School Trips and Child Safety

[martin1383]

Hi everyone

I'm currently doing some research into how schools manage child safety when attending events outside of school and how technology could play a part in supporting teachers and making events safer for students.

I'm in the process of designing a prototype which would allow teachers to receive alerts for those students who wonder outside of a pre-set distance.

For example, when attending an event and a student moves more than x number of meters away it would notify the person who is responsible for that student. This alert may be in the form of a watch vibration or alarm on a person's phone.

Do you think this type of product could improve child safety?
Do you think it's something your school would be interested in?

Im not a teacher myself so it would be really good to speak to anyone who would like to know more information on this.

Many Thanks
Martin

As a primary teacher all the children are in my / another responsible adult’s eyesight /reach at all times anyway. We mostly manage safety with appropriate ratios, knowing our children really well and careful risk assessing. On the odd occasion I’ve had a bolter, they’ve either held my hand throughout or even had reins. I can’t imagine using a product like you describe - by the time they’ve wandered off far enough for it to trigger, it’s too late from my point of view…I should / would have already known they were missing.

Thank you for the feedback. Please could i ask the age range of the students you teach?

Primary - age 4 to 11

You would also need to consider the cost factor. I would assume most primary school activities are managed as per MyBrilliantFriend and this could be seen as an unnecessary expense for very little gain.

Also be aware that staff may not have a phone kn them or there may only be one school phone provided to the group leader.

Thanks @Fuzzywuzzyface for the feedback.

This type of device would be an additonal safety option.

I got the idea when attending a theme park earlier this year. I saw teachers with groups of children which must have been ages 8 to 11. Each teacher seemed to have around 8 children in the group and it was impossible for them to keep eyes on each child a 100% of the time.

I understand this may not be normal procedure at all schools and the procedure will change for each enviroment. For example if your walking down a busy road this device would do little to stop a child from walking into the road.

If however your in a busy location or a location which 100% visability is not always an option then this type of device could warn you if a child is to far away and give you the location and direction of that child.

@Fuzzywuzzyface i think you make a very good point on school mobile phones and this is something ill take away. Teachers can use their own mobile devices for this but i imagine some teachers may refuse to use personal devices for this.

Fuzzywuzzyface i think you make a very good point on school mobile phones and this is something ill take away. Teachers can use their own mobile devices for this but i imagine some teachers may refuse to use personal devices for this. Many (most?) primary schools don't allow primary teachers to use their personal mobiles in the vicinity of children at all. How would you track the child's location?

I would not invest in a tech product for schools. I cannot stress this enough... schools have no money so it just won't be a viable product. I don't think it would work anyway as often you want pupils to wander as part of the trip; sounds like it could be faffy to set up; trips are already stressful enough without something else to monitor; most/many kids, even young ones, can be relied upon to follow directions and the flight risks would be closely monitored; money better spent on curriculum.

When you saw those teachers with 8 children each I guarantee none of those kids are the ones trying to bolt. When we have those kids in a group going on a trip they have a 1:1 and hold hands.

I've only been on a few school trips but anecdotally behaviour from the, say, known characters tends to be better on them than in a normal day. Our little runner showed up parroting "I must hold Miss Smith's hand" last term, for example, and he did.

I'm an EVC (educational visits coordinator) in a secondary school.

We would not invest in this tech as we simply do not have the budget. We use an online trips module because we do a lot of trips and we have a few (less than 5) mobile phones. Staff should not have any pupil data on their own phones at all.

It is the responsibility of the leaders of each trip to risk assess and that includes ratios. Ultimately, the leaders should know where each student is at all times (or an approximate location) and they are trained and experienced staff.

We wouldn't use it. I work in a lovely secondary school and it just isn't needed.

I have taken choir trips abroad. Each member of staff has a school PAYG mobile and the kids are divided into groups, each group is allocated to one member of staff who gives the kids their PAYG number. Kids have to remain in groups of at least 3. I often get texts from them, mostly to say they are stuck in a queue and will be a couple of minutes late for a rendezvous, or asking a question.