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Primary education

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

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Original poster

PGL school trip - overtly secretive?

37 replies

nrob · 17/03/2015 11:50

Our 9 year old son was packed off on a PGL trip yesterday. We have some concerns surrounding contact and wanted to share them and see if anyone else has had similar experiences.
We discovered he had left his new brace friendly toothbrush behind at 7pm last night and contacted the PGL centre from the website telephone numbers. His brace was fitted only 5 days ago and the hospital gave us a special toothbrush. PGL were extremely defensive and put-out that we were trying to make contact however agreed to get someone from the school to get back to us to reassure us that a new toothbrush could be found. We had not heard back 2 hours later so called again and had to be quite insistent that someone contact us. We were becoming a bit concerned at this point, not about the toothbrush but at the difficulty we were having in making contact with our son. Our head teacher did then call back with the necessary assurances and suggested we put the special toothbrush in the post.
We were not informed whom our child would be sharing a room with prior to the trip; the children were asked to select 4 friends and were told they would defiantly share with one of these. On the phone yesterday evening my husband asked whom our son was sharing with to be told were were not permitted to know!
I called PGL this morning to enquire about the address so that I could post the toothbrush and was told that they did not advertise their address in the interests of the childrens safety! Why we have sent our son away without knowing the address that he is going to I do not know!! I had quite a job to get the details from the woman talk about ring alarm bells!!
I am sure there is nothing to worry about but the way in which we have been dealt with when trying to make contact has not been very reassuring. The school gave us no emergency contact details. PGL tell me this will be a school decision and non disclosure of room buddies will also be a school decision.

I plan to raise this with the school on their return and would appreciate any guidance or similar experiences.

Many Thanks

OP posts:

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SunnyBaudelaire · 17/03/2015 11:54

I suppose they have blanket policies eg about the room sharing as otherwise they would have all the irate parents on the phone.
Also about not giving out the address - I see the point of that.
As for 'emergency contact details' well the school is your point of contact I suppose.
Why do you need to know who his 'room buddies' are?

TheMoa · 17/03/2015 11:54

Its totally normal.

You go through the school to contact them, they will send the special toothbrush for you.

They really can't have over anxious parents badgering them all the time, or parents who are not supposed to contact their children showing up in breech of contact orders etc.

ThinkIveBeenHacked · 17/03/2015 11:57

Contact the teachers if you need to get in touch with anyone, not the centre itself.

Why does it matter who he is roomed with?

Which centre is he at? If its Osmington I may be able to help with an address (ex employee).

AugustaGloop · 17/03/2015 11:58

My DC have been on residential trips before (not PGL). School texts us to confirm they have arrived safely, texts us to confirm ETA on way back and otherwise tells us we should only contact them in an emergency (and leave a number for us to call - usually not one of the teachers on the trip but a teacher back here who in turn contacts them). I trust the teachers and have had no reason to contact them, so I have been fine with that.

They did go on a non school related summer camp last summer (not PGL one of the other ones). I did call a couple of times - felt different than when they were away with teachers I knew). The camp were fine with it - just suggested people call at a particular time when they were likely to be in the building rather than out and about. Kids less interested in speaking to me however!

ThinkIveBeenHacked · 17/03/2015 12:01

Alternatively if you type in Googlemaps PGL and the centre name it will bring up the full address

CatsCantTwerk · 17/03/2015 12:01

I'm sure if it was a REAL emergency you would have had no problem at all contacting your son.

theknackster · 17/03/2015 12:03

I take it you do know what the 'PGL' initials stand for, OP .

When we sent DS1 away on his school residential the idea that he might want to phone us or we him never even crossed our minds .

ThinkIveBeenHacked · 17/03/2015 12:04

knack

CatsCantTwerk · 17/03/2015 12:05

I take it you do know what the 'PGL' initials stand for, OP

hellhasnofurylikeahungrywoman · 17/03/2015 12:13

I don't think anything PGL have done is unreasonable, the school should be your contact point and not PGL unless it is an out-of-hours emergency.

Unexpected · 17/03/2015 12:13

Sounds totally normal. I doubt a missing toothbrush was deemed sufficiently urgent for them to go out and track down the school, wherever on the property they were. If you had called with a time-critical emergency I'm sure they would have been quicker to get back to you. You also don't know that they didn't deliver the message immediately and that the Head chose not to call back until later. If it was that urgent that your child had the toothbrush, surely it would have been top of the packing list for the trip?

Why did you ask who your DS's rom mates were going to be? What possible use was the information to you when the children were already there? Were you going to ask for him to be changed if you weren't happy? There's a reason why schools keep the details to a minimum on these trips, otherwise they are inundated with requests from parents beforehand to change room mates and on the actual trip itself with calls wondering how their little darlings are getting on, if they might need reminding to put on their coat, change their clothes etc.

museumum · 17/03/2015 12:14

The sites are huge. It could easily take a couple of hours to find a spare person and go to where your sons group were doing their activity and bring him back. And did you really want him taken out of abseiling or canoeing or whatever before he got a turn for a non-emergency?
In school term there are far fewer pgl staff - only instructors and a few group leaders - as teachers fulfil the ratios. It's not like in the holidays when it's all pgl staff looking after the kids.

cartoonsaveme · 17/03/2015 12:25

All normal. I worked for Pgl and the DC are very well looked after safety wise and safe guarding wise.The DC get on with who ever they are roomed with. They are so busy having a great time they don't generally give a hoot about anything else. I suspect several never even clean their teeth whilst away despite staff nagging. A mate of mine sent her 10 year old DS away for a week and all his clothes came back clean except his fav outfit. (Not Pgl). He said it was the best week of his life. And yes the name ...

titchy · 17/03/2015 12:26

All that over a toothbrush?! It's a toothbrush. He can manage with the one he's got for a few days FGS.

You have absolutely NOTHING to be concerned about and you're acting totally unreasonably.

Lonecatwithkitten · 17/03/2015 12:31

My DD has attended several school trips in primary.

Room allocations are never known till arrival at where they are staying to prevent parents from interfering. There have never been problems.
We do not have specific details of location. This would be provided if there was an emergency that required a parent to collect.
The school always provides emergency contact details. The school during regular school hours and then a home and a mobile number for a teacher not on the trip for out of hours emergencies.
So of your concerns the lack of emergency contact details is the one I would be concerned about.

unlucky83 · 17/03/2015 12:43

Yep - same here -
My 10yo DD couldn't find her clean pants and socks (in a carrier bag in her rucksack) -didn't tell anyone -teacher etc, Came home wearing no pants or socks but had borrowed a pair of socks apparently for an activity
And her bar of soap hadn't been touched ...same after a brownie and guide camp - sent it in a soap dish in a wrapper - came home in the wrapper! (You think she would have guessed and at least taken the wrapper off the third time - she hadn't...)
Not brushing their teeth for a few days isn't an emergency...what I'd expect really.
Come home filthy...but have had a fantastic time...just like it should be!

WindMeUpAndLetMeGo · 17/03/2015 12:54

DS1 went on a PGL school trip, had an amazing time, came home filthy but happy!

You should contact the school in an EMERGENCY - however a toothbrush isn't on, far too busy enjoying themselves eating mid night snacks to worry about that!

TeenAndTween · 17/03/2015 14:05

Mainly I think this is a school issue. My y5 DD recently went on a PGL trip.

To contact the school teacher on the trip I would have contacted the school office to pass on a message. Alternatively we could have direct tweeted the school.
We were given room allocations before they went.

DD even washed her hair while away we were very impressed!

Madcats · 17/03/2015 14:14

PGL centres are well described on their websites; just pop the name into google.

DD went on a PGL activity break with her friend (both 7). We (both families) drove them there, were introduced to their team leader (amongst plenty of other staff as well)...shown to their dorm.. helped them unpack. We spoke to them about how some children might not have friends there and how they should try to include everybody etc etc. We also talked them through all the clothing in their kit bags (so there was a fighting chance that they might put wet muddy clothing in a bin bag and change into clean stuff once in a while).

The staff had landlines/mobiles and work numbers (and alternative contact numbers).

We needed help to figure out how to get out of the building and offsite; it was huge!

I guess the difference is that we KNEW our children would probably cope brilliantly, whereas school parents more or less have the choice 'forced' on them.

I have a nasty feeling that your DS is either borrowing a toothbrush (or making do without)!

ThatBloodyWoman · 17/03/2015 14:18

Normal.
Some parents have such a hard letting their kids breathe.
I fully support their attempts to allow the kids a bit of independence from their parents.
Its good for them.

Mine have been.Loved it.

ClaimedByMe · 17/03/2015 14:22

Are his teachers not swapping at some point? 2 teachers are staying the whole week with dds class other teachers are swapping after a couple of nights, drop the special toothbrush into school?

Original poster

nrob · 17/03/2015 17:04

OK OK I Get the gist; we are being overly protective. We couldn't contact a teacher/school as it was out of hours and no contact numbers.

It just worried me that's all

I have had some reassurance so thanks all for your input

OP posts:

Heels99 · 17/03/2015 17:09

OMG all,this about a toothbrush, cringe! You will look back at this and laugh one day! as the staff are likely doing now.

Floggingmolly · 17/03/2015 17:14

You were not permitted to know who your child was room sharing with...
Why do you think that is, op? The fact that you took the trouble to enquire by phone (when you just happened to be calling about a toothbrush yeah, right ) should give you a clue...
Leave the child be, ffs. The last thing he or the teachers need is parents who can't let go ringing up every hands turn to know has their special snowflake got clean pants on.

beginnerrunner · 17/03/2015 19:07

Oh my goodness. Leave your child to have a great week and chill out. What a fuss over a toothbrush. Lifesaving medication - yes! Toothbrush - hell no!

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