The coach didn't turn up today to take junior children...

[nocoach]

...to an event at a nearby school.

Apparently, several parents who happened to be around ferried the children there in groups in their own cars.

What do you think?

that maybe some emergency had happened, and the coach could not get there?

My mum books coaches for the school she works in and they have had the odd incident where the coach hasn't turned up because somehow the booking has gone astray, it happens. Or possibly something could have happened last minute, accident or something.

are you alluding to the fact that kids were travelling in un-CRB checked adults cars ? OR were the adults insured to transport children as part of a school trip?? or something along those lines?

oh right. i was not thinking of anything like that, whizz... if the parents all had children who were supposed to be going to the event, and took the children there, i don;t see there is an issue?

well I was just reading between the lines of the OP & trying to work out what the point of the post was. I assumed the OP didn't think that it was the right thing to do. Also the issue of enough car seats too I suppose

Fine if CRB checked and insured. Parents help with swimming transport here if they have necessary paperwork. If not 'tis a no-no.

Fine as it was an unforeseen problem but I would be fuming if no car seats were used.

I just wasn't really sure what I thought about it and I've been thinking about it.

I'm not sure if I'd have been happy about it if my child was involved - I wouldn't have given permission for it, I wouldn't know who the adult was and I don't know if they all had appropriate car seats.

OTOH, maybe I'm making an issue out of nothing. I was just wondering.

My gut feeling was 'oooh, I'm not sure if I'd have been happy about that'.

What is the rule about car seats now? These children were 7 and 8. Ds1 is 7 and he needs to be in a car seat - he is quite small for his age. I wouldn't be happy if he'd been taken in a car by someone I don't know and who didn't have a car seat.

I think seats are needed until 12 for the average height child. I would have been very cross if it had been my child tbh.

There is no way I would want my son travelling in a car driven by a stranger - car seat or no car seat, law or no law. I am very careful whose car I let him go in and also insist on absolutely no alchohol ( though hopefully that's not an issue here ) - believe it or not other parents apparently are not so careful. Also judging by the safety standards of some of the children's parents dropping off children around my son's school - no car seats / parking on zig zags / blocking car parks / half on pavement half on road on double yellows / chuffing cigarette smoke all over their poor little ones / driving with children standing up on or climbing over car seats / accelerating like F1 racers - if I were to discover he were to have travelled in a stranger's car I would have had an absolute fit. I know (or at least hope) that most parents are extremely careful and conscientious drivers but even so - if they have had no police checks etc -anything could have happened.. . . If the school ok'd this change of arrangements (which I assume they would have had to have done) then this would be extremely lax and parents of any children involved would be justified in complaining most bitterly.

I agree.

There is no way our headteacher would allow this. I would investigate the circumstances and find out what the school's policy ought to be.

Oh FFS I'm amazed any of you ever dare to leave the house. What a horrible, pathetic, paranoid mindset to have, where every other person is just bound to be a chainsmoking, devil-worshipping, dangerously-driving, child abusing maniac just because they offered a practical solution to a problem.

agree with the sentiment of what madamez has said

it's just so sad now that people are just so damn buttoned up about stuff like this

and I'm not saying it was all better in the 70's when we didn't have child seats/never did me any harm etc etc

but there must be a middle road with this type of thing

madamez you are so right.
a few years ago. i was taking ds to meet the coach to take him on a cub trip. somehow I eneded up walking with another lad. we missed coach. didn't even think about it. took ds and boy in car to destination(didn't ask mum) and shock horror she was pleased. and so was cub leader.

I'm sure the mums all rallied round & had a quick conflab with one of the teachers & they all said " right let's do that" I'm sure te staff wouldn't have let the kids go with ANYONE thay weren't sure about.

TBH I would be more concerned that should there be an accident my child wouldn't be covered or the driver & that might cause problems for the generous driver doing a good turn AND the school for allowing it.

Only a minor chance but accidents happen.

There is some "middle of the road" on this type of thing - the law on car seats is that any child under a certain height (easy to look up) should be in an appropriate child seat apart from in "exceptional circumstances" Unfortunately that could count for any journey really so in my opinion the law is absolutely useless as any driver could claim this. It turns my stomach when I see parents in taxis with children - even tiny babies on their knee. A sudden collision and they would crush their child to death. It makes my blood boil it really does. HAVE THEY NOT SEEN THE WAY TAXI DRIVERS DRIVE ?? ( I recently followed one for nearlly 20 minutes carrying school children and he was on his mobile phone the whole time )
It's not being paranoid or pathetic.
It's the most basic bloody safety precaution.

Are you sure you know the full facts. Perhaps these particular parents were due to help anyway and therefore had been crb checked or were volunteers at school. Maybe a teacher travelled in each car. How many kids was it ? True every child under 135cm should have had a booster at very least(some schools may even have a few). btw ds is an average to small almost 10 yr old and is borderline already and many of his peers no longer need to use a booster and haven't for some time.

MsPontipine, what a load of crap. If you think car journeys are that dangerous, why would you ever get in a car?
Car-seat hysteria is one of the most classic examples of mundane stupidity going. Probably, at some deep level, mundanes are aware that excessive private car use is a Bad Thing, but rather than examine this logically and, you know, think about cutting down on car use and walking sometimes, they run with this mindset that anyone who even thinks of taking a child in a car without a carseat is worse than any amount of Mr Milky Milkies hiding in the bushes...

TBH I think the whole CRB check thing is less of an issue the the car seat issue.

The CRB cheks are actually quite limited, unless one of the really thorough ones are done. And even then they nly tell you about someone's past AT THAT TIME. So anything not convicted, or any recent offences don't et counted regardless. Also a CRB check done at one place for one reason does not always count if they are doing something for a different reason/person/employee. For example I have a current very thorough CRB check - full disclosure as I work in a prison. However if I then went to work in DD's school, it wouldn't be applicable and I would have to go through it again apparently.

And by the sounds of it the children travelled in groups - so the risk of anything untoward happening in a short car journey with 3 or 4 children present in each car is highly unlikely.

The car seat issue would both me more, although such an unplanned "emergency" would be most likely deemed as completely legal under the law anyway.

How old were the children?

Were they definitely not using any form of car seat? For example if it was my car seat I have two booster chairs with backs, and a booster cushion available. So could have 3 children in appropriate restraints easily. I have these (lus another seat in DH's car) as I often bring children back for playdates. Most of DD's friends parents have at least 2 boosters in their cars for the same reason.

madamez I'm inclined to agree with what you say, but I think it's easy to lapse into the 'It's ok - everything will be fine...' mindset, too. At my sons' primary school they sometimes used parents' cars for school trips. One mother had a 7 seater, so could take her own child plus 5 others. I went to the Head to say could she find a tactful way of NOT asking this particular mum, as she turned up at school every morning smelling very strongly of sherry.

I realise that this is the exception rather`than the rule, but it's too glib to say that people are being paranoid when they want some control over who their child should travel with.

Think the law is that children ages under 12 and under 135cm need a car seat.

I found this re. average heights:

2 years - 92 cms
3 years - 98 cms
4 years - 104 cms
5 years - 110 cms
6 years - 116 cms
7 years - 122 cms
8 years - 128 cms
9 years - 134 cms
10 years - 140 cms

So most children at top of junior school age would probably be exempt, some will definitely be under though.

"Car-seat hysteria is one of the most classic examples of mundane stupidity going"

Ok you tell that to my DH who had to help cut out a badly injured child,with stomach injuries through a badly fitting seat-belt, or his colleague who had to deal with a child who'd jerked forward on a badly fitted seat & died?

Thankfully they ARE rare but there could be even fewer child deaths in cars if people did fit seats properly.

It might be rare but I wouldn't want someone else's child in my car if I couldn't provide proper seats & had the parents consent-just in case an idiot drove onto ME.