on any given evening and tbh that ratio us pretty generous. Was the parent dbs checked and present in what capacity? The pgl staff member was probably designated first aider. You need to ask for a copy of the accident book and their version of events.

lollypops1182 · 27/03/2018 16:42

The parent is police dbs checked and was not staying on site was only there with her child with autism that is not a problem but I can not believe that you all think it's ok for teacher to drink and that is not a good ratio of teachers to children at all this is crazy I was in the army cadet as a adult instructor and we went away for two weeks and never touched any alcohol

OP posts:
lollypops1182 · 27/03/2018 16:44

And they took other child by cab to hospital so where they sober enough why did they not drive her there why can

OP posts:
GinaLinetti99 · 27/03/2018 17:01

The ratio of adults to children is set by the local authority. It isn't just a made up number. Taking additional adults over and above the ratio number only increases the cost of the trip for parents.

LIZS · 27/03/2018 17:07

Think you need to focus on your issue. The ratio of adults to children doesn't seem particularly low - ask LA their trip policy and for a copy of the school's risk assessment for the trip - and would also take the pgl staff into account. Your bigger issue should be how your dc's injury was apparently overlooked. Did the other parent spot that she was in pain and needing hospital attention? Hope they have now recovered.

TeenTimesTwo · 02/04/2018 17:42

I think the drinking is a complete red herring here.
Also staff ratios will almost certainly have been fine, especially at a PGL place where the actual events would have had instructors.

The issue is that for some reason your DD's injury was not spotted as being as serious as it was. But then you wouldn't normally expect being knocked over in a dinner queue to cause a broken arm, so I am kind of not surprised that if it wasn't obvious or she was in a great deal of pain that it was missed.

tinkanman · 02/04/2018 18:09

Tbh your daughter should have spoken up about her arm more if it was seriously bothering her. How else are they supposed to know? Broken bones don't always show any sign of being broken but also it's very unusual for an arm to be broken by being pushed over in a dinner hall (inside not outdoors) so they won't have been expecting it to be broken so in this situation they would only really know by your daughter making it clear how much it really hurt. And they gave her treatment that they thought appropriate, it's not like hey shooed her away without anything, they gave her calpol because that's what they thought she needed, she should've gone back when it didn't help it and then they would know it was worse.

xyzandabc · 02/04/2018 18:33

So the 1st aid was administered by pgl staff, not the teachers. Pgl chose not to send to hospital when the injury first presented and again when she saw them later. The teachers proved that they were more than capable of taking a child to hospital if needed as they did for another child. The teachers administered pain medication when asked for so we're aware of the injury.

It seems that several adults were involved with your daughter's care at several points during both day and night, none of them realised that the arm might be broken. I don't think their drinking had anything to do with the care your daughter received. Had anyone thought it might possibly be broken, they would have taken her to the hospital. They didn't take her, not because they had been drinking, but because they didn't think the injury warranted a hospital trip. I'm sure many parents have also done this, me included.

My daughter tripped at a holiday club, they called me to pick her up as her arm hurt, I didn't take her to a+e as it didn't seem that bad, it was only 24hrs later when she was still hesitating to move the arm I took her and we discovered she had broken her elbow. It's not always easy to tell, they treated her appropriately for the injury that they saw.

There could be many reasons they took a cab to hospital for the other child rather than driving themselves, the fact they took a cab does not prove that they were all drunk. Off the top of my head, a few reasons why taking a cab makes more sense.......Not all staff were qualified to drive the bus and they had to maintain male/female staff ratios on site so the only drivers couldn't go. They didn't know how long they would be at the hospital, and needed their minibus on site for the others. Parking a minibus at a hospital could well be a nightmare. Taking a taxi means they don't have to find their way around an unfamiliar town with the possibility of getting lost.

Psychobabble123 · 02/04/2018 18:37

How old is your daughter?! Why on earth didn't she speak up about how bad her arm hurt? And why didn't she clean her hand and knee herself?! Confused

BothersomeCrow · 02/04/2018 18:44

Broken bones don't always present as particularly bad injuries. If a girl says she got knocked over and her hand hurt, no-one would consider a break until it didn't improve over time.
Sounds much more likely, especially as another child was taken to A&E (cab likely used to be faster, avoid paying for parking, leaving both minibuses on site with drivers, etc).

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