Safeguarding issue

[ineedamoreadultieradult]

My DS is 9 plays for the school football team made up of year 5 and year 6 boys. He had a match at another school today after school hours we were advised transport was being provided there and back. I would normally go and watch but I couldn't as the car is in the garage. DS and his friend also on the team were going to walk home together after being dropped back at school. So that meant he was there with only one teacher supervising from his school and potentially some parents watching. I don't know how many teachers were there from other schools. He tells me he asked the teacher to go to the toilet and the teacher said he couldn't leave the other children to take him. DS said he would go by himself but teacher said he couldn't for 'safeguarding'. DS was becoming increasingly desperate so the teacher told him to go wee behind a bush! Being a school field there weren't any bushes and DS wet himself. He said he didn't want to tell the teacher so pretended he fell in a puddle. This can't be right surely? But I don't know where it went wrong. I can understand the teacher not wanting to leave the other kids alone but surely there must be some sort of contingency plan? What if a child has become ill or been injured? Should the school hosting the event have provided a chaperone for toilet visits?

I feel for your ds tbh.

I can understand the teacher's POV though. Safeguarding is a minefield. I don't know what else could have been done in that situation.

Hope your ds is ok

You would need to check the school policies. We would always send at least two members of staff on any trip, visit or event.

It's a damned if you do situation.

The safeguarding is not the other boys being alone, it's the teacher being alone with your son.

That's what's not allowed.

There should have been more than one member of staff, but I guess, they are giving up their free time and some don't want to.

Sorry. just reread.

There should have been someone somewhere that could show the visiting kids where the loo was I'd have thought.

I really feel for the teachers having to negotiate this kind of thing. In my day I'm sure they would have just sent us alone or asked a parent to supervise. I'll find out more when his friend has left. If there was a parent there that he knew would they have been allowed to take him?

Not unless the other parent has been dbs checked by the school to my knowledge. I'm currently being dbs checked with school for trips-I'm not allowed to take dc to the toilet until My paperwork is back

''The safeguarding is not the other boys being alone, it's the teacher being alone with your son.'' Eh? Oh course it's not. Teachers are allowed to be alone with a child. It might not be sensible with certain children but that's rare.

It depends on the situation. Taking one old enough to go himself to the toilet would not be advisable.

In my school we are not allowed even to be in a classroom alone with a student unless the door is open. I thought that was fairly widespread.

On school trips we aren't allowed to step into a child's hotel room either, and must only knock on their doors even in the company of another teacher.

That's the way it is, these days.

In this set up it depends on where the toilets were, if DS knew where they were and what the other pupils were doing. If they were close and they knew where they were going I would have happily sent a 9 year old on their own but kept a check on how long they were. If I felt I needed to go with them I would have told the others to stay where they were and I'd be back in a minute if there were loads of other adults around which it sounds like there were and if possible pointed out another teacher to them 'in case of emergency (incredibly unlikely in the low risk environment of football spectating)'

But the problem is all it takes is one over anxious parent to disagree with your decision and all hell breaks loose.

Coaches are advised never to end up in a situation where a child could accuse them of something. Teachers are often given the same advice. He should have had a plan b though. I could have sent 2 boys together as long as we knew where the toilets were at age 9. A parent could have been asked to escort them just to the building etc