Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Flip

Original poster

School Residential Trip (Year 6) - Long

11 replies

Purplebedbug · 16/10/2011 23:34

I am brand new to this board, so please be gentle with me. And please do say if you think I am worrying about nothing but ....

I have a meeting at 9am with Headteacher to discuss.

The school have booked Year 6's residential trip (9th - 13th July). This conincides with the "New intake day" at the childrens' secondary schools. I have pointed this out to the Headteacher (new to the school this year). She called a meeting of parents and said there was an opportunity to change to a different centre in June, but it would cost an additional £100 each. Everyone had a vote - keep it the same, change to June or opt for 3 day trip in June (less costly). The votes were split between 5 day and 3 day in June. No-one opted to keep the original dates in July.

The next day the headteacher sent a letter to all parents saying she had decided to stick with the original dates and centre and if we wanted we could drive up the night before (140 mile round trip) and collect our child, let them attend their new intake day, then return them to the residential centre.

I think DD needs to go on the residential, but she also needs to go to her new intake day at secondary school.

Advice is required - What shall I do?

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

bluerodeo · 16/10/2011 23:38

go on the trip - it's only 1 day at the secondary school and there will be plenty of children who miss that day.

eaglewings · 16/10/2011 23:39

Contact the secondary school and get their advice, I expect they will tell you how important it is. If they do ask the head to phone head of primary

A residential trip is such fun, why should the kids have this in the middle of it? I think it would spoil it

Ask around the other parents, people power!

Hungrydragon · 16/10/2011 23:53

Wow, she's really wasted a lot of peoples time.

Sorry that's no help what so ever, but seriously why propose solutions and then ignore the responses? ,

why not offer the coach to collect those who want to return for an extra £10 per student?

Original poster

Purplebedbug · 17/10/2011 00:07

Thank you so much for all your quick responses.

The problem is that we don't know which secondary schools are children will be allocated and their new intake days are on different days.

I think DD needs to go to secondary school as this is the day they meet their new class mates and their new form tutor - she could end up at a school where she knows no-one (she is fairly shy).

My meeting is to find out how she came to the decision that she did.

I think this is completely unacceptable of the school to arrange a residential at such an important time of the year. They should know (roughly) when the intake days are - they have 20 odd children going every year!

OP posts:

eaglewings · 17/10/2011 08:40

For the reasons you state our primary has it's residential in September, it's cheaper and gets the year 6 working well together for their last year

Too late for your school sadly, but worth suggesting

Agree the visits to secondary are vital

IloveJudgeJudy · 17/10/2011 11:17

My DC's primary aslo had its residential in September as it helped the Y6 to bond (two classes that were mixed up for Y6 as a bit of an introduction to Y7).

I also agree that secondary visits are vital. Don't understand why the HT didn't know the kind of dates they are. They don't really change much from year to year.

IME the whole thing has been very badly managed. Good luck with your meeting.

Poppyella · 17/10/2011 12:26

Difficult one. I can't believe the head offered alternatives then ignored the parents' preferences! The 3 day trip in June seems to be the best compromise in terms of dates and cost.

I personally think July is a ridiculous time to go on a residential in Year 6. The children are all about to leave, but hey ho, it's too late for a change there. I think however, your dd should go on the residential.

Like someone else said - people power. There must be lots of you who feel the same.

Good luck

Hungrydragon · 17/10/2011 12:43

Hope the meeting goes well, I was thinking about this further this morning, and I'd be really interested to see what the HTs motivation is, especially after proposing viable alternatives.

DS's residential was scuppered slightly last year because of the Bank holiday for the Royal Wedding. They obviously couldn't have anticipated Wills popping the question , however they gave the option of running it a day earlier and the children missing the celebrations at school on the Thursday or changing the date entirely. The PTA quite sensibly pointed out they were happy to move forward a day as it meant the children wouldn't miss anything curriculum wise.

I don't think it's right for the HT to put a vote to the parents and then disregard it and many people can't drive or afford the petrol for a 140m round trip so she is forcing people to choose one or the other. Surely if people then withdraw and request a refund, the trip will be cancelled as they haven't the funds and numbers to cover it?

admission · 17/10/2011 22:04

Whilst it is always possible for such a residential to clash with something like the new intake day, the head teacher is absolutely out of order to call a meeting of parents to discuss and then ignore verything that has been said. That is not only rude but betrays an attitude problem over their own self importance.

Depending on what is said tomorrow my inclination would be to formally complain in writing about the way the head teacher has handled this. By doing this you will involve the Chair of governors and by default alert the governors to this poor behaviour by the head.

Personally speaking i would suggest that the new intake day is far more important than a residential immediately before the end of term when as you say the cohort will all be splitting up and going their own separate ways.

nailak · 17/10/2011 22:10

the kids are hardly going to make unbreakable bonds in one day? so imo and experience it is not that important, i hardly remembered the faces of the other kids in my class that i met on intake day by the time september came around, and for the first few weeks of school wasnt even sure if someone i was speaking to was the same person i had been speaking to before! lol

DemonMousse · 17/10/2011 22:28

This happened to my DD - she was in Scotland for her new intake day. The new school arranged for her, and 3 others who missed the day, to attend one afternoon after school with parents. We were given a full guided tour and she was able to ask questions about things that were worrying her. There were only 4 of them so it was fine.

Your situation sounds as if it will be the whole class missing the day - can the new school not offer an alternative day for those children? Might be worth enquiring about.

Unbelievable that the HT should ask peoples opinions and then ignore them!

Flip