Safeguarding

[SafeguardingConcernsMom]

Hello, my son went on a residential trip in the last week of school. He was in a room with 5 other boys. While they were all out on the second night, the room was broken into and his and other boys' sweets were taken. Not sure what action was taken by the people in charge. On the 4th night, the room was broken into again, my son's pillow and blanket touched and some sweets taken again. He was very upset and called me in tears asking me to pick him up. Later I found out, he had to be taken to the nurse who comforted him. I tried calling him back but his phone was switched off.
Before the trip, we were told to call the school reception in case of emergency. When I called them at 22 15 that night, there was no answer and it kept going into voicemail. They called me back 12 hours later and were shocked to find out their number had been given for emergencies. They said they are not a 24/7 line and there is no on in reception after 6pm.
After the trip, when I asked Head of Year about the details of what happened, he said an internal investigation found it was not one of the students from our school. He also said he had sent a letter to the venue describing what happened and saying that it was likely to have been a member of their staff or other students. Moreover, I was told it was my child's fault for not handling his money properly and buying sweets for his roommates. When my son returned to school after trip, he was asked by Head of Year what he should have done better with his money. I was later told the school considered the matter closed.
While I am not happy with the way the matter had been handled (victim blaming my 12-year old son for what happened), does anyone also agree that there were safeguarding issues on the trip?
1/ Why was a stranger able to enter the boys' bedrooms in their absence twice?
2/ After it happened the first time, what action was taken to prevent if from happening again and why it didn't work?
3/ Why was the emergency contact number not working?

I am extremely upset about what happened and the way the school handled it and am considering complaining. Does anyone else think I have reasons to be concerned about what happened and how it was handled and have grounds to complain?

Many thanks and sorry for such a long post.

It depends a bit on whether they were meant to have sweets and money in the rooms. I've taken kids on quite a few residentials and they are often not allowed food in the rooms and have to give money to a teacher.

If it was a member of their staff then presumably they have keys so can access the rooms whenever to clean etc.

For the emergency number, I'm not sure whether they need to give a 24 hour contact number. If there was an emergency their end they need to contact you but not necessarily the other way around.

They were allowed to have sweets in the rooms and were taken the local shop to buy them. They didn't have to give their money to teachers.
Staff denied going into the room and taking sweets on those days. No one knows who was able to enter the room.
As for the emergency number, what if something happened and I had to inform my child about something or even pick them up?
Thanks

I don't think sweets going missing was the kind of emergency they were thinking of.

it's not a safeguarding issue and not the fault of the school by the sounds of things.

I can't imagine most parents response in this situation would be much more than 'that's a shame all your sweets got nicked, did you have a nice time otherwise?'

did your son take loads of sweets and buy more for his friends?

It IS a safeguarding issue if people are breaking into rooms at night. Doesn't matter if anything was stolen or not.

I think the fact that someone was accessing their room is a huge safeguarding fail.
I am old enough remember the case of the English school girl who was abducted and murdered on a school trip by someone who accessed the room where they were sleeping.
Giving you a number which was not an emergency number is a lack of proper planning and oversight.
Nothing bad happened, but this was sloppy and risky in my opinion. I think that saying your son was at fault for not handing things in is deflecting and ignoring the problem which is the insecurity of the sleeping areas. I'd think twice about letting him go on a residential organised by these people again.

They haven't been breaking in at night when they are all sleeping.

someone has gone in when they have been out of the rooms in the evening and taken sweets. Probably another child. There is every chance one of the 5 boys in the rooms hasn't locked the door properly when they have left and someone has taken advantage.

Staff at the venue and teachers will all have legitimate ability to access the rooms but are unlikely to be interested in a 12 year olds sweet stash.

I think there's a lot we don't know about the set up here. If there are other people staying in the same place, what ages they are, how the rooms are secured, who does have legitimate access. But the fact that the rooms were not secure and items were going missing would concern me too.

Btw. I help organise overnight accommodation for a voluntary group that takes children away.

The problem is that I do not know much myself and the school refused to give me some information. I was told they had established that it was not one of our students on the trip and passed the matter onto the venue. I was also told that the school considered the matter closed and it was time to move on. I do think that the fact that a stranger was able to access the bedrooms was a safeguarding issue. The door had a lock with a pin code on them which was shared with everyone in the room.

This is not about stolen sweets or how many sweets my son brought with him or bought on the trip. This is about a stranger being able to access a boys' bedroom in their absence. It happened on the second night and on the final night again. What if it had been a stranger who hid in the rooms waiting for the boys to return? What if he had a knife? I understand that it would have been difficult to prevent it from happening the first time but after it did happen, some measures had to be taken. it didn't just happen in my son's room. It happened in other rooms on more than one occasion. The trip leader questioned everyone and established that it wasn't one of our students that did it. This means it was a stranger. How can we just say it was probably another child? How do we know it was not an adult taking sweets to pass for a child?

Do they change the entry code for each school? Are the children told not to share it with anyone?

I don't know if they change the code. Yes the children were told not to share the code.

@arnoldwalsh this post is from July....

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