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?

I would not be happy about the lack of facilities. If a child needed a poo, would she/he have been told to just do it in the woods?!

My girls have been on trips where they need to take a packed lunch and carton of drink in a throw away bag. I never understand this as surely it's easier to have a small rucksack that they carry all day, rather than a carrier bag which they have to hold until lunchtime!

I find it Literally Unbelievable that no drinks were taken on a trip lasting about 6 hours.

I think you probably do need to talk to the school to find out what actually happened.

Trips like these usually need parent volunteers to keep the ratios right. Did you volunteer?

It definitely sounds like forest school, which gives children the chance to be children!

As already said, I would clarify the points that you are speculating on, and would try to avoid hoping into the school all guns blazing.

By the way, you posted on here asking for opinions, so getting annoyed with particular posters for just disagreeing with you is a bit unjustified.

schilke I suppose it depends on the trip. On a museum visit, for instance, we keep the (named) carrier bags to one side in a basket/box and hand them out in the lunch room at the appropriate time. The whole lot then goes in the bin at the end. Rucksacks can get lost/left behind very easily.

"there are parents who don't provide a drink in the packed lunch." Yes, and there are MANY parents who send their child to school in mid-winter without coats. I spend the first 5 minutes of most playtimes standing at the door, saying "put your coat on/do it up/where IS it/WHY haven't you brought it?" and so on.

If anyone's interested, they all blame their parents!

"If a child needed a poo, would she/he have been told to just do it in the woods?!"

Like millions of bears before them!

I would be concerned about being lied to, will be interested to hear their response.....don't take other posts to heart, hope you find answers :)

No toilets? For 90 kids plus staff? I don't believe it.

I'm with the OP if there are genuinely no toilets. 90 children peeing and pooing in the woods and not washing their hands before eating?!?! Grim....

If this is the op's first school trip then it may well not have accured to her to pack drinks.

You are all meanies. :)

Hang on, who lied?
I've just re-read the OP and she said that the class teacher didn't seem to know much about the forthcoming trip (which is odd) and it was "another teacher she knew" i.e. not at the school concerned, who said "she'd been there & there were facilities, and 'as if' they'd take 3 classes of kids somewhere where there wasnt!"

That's not the school "lying."

I find it hard to believe that none of the kids were allowed a drink during the trip.

Also hard to believe that there were no toilets at all. Suspect your dd needed a wee after toilet stop.

I also think you're being a bit precious re the "stranger" helping her. Assume that this was a ta/someone known to the school/teacher and therefore crb'd? If same person was helping in school would you feel the same?

Clam - true the teachers might put all carrier bags together and hand them out. Bears might use a wood to do their business, but there is no way dd2 would! She is fussy enough about public loos (just like I was/am) but no loo would floor her! I have never been able to wee in a wood. I can remember doing it once when I was little and my knickers got wet. After that experience I might be desperate, but it wouldn't come out

I really would not be happy about no loos. I would check with the school though. Your daughters's version might not be correct.

Find a new school. You're never going to like this one. Your daughter will be picking up on your attitude and it will affect her attitude to school.

I'm sure the school will be very willing to help her move to a different one.

I actually think it's the attitude of always having water available that makes my DS think he cannot wait 1 minute for a drink! 6 hours isn't ideal but came about from your assumption OP - not from school refusing your DD a drink.

Facilities would have been a problem IMO - but because my DS has medical needs that require him to use a toilet - but then again I would expect the school to have thought about this when planning and RA the trip. He'll happily pee behind a bush and regulary does!

Youarewinning - I am with you on the always having access to water. My children always assume I've got water on me. We take the dog for a walk and after 15 mins one will ask for a drink!

OP - come on, get a grip. So your child had a wee in the great outdoors. By the sounds of things that's an experience she needed and was unlikely to get with you. I think you're basically defining over-protective. It's unfortunate there was no drink but tbh I'm surprised you didn't send something with her. I always send extra drinks on trips. There's no long term harm done. Going by last week's thread though you were just burning to find something wrong with this experience. I agree - find a new school. Preferably one which is happy for the dc and their foo to be wrapped in cotton wool.

Do none of your children ask to go to the toilet when you are out, 10 minutes after you have already been? Mine does as do children in my class. There will have been toilets but your child possibly held on too long and was desperate or was too far away from the loos to go. There will have been wipes and/or hand wash to clean up hands before lunch. If it wasn't raining then what a treat to eat outdoors in Autumn.

The "foo" issue really winds me up. The TA or teacher has absolutely no desire to see your child's genitals. We are trained professionals and helping children when they cannot manage at the toilet/ has an accident is part of our job. And people wonder why schools are becoming less willing to actually take children out of the classroom.

Can I make a suggestion about what happened? The site has toilets (because you wouldn't take 120 children somewhere that didn't) the children were told at various times throughout the day to use them but, being 5 year olds, there were points when the children needed the loo but were too far away to get back to the facilities. The teacher made the decision to ask an LSA (CRB cleared or they wouldn't be working for the school) to take the children into a sheltered area to have a wee.

You couldn't ask the children to carry their water bottles as some little darling would lose it and then parents would be complaining about THAT! Do you know how heavy 120 water bottles are? I would assume that all the children had a drink in their pack lunches and I would leave the water bottles at school.

I think the OP is out tracking down a park ranger at the moment, to quiz him on the risk assessments and toilet plans of visiting schools.

My dd is too young for school atm although I am a secondary teacher myself and I must admit that in the situation the op describes (drink not normlly allowed in lunchbox water bottles separate from lunch) it would not occur to me that this occasion was different and dd needed to bring a drink in lunchbox. I would assume she would be bringing her water bottle as usual unless the school advised me differently and I don't quite get why some people here are sneeringly suggesting the op must have known she should put a drink in for the trip. I would absolutely expect the school to advise parents if there is something put of the ordinary happening, parents are not psychic.

Have you heard of forest schools? The kids are outside in the woods etc all day, every day, all year.

Ds's school have been known not to take water bottles on trips, even a sport one in the summer. So for those wondering how that could happen, it does. The teachers simple didn't pick up the tray of bottles. So I think you could mention that's not on but the rest is fine.

DH just asked if Yogi bear took the drinks out of the Pic-a-Nic basket?

Perhaps the Park ranger is out chasing him now.

I think we must all THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!
And their foos.

how are they going to transport 90 water bottles?

as for no toilet facilities, where did the teachers go?
behind a tree?, doubt the union would let that happen

seriously! what has happened to common sense? parents need to be told their child will need to take a drink when going out for the day! [despair]
I always take extra bottles (and they are heavy to carry around all day) but unless a child asks for a drink how I wouldn't know.