Has this school trip broke any regulations/laws?

[emma16]

I would appreciate some help here please, my 5 year old daughter went on a trip with 2 other classes from her school on Friday to a wood which I was initially concerned about as we go there ourselves on a Sunday etc for walks & have never seen any facilities there.
I raised my concerns with her teacher the week before they were due to go, to which she hardly knew anything of the trip & when i arrived at home time another teacher i know told me that she'd been there & there were facilities, and 'as if' they'd take 3 classes of kids somewhere where there wasnt!
I wasn't pretty hot about this trip seeing as they've waited until the middle of November to do it, and as any genuinely concerned parent, I was worried about how cold my daughter would be seeing as they were leaving just after 9am & not returning to school until 3.15pm.

Off she went anyway, but when my husband picked her up from the woods car park the first thing she said to him was 'im so thirst daddy & my head really hurts'. He brought her home & we found out that they had not taken their water bottle's with them & she'd had nothing to drink whatsoever all day, despite being active for 5 hours walking & doing activities.
We also found out that there were no toilets provided & her & 3 of her friends were taken by some assistant she doesn't know to wee behind a tree out in a public wood!!!
She also told us, when questioned by us, they never went in any buildings & were outside all day. They'd sat on little stools under a sheet to eat their pack lunchs.

Now some of you on here will think i'm over reacting no doubt & appreciate it if all you want to say is a snide comment about my over bearing parenting, but, in my opinion i feel they have done wrong.
I have made several enquiries with other people & as far as they know, there are no facilities whatsoever up at this wood, which my husband & I are going to visit this morning to find the country ranger & ask him himself.

If there aren't this means that no risk assessment could have been carried out, those teachers lied to my face after voicing my concerns, they let my daughter go without any fluids for over 5 hours despite being active & came home ill & with a headache, they let some stranger to her pull her pants down in a public wood to wee, and they gave them no form of shelter/heating for even a short period of time just to warm them up before going back out again.
Is any of this ok, does anyone with some knowledge actually know? From a parents point of view there's all sorts wrong with it. If there were facilities why did they choose not to use them?

This is all very nasty and sarcastic. When you all jumped on me the first time I asked hubby what he would think in this situation and he said "it's illegal isn't it". We both agreed that it is ridiculous. I'm not saying that the school have broken the law...I just wanted to share my random discovery to lighten the mood.

My twins are only 7 months old and my first children so they've not spent much time outside or had a woodland pee (yet). Maybe I'm a bit naive and I will 'toughen up' by the time they start going on trips. (Cue- yes Kate, you are naive)

Oh dear, this is a rather extreme thread isn't it?

. You wait.

Despite many warnings and much cajoling to have a wee before you go or to go because you're passing a toilet, at the point you are furthest away from any toilet you will be interrupted by 'Muuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeee I neeed a weeeee. Noooowww'. IME this will usually be followed by the other twin decoding they need to go too. And no, they won't wait.

decoding? That should be deciding.

Well... at 7 months, your kids probably pee all over the place!

But, no, a discrete pee away from others is not illegal.

I think the OP sounds precious. And this idea of constantly drinking is a fallacy anyway, she won't become a prune after 5 hours, especially as there will have been fluid in her food.

I think it would be a shame if all the normal parent's kids lost the chance of trips like this in the future because the OP gets the school's back up about this one.

Hmm. I'm not sure a stranger pulling down the OP's pants and then producing a pink "SheWee" would have helped the situation, ClayDavis.

Nor would it have helped the situation had the same been done to the OP's daughter!

Mind you, you can attach an extra length pipe to the Shewee funnel if you like extreme sports.

Serious question: why would you get a view of a child's genitals just because you are supervising them having a wee in the woods? Surely the teacher would be standing up and the child crouching down? I have been on many trips in the great outdoors with various children, and many trips behind bushes or down crevices: they have never involved my lying flat on the ground to peer up other people's genitals. And if you are not prepared to go to that trouble, I am afraid you simply won't get much of a view at all.

What if the school insisted they all wore a pair of these? Then there would be no need for the pulling down of pants. Either the OP's or her daughter's.

ClayDavis. I think you are on to something there. Maybe have the Shewees already attached.

They'd certainly give the boys a run for their money. It would be a great opportunity for the girls to win the "who can pee the furthest" competition.

I don't think they've thought of that rabbitstew. Gap in the market maybe? They also only seem to come in adult size 6 and up. Perhaps smaller sizes marketed at primary schools for outdoor trips.

I can't understand either the fuss with the constant supply of drink children seem to need nowadays. i survived quite well at school and didn't have to carry a water bottle with me constantly and used to go out playing for hours without a water bottle.
I don't think it crossed my mums mind if I was hydrated or not.

I think people forget about homeostasis. If she was dehydrated, she wouldn't have needed to pee and display her 'foo'.

hi, just a thought , my DD feels the cold and easily goes blue yet from experience if I wrap her up well she tends to over heat when active
and dehydrates quickly causing head aches, maybe worth mentioning to teachers to keep an extra eye on her for future trips.

I agree about the constant worrying about access to water. We live in the UK not the Sahara. It really irritates me that even adults seem to be unable to function without carrying drinks everywhere,

it would probably be illegal for your husband to run around the woods waving parts of his anatomy at all and sundry but it is not illegal for a five year old to have a wee behind a bush!

I remember a 36 page risk assessment form when taking thirty 15 year olds on a 20 mile coach trip to a talk at a university. There is no way this trip would not have been risk-assessed.

Absolutely yes to an outdoors day, sounds great, no problem with it being November. I can't explain the drinks issue - an oversight perhaps. Not good so just request that in future teachers must ensure that water bottles are taken on the trip.

I would not worry one jot if a CRB-checked teacher saw my child's bottom. If your daughter had any difficulties in the lavatory at school or injured herself, would you like her to be left in discomfort or suffering in case anyone saw something you think they should not?

I think you are over-reacting. If, however, you are that unhappy perhaps you could look at other schools consider home educating.

'or consider home educating'

When I was young and you just went off in the morning, and came back for meals, you didn't think of taking drinks or the proximity of toilets. You just went, and found a tree if you couldn't last out. Now children don't get this freedom and it is sad that when schools do it , with a risk assessment that reads like War and Peace, that it then gets criticised because the parent wasn't told specifically which drinks to pack where,and the countryside isn't full of public toilets. If you go fell walking, or similar, you are not going to come across a loo the entire day. Most activities in the countryside, sailing, potholing, rock climbing etc are not going to have any access to toilets.

But you arent going to take a group of 5 year olds sailing, potholing, rock climbing. IMO at that age a day spent in the woods but close to facilities and shelter would be quite adventurous enough. It is different when children are a couple of years older and better able to tell adults if there is a problem.

It will only be a few years before they do. I would have thought a 5 yr old could say they are thirsty!