PGL school trip - overtly secretive?

[nrob]

Hi

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

N

I'm finding this thread very reassuring as my dd is going to PGL tomorrow. She had a fairly bad experience on a brownie camp a couple of years ago (due to her nervousness at night more than anything else), so we are both feeling a little wobbly this evening. I'm sure she will have a good time though. I promise not to ring...

She'll be fine ppolly My DS had a similar experience at cub camp - felt too nervous to go out at night to the loo and had an accident, but he's totally buzzing about school camp 'because it's in a building with toilets'.

It does 'feel' very different to camping-camp, for them anyway.

Mine tends to throw up at night when she gets nervous...however, she is totally excited about all the daytime activities....I reckon she's probably old enough to cope a bit better now.

I've taken Brownies to PGL several times. Its a fantastic experience for the kids, and they don't have a minute to think about home. They're on the go all day - by the time they get to bed, they are out like a light. No time to worry about who your room mate is. They aren't in their rooms very much anyway.

I go to PGL with my school most years. This is all perfectly normal. PGL take safeguarding very seriously and it is not the norm for parents to contact the about such matters. Why didn't just get the Head to sort it out?

You should have an emergency contact numbers for school. That should have been issued to parents beforehand. Sometimes the emergency contact is not someone on the trip, but someone back at school. there is normally an out of hours number.

We are always given the address details of the places the children are staying, and a contact number. But, I stress, this is only for a genuine emergency - I would say a family death/serious illness was an emergency, not a forgotten toothbrush.

We often don't know who or DD is sharing with in advance. I think they often don't tell pupils beforehand to stop any issues and arguments - once there it tends to be just gotten on with. It isn't a safety issue for parents to know usually. I guess if there are specific concerns due to medical needs or perhaps bullying then there may be some consultation on a 1:1 basis between school and parents.

Is it the first time your DS has been on a school residential?

If so, it is normal to find giving over the parental control stressful. But honestly, in 99.9% cases, there are no worries and the children are having a great time and nothing of any great concern will occur.

All this angst over a toothbrush! Honestly, OP, keep this thread so that you can re-read it when your DS is a teenager. It may help you put things in perspective then.

Can I ask what you were hoping to get from the first phone call to PGL? Did you want them to supply a toothbrush or something? It's not clear.

I think that the only concerning bit is that there is no obvious emergency telephone number that you knew about and usually that will be the school anyway.
If you want to take it up further with the school when they get back then can I suggest that you ask them to show you the risk assessment that both the school and PGL will have done for the trip and the various activities that the pupils will be undertaking. That should give you the confidence that the school have been very careful in their preparation for this trip.

PGL = parents get lost

DD went on this trip yes was big worry not having contact or not knowing anything of what she was doing other that what was given out on information prior to booking trip.

Am sure they have lots of parents calling worried about little johny. In a real emergency you have school contact and if emergency arose with child they have your details.

I'm sorry but toothbrush regardless of hospital fitting them is not. If it was medication thats a different matter.

Parents Get Laid

We always have an emergency kit of toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, spare clothes, etc, etc, that goes on camps with us. Someone always forgets something.

Parents do have our mobile telephone numbers for out of hours emergencies, but during the school day they are supposed to call the school. We will not answer the mobile telephone during working hours unless it is a call from the school phone number. Parents who call to wish their child goodnight or want to talk to them won't be put on the phone, it's just not feasible, and defeats the purpose of the camp. A genuinely upset child will be allowed to call home if we feel it is warranted, but that is a very rare occurrence. We get a few nighttime quibbles for some who may be first time away from home, but after we've deliberately turned a blind eye to a few nighttime hijinks and junk food parties (it's a camp, it's what is supposed to happen! Do the kids really think they're so sneaky that we don't know exactly what is going on? ;) ) they get over it pretty quickly.