Booster seat on coach for reception school trip?

[Maybeitsok]

My just turned 5 year old is going on a school trip soon via busy dual carriageway to another city, journey time approx 45 min each way. They are still in a rear facing car seat with me, which is all they know, and how they will continue until they outgrow it at 36kg or 125cm tall. They’re currently only 16kg and 107cm!

Anyway, I was reluctant to let them go on the coach but have decided to do so but with a booster seat, so I’ve bought a carry on portable one that’ll be easy enough to use.

Thing is, they’ve asked if it’s just them that’ll have this kind of seat, and it probably will be, since people aren’t that clued up on car seat safety it seems.

Has anyone else sent their 4/5 year old with a booster before? I’m fearful they’ll be ridiculed but then again not sure considering their age. Safety first in my opinion, but want them
happy too.

Massive misconception on the squished legs. Mine found it more comfortable rear facing than having their legs dangling and not touching the floor

Wrong. A child is safer in a car in a rear facing car seat, than on a coach without

I sent a booster in for school trips for several years as my Lo's were tiny and I was worried.
Did get some funny looks from other parents though ...

The car seat laws in the UK are quite lax compared to Scandinavia who are the world leaders in car seat safety.

Both of my children rear-faced until they were a lot older than @Maybeitsok 's child.

Their legs do not get squished at all, that's a very common misconception.

It's so much safer for a child to rear face as long as possible, not doing so just because the law doesn't enforce it, isn't a good enough reason, in my view.

Rear facing seriously reduces injuries in a crash compared to forward facing, why do some parents not take this more seriously?

Great and I won’t dignify your post and your rudeness because I don’t agree with you and have cited the law.

As long as the child can carry it onto the coach, put it on the seat and get onto it, fine by me.

In 25 years I've never had a child undo a seat belt once I've checked it's fastened.

Maybe a misconception but not a massive one. Let’s leave out the hyperbole for effect.

Exactly, these parents are the reason their kids end up with anxiety. The parent who drove their kid to trips rather than let them go on the coach, absolutely batshit. I work at a school no ones ever asked to bring a booster seat and we've never had a crash. Like pp have said you don't take them on buses or trains this is neurotic.

Ok a very commonly quoted misconception - is that better?

Well if you believe your precious cargo is in danger, you must also worry for the other little ones. Staff buckling in 30ish booster seats? Best they just cancel the trip really

I thought it was a joke at first as it’s the most common thing you hear, isn’t it? “But their legs!”

I did, but I decided on balance to leave it based on the following:

• it was a one off trip and while an accident can occur anytime, based on all the time he goes on vehicles, it's an incredibly small proportion
• a bus is a 'safer' vehicle, it's higher up so they are less likely to be hurt by an impact and as it's so heavy, there's less likely to be that flinging forward movement you'd get in a car. Appreciate that wouldn't be the case if it hit a building or a similarly sized vehicle
• no one else was sending car seats
• our local car seat specialist drove her children to every school trip so that they remained RF and honestly I thought that was a bit over the top, so I just decided to let it go

We did discuss seatbelts and the importance of wearing it correctly before he went. It seems the bus ride was the best part of the day 🤣

The other point I'd make is that he FFs in a HBB in the childminders car, despite me having access to an ERF seat he could use in her car and that I know he'd be safer RF... but, weighing up the pros and cons - once he went to school, it was a pain for the CM to have two ERF seat in her car (my youngest is also there) and usually the others FF, he doesn't go far with her now, he is big enough to go in a HBB. So we just went with the HBB.

I can asssure you that prioritising children’s safety to a rational and reasonable degree is NOT the route cause of GAD in adults. 😂

No, as someone who has led many school trips I can assure you it would be. 1 to 3 is an extremely high ratio and I'm surprised any school can afford that many spaces in turns of the additional cost of coach seats alone. Parent volunteers also dont carry the responsibility of school staff (obviously) on whom the onus falls of everyone being correctly seated. I can't begin to imagine a two-form trip trying to get 60 4-5 year olds onto the correct boosters.

Do you have a source to back that up?

What do you think the many thousands of people who put their children on school buses everyday do? Or the families who don't have cars and rely entirely on public buses? They certainly don't use boosters.

You never see children lugging around booster seats with them all day on school trips, that's because it's not practical or necessary. You can't expect the teacher to carry it because they'll have first aid box, emergency contact folder, lunch etc.

I had this same issue, they were going about 30 minutes on a double decker coach, dual carriageway too.

we still RF, my daughter is 4 and 100cm, she’s visibly smaller than all of her peers and unfortunately this has been pointed out to her - not nastily but alas, she’s aware of her height!

I was particularly anxious about it, but ultimately, with primary school comes new experiences and therefore new, out of our hands risks. I decided to let her go ahead as all of her friends were and she had the most amazing time on the coach 😂 she knows she’s still RF in our car, and she understands this is the safest way to travel but I weighed up the risk of, her been old enough to be sensible in her seat, it been a coach, the distance and the one offness of it all and decided to just let her fit in.

I think if you have the booster, have spoken to the school about it etc then you’ve made up your mind - but kids do point things out so I would prepare your child for that!

Things like this contribute to an idea that all risk can be avoided, when it can't. When people reach adulthood and realise they cannot control things in a way they've been taught is necessary, yes that can indeed make people anxious

YANBU

I did the same when my child went on their first school trip (at 70mph on a motorway)

Yes... they will PROBABLY be fine..... if the coach doesnt crash they WILL be fine..... But if its in a nasty accident an adult seatbelt could damage your child (as you are clearly aware), so using a booster seat reduces the risk.

I am the same parent who has taken (TWO) car seats on airplanes for my children to sit in in their tui transfers.... yes my children COULD have sat on the seats... all legal... and our bus didn't crash, they would have been fine on the exact journeys we went on....
However IF we had crashed my children would have been safer in their seats.

Yes I bought new / different seats to take on the plane than they sat in in my car, (which wernt as top tested by which etc) but were still better than being sat on a lap, and much easier to carry through an airport, with 2 small children and 2 pushchairs.

And yes, my children were both in car seats until they out grew them.... their seats went to 150cm (apparently; they were out grown around 146cm, which was around the end of year 6, just before they started secondary school).... and yes at that point my children were the only ones of their friend groups to be sitting in high backed boosters.....
And yes i had 6 of these seats (for my 2 children)... 2 in each of our family cars, and another 2 spare for travelling in any other car (or extras for friends in my 7 seat car. Yes I must have spent nearly £1000 on these 6 seats, and yes their safety was worth every penny.
And No I don't regret, for 1 moment making those choices.

My son is 96th centile and rear faced until 6 when he was too tall. He said his legs were comfortable. My daughter rear faced until 7, equally comfortable.
I am convinced that this is the safest way for them to travel by car. It’s a bit of a stretch to assume that the same applies to coach travel. Even the crazy air tag parents in the class didn’t send their children with boosters.

It never occurred to me to do this but it also wouldn’t occur to me to tell you not to. I’m in a city so the children often do public transport for school trip - or a public bus one way and a coach return or the opposite so I couldn’t have sent a seat anyway unless my child was carrying it around all day. If the school is fine for you to send it and someone knows how to install it and you’re happy to send it then it’s no problem for anyone who gets a vote!

Is the AirTag thing actually that crazy?

DP isn’t fussed for the booster and is pretty lax, but he wanted to use AirTag on our kids on our recent Disney trip. it was me that thought it unnecessary!

I will also add that on my eldests year 5 residential the coach did have a small low speed accident... at age 10 / year 5 she was not on a booster seat, and yes she was fine.

As a child, of secondary school age my own school bus crashed. (an actual crash (not a bump) into the back of another school bus). I must have been 14, myself and all my friends on the bus were not injured, but it made the local papers...

So yes, school busses can and do have accidents

Confused as to the purpose of the thread really. You know a booster is a safer option. You want to do it. The school are happy with it. The seat fits on the coach...
So do that!

They do.

I was involved in one age 3, in fact.

I was in the car, but lost all my teeth, broke my jaw, and split my forehead open requiring 50 stitches and a lengthy hospital stay.

The school bus went through a red light.