If your child is going on a residential school trip, please, please be honest with the teachers.

[BlueBloodedBlue]

Please tell them ALL the relevant information- we need to know if your child sleepwalks or has night terrors, isn't dry at night, is terrified of cats and dogs, only eats one particular type of cereal (and will hyperventilate if given another) and many other examples.

Please don't be embarrassed (we have heard it all and more before) and it is so much easier to deal with and less distressing for the child, if we know beforehand.

I have often sat on the floor while children are trying to fall asleep on residential. I sit there until kids asleep if they need me to.

I go with the expectation that I will not get much sleep, if any, but the kids have such a great time it’s worth it!

He'll probably be so tired at the end of the day, he could fall asleep on a clothes line. The trip might be just the thing he needs to get him over his dependancy.

I'd like to echo what the OP originally said - and remind everyone that the same applies to Brownie, Guide, Cub and Scout holidays too. There's not much Leaders can't cope with as long as they know.

I'm a TA just packing for next weeks residential I'm going on.....the more info we have the better the experience we can make it for the children

If your nt child has got to ks2 without being able to go for a sleepover, go to sleep on their own in a dark room, dress themselves, eat from a normal selection of food, use a toilet unaided etc then you’ve done a fairly bad job of helping them towards independence. How have we got to a place where 8 year olds need a parent to sit with them while they go to sleep, can’t use cutlery, tie their shoes etc etc. Obv kids with additional issues need extra support but it can’t be normal for most children surely.

Just to add the ones I mentioned not being able to dress themselves or shower or wear pyjamas etc were 7 or so children between ages 5 and 13 among over a thousand children that I have taken on residentials, its not super common, which is why it is suprising when it occurs and parents didn't let us know

There would also be maybe 60 children with additional needs or specific behaviours that are important to know when looking after them, whose parents did come and talk to us or filled out the forms with this info on.

One very proactive mum sent an itemised document in advance and her daughter in with a laminated copy of her allergies, medications and specific requirements, in labelled boxes with administration instructions.
It was very comprehensive and the child had a great and safe time but felt bad that she felt she had to do that and had probably been ignored or not listened to on previous trips.

(Same mum also put all her daughters clothes into ziploc bagged days outfits, and all her stuff was labled, down to each sock and packet of dental floss so I was generally in awe of her organisation)

I'm worried about my son's rezzy in September. He's been flagged for possible autism, very bright but a bit awkward and has some issues with loud noises and certain textures and wahing his hands. Recently the whole school went on a trip and he came home in bits. He'd held his angst in all day and he literally walked in the house and crumbled. Sobbing for ages. It had all just been too much stimulus for him with hours on coaches and shouting and sand and so many other things that he genuinely looks to me to make ok for him.

He said he managed to look happy at school so nobody knew he was feeling anxious. If I bring it up with the school I;m worried they'll think I'm just helicoptering.

I just feel like 5 days is going to be too much for him and I won't be there at the end of the day to make it ok 🙁

I've had to fill in a form for DS's residential next week and I've detailed on there his night time habits (sleep walking, night terrors) but I'm wondering if anyone will get around to reading it or if it will be a surprise when he starts shouting incoherently during the night.

It's really helpful if you detail his last experience.

If you say, 'I'm worried he will get very anxious, he really struggles with school trips', the staff won't hear the reality of his experience because they saw he was fine and had a good time.
They need you to say, 'He sobbed for hours last time, even though he had a good time. He masked all day, then collapsed when he got in. I don't know how he'll cope when he doesn't get to come home and decompress.'.

It's really hard to be sufficiently specific when you know what you are talking about but the person you are talking to knows something different- and equally true, just incomplete.

Yep. Been there.

My children wern’t diagnosed until Year 8 (12 years old). In year 6 I had been told they were NT.

Please also tell your child's scout or guide leader. We can always make adjustments! We're also really good at not making it obvious to the other kids. Also if your daughter has not yet started her period, it's pretty much guaranteed the first one will be on scout camp and it's so much easier if child is prepared as whilst we do now take supplies (after not a single camp over the last 10 years where this hasn't happened) we have encountered girls who are so unprepared for the reality of periods!

Unfortunately I had a similar experience; they gave an opportunity to ask questions and share information at the end of the information meeting but a) this was mostly taken up with one parent talking about how many apples her son ate a day and b) I wanted to discuss something privately not put my hand up in front of 60 other parents and talk about my child’s personal issue. When I tried to talk to a teacher at the end of the meeting I was told “you’ve had the opportunity to tell us anything you need to”. I pushed it and said it was something more personal not something to discuss in front of all the other parents and they laughed and said they’d all know everything about all the other children by the end of the trip anyway.

Yes and believe the parents. Ds went on one soon after lockdown. They told us that there was no need for any of the strategies we used to get him to sleep 'because they are all tired after a busy day'. Yeah eventually at 3am, but will probably have spent quite a few hours talking through it all with a poor teacher, then will be up again at 7 and can function like that for a couple of days. Fortunately he is not a disruptive (to other children) insomniac, just an anxious one who will seek out an adult. They did get us to collect him before the final night because the teachers were exhausted. He was quite happy to come home because it was just cleaning and tidying the next day.

I do understand that at school they need routines, just as he does at home, however they don't have a 'going to sleep with my classmates schema', especially after a couple of years without sleepovers so sometimes it is worth listening to the people who are there at bedtime every day and being a little flexible when the initial lights out at 8.30 hasn't worked.

Don't get me wrong, he had a great time and being awake for hours is not unfamiliar territory for him so no harm done, but they could have got a bit more sleep themselves.

You sound like a lovely teacher , op!

That is appalling Holmgang

Guiding Leaders, at least, go on these trips in the full knowledge that they won't get much sleep. I assume teachers are the same.