Visit to local hunt kennels facing prosecution by primary school - WWYD

[Lakeylady]

Just that really. We had an email from school on Friday saying that the children would be going on a countryside learning day in 10 days to a nearby estate. Just that, no more info. I looked up the organisation running it over the weekend and they are a charity that promotes countryside sports. As part of the day there was a farm tour which sounded ok, then a gamekeeper tour when they learn about animal traps and pest control, which I am not particularly ok about but it is legal. Final bit was a tour of the kennels. The master and whipper in of this particular hunt are being prosecuted at the moment for illegal hunting and there have been news stories about their questionable animal welfare. This I am unhappy about which I let the school know about and I also contacted the countryside sports charity and said I didn’t think primary school children should visit an organisation being investigated when it would be their staff showing them round.
The school have cancelled the visit (I only asked for them not to do the hunt kennels bit but the organisation said my child would have to stand to one side with a member of their staff) but the chair of governors has written me a letter saying I have spoilt a nice day out.
I am so upset, I feel like some of the parents will blame me for standing up for my convictions but I feel this trip would have been wrong on lots of levels let alone breaking the political impartiality code. Meanwhile we have the National Arborteum on our doorstep and we haven’t done a trip there.

Check the school in terms of whether they have trustees, sponsors or anybody higher than the BOG. The complaints policy should say who it is. Because that sort of letter is inappropriate and worthy of a complaint.

OK, obviously the guy hunts himself (which if the trip was being paid for is a massive conflict of interest with implications for the standard of governance and leadership as assessed by ofsted and the local authority, by the way - the website should list his declarations), but he had no idea to stick his beak into it to the extent of having a go at you in a letter.

Not sure on academies but there is someone that over sees governors at the borough.
was it the chair who wrote the letter?

It is the local authority you take it to if you have a complaint about governors, yes.

My children would not be attending the trip.

@Lakeylady I think younger conoletly right to do it.
Whether it is part of the community or not it is a very contentious subject and something in my opinion the children should not be subjected to.
I think the school are using you as a scapegoat because they've realised there are potential issues with the trip and so it's easier to blame you than have to deal with the consequences.
I would contact ofsted about governors letter. That is intimidation.

Also I don't see how pare to will know it's you unless you e told anyone. It is a breach of confidentiality if your name is given out.

Thanks everyone. This has been so supportive and helpful and I feel much better today.

So I looked at Countryside Learning’s Twitter account yesterday and this is what they have put up about the day that we complained about our school going on - this is the type of activity the hunt were doing with primary school children. So glad my daughter didn’t go. These children don’t look at all comfortable to me and I think there are all sorts of safeguarding concerns about this photo.

What on Earth are they teaching there? And is that even allowed?? Not a photo I’d ever want to see of my child.

I looked it up and I think it is for strapping a puppy to an older dog so that it learns to hunt from the older one. They don’t put them on leads so they are just let loose like that.
I think the children’s body language shows how uncomfortable they are and I just don’t think that a hunt that is about to go to court for suspected illegalities should have primary age children in their care. This photo made me even more sure! And why you would put that on social media I don’t know!!

I have to admit that the thing that jumped out most at me was that the governor wrote to a parent to tell them off. What on earth does that achieve? I don’t think the governors have any contact with the parents at our school (although it’s possible that not all schools are the same).

I don’t know whether you were reasonable or not in objecting to the trip. I live in central London so this wouldn’t be the sort of trip that my children would go on. However if you live in area where the hunt is a big deal it might be a bit like being opposed to sailing in the coastal bits of Hampshire.

@CruCru but you wouldn’t take children to a sailing set up accused of breaking the law and in the middle of a court case, would you? Or one where you chained children to each other by their necks (see photo up page!!!)

@CruCru

Ditto.
Also the chair of governors is overstepping their authority by writing to you.
Personally would make a complaint about that too, but that's because a)I am a school governor and b) menopausal and irritable

The Governor that wrote to you is definitely overstepping and was probably rather stupid to actually put that in writing. I’d guess they were very much pro hunting and friends with the hunt.

I think that you did the right thing. I don’t think any of the visit would have been very appropriate. I say this as someone born and bred in the countryside who used to work in the equestrian side of hunting and who has plenty of experience of hunting/hunts. I’m very much anti hunting.

If you are ostracised or anything by parents because of how this has been handled I would definitely think about putting in a complaint.

They strap dogs together by their necks to train them ?? The potential for injury there doesn’t bear thinking about .

As an animal lover and a dislike of any form of animal cruelty sports, you’ve done the right thing. Let’s not let the hunts think it’s ok to brainwash our children to think they’re doing the right thing.

Well done OP!

The parents should not ever know it’s you. The governor needs to be complained about. Trips are easy - if everything is ok complaints make no difference. Any parent is free to express concerns.

Any ostracism (wtf it’s like a sitcoms about small minded village types) and I would complain again but be happy I could see which dickheads to avoid.

I’m not shocked by this picture. Presumably the boys in it volunteered to try this. Quite a lot of what goes on in the countryside is strange to me.

I once volunteered on a school trip to the V&A where the teacher tried on a corset.

Totally nbu, @Lakeylady

Bloody hell, I can’t believe the amount of pro-hunt anti-kindness to animals folk we have here. Are you fucking kidding? Going for this ‘nice day out’ promotes and supports this bloodthirsty murder.

YANBU @Lakeylady, good for you. My mother grew up in the billsge where the local hunt - not the one under discussion here - was kennelled. If I wrote here some of the stories she told me the post would be deleted. The unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable still stands.

You did the right thing OP, I don’t think it’s appropriate for children to learn about blood sports when the people teaching it are heavily biased. They’re not going to get the full picture, just pro hunt propaganda. I can’t stand people who hunt, and before anyone says anything I don’t eat meat.

Sodding auto correct. Village. Obviously.

That picture is inappropriate and alarming, as anyone with so much as half a brain can see. Whether or not one of my children 'volunteered' for the experience I'd be raising safeguarding concerns, not least because the lunkhead adults overseeing it obviously think it's fine. It is not.

Having worked in schools for decades I can reassure you that no school trip was cancelled off the back of 1 parent expressing concern over 1 element of it.

If schools did that no school trip would ever happen!

So either

A) more parents expressed concern than just you or

B) after expressing your concern the school did more research and realised they'd made a mistake in their decision to attend a trip there.

And no one needs to know you said anything. If any parents talk about it just don't join in or be non committal!

You did the right thing. It would have been highly inappropriate. My DC are at a rural school and there’s plenty of local folk involved with ‘countryside pursuits’ including shooting and hunting. I’d have complained about this as a school
trip too.

The Chair of Governors is likely involved with the estate in some way. Ignore. What an idiot to write that to you!