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?

:o :o :o

When I was at school we had an annual event which involved being bussed out into the countryside, sorted into groups of four (two older pupils supervising two younger ones), handed a map and a sheet of 'clues' and told to find our way back to school. Most of us did get there, eventually, if I remember correctly. Can't imagine they still do this now though. It's a shame really, because it was fun.

YEs they do, saskia. It's called DofE!

my friend and I got left behind on a brownie trip (aged about 7-8) and were told not to tell our parents it has happened . they didn't do a head count and drove us without us.

I knew the drill was just to wait at the meeting place until they realised their error.

That's good to hear clam! I know it must seem very irresponsible to some people, but we did learn a lot.

Saskia, I did the same but across the Pennines. We did get royally lost and some crazy eyed weirdo offered to take us in his van. We survived (well, most of us). I was a touch older than 5, though.

I'd hate to organise that trip, personally. I have no thermal regulation so I go a charming shade of blue very quickly. People frown upon wearing balaclavas so I'd be miserable withing ten minutes unless I had some nice, warming mulled wine or gin

google Whistlebrae Natures Kindergarten ...their children spend each and every day all year round outside for most of the day from the age of 2.

They spend most days outside in Norwegian nurseries, too. Even in the arctic, they are playing out in the snow most of the day. There is a two hour slot indoors for lunch and a rest, but then they are out again. - 15 is fine, but not if it is also windy.

I think -15 was the cut off for my cousin's primary in Switzerland. Anything above that and it was fine to be outside to play. We seem to have a bit of an issue with temperature and weather over here. People don't seem to know how to dress for it.

Glad I've managed to educate you about the SheWee, rabbitstew. Was a bit worried I might get deleted for excessive product placement at one point.

QuintessentialShadows and ClayDavis - now your examples are getting a bit extreme and losing their value. In the Arctic, or indeed Switzerland, I would own a snow suit and would buy little snow suits and thickly insulated boots for my children every year. There would be tonnes of these things on offer in the shops at cheap prices, because everyone NEEDS them, not just people who like to go skiing on holiday. I don't think it reasonable to expect someone living in the South of England to buy a snow suit and insulated boots for their child every year just in case their child's school decides to take them out all day on the only day of the year it's -5c. Not when a pair of thin wellies are infinitely cheaper and mostly do OK for our weather, albeit they freeze your toes off within seconds however many layers of socks you stick on your feet.

If the Norwegians only had 2 days of extreme cold every year, I bet loads of them would opt to stay in the house on those days, too. Then they'd stop being so smug about being prepared for cold weather.

I am interested to find out if OP has made further enquiries at school. I am finding this thread both interesting and unbelievable!!!
(BTW, I am a Y2 teacher who happily allowed 4 classes of Y1 & Y2 to play outside in the drizzle for 15 minutes this morning. No complaints - except when it was time to go inside).

Think she was last seen heading off to speak to Park ranger....

Or, handbags, she might be struggling to name-change back again.

Where does the Park Ranger pee if there are no toilets?

Rabbit....he does have toilets....they however appear to be more of a 'glorified shed'....de prev link to other post....

See prev link....sorry

rabbitstew Whistlebrae is in Perthshire not the Arctic but there are Natures Kindergartens in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Crieff ... where children as young as 2 spend most of their week outdoors.

Clam....along came erm....Polly....perhaps 1234

I wasn't suggesting that we needed to be prepared for -15 weather here. I was referring to people not being prepared for the weather we do have here.

Not only is parenting the job here you make yourself redundant, it is one where you 'give them roots and give them wings', some parents seem more concerned with clipping the wings at the start! A huge mistake, bound to backfire IMO.

mrz - Perthshire?! Brrrrr. As for spending most of the day outdoors in London, all those cars, people and the pollution keep it pretty warm.

Being prepared for the weather we have here is for wimps. Go out in your t-shirt and shorts all year, I say.

Have just looked up Nature Kindergarten. "We spend about 80% of our day outdoors with children and adults appropriately dressed." Wusses.

Do these kids cope OK when they have to spend most of the day cooped up indoors at secondary level and then go on to work in a call centre?