School residential SEN

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My child will be attending a 4 night residential trip with school just over 2 hours away. He has a learning support plan but no EHCP. HE is autistic with PDA profile.

The headteacher is worried about his safety on the trip. Does anyone have any experience of dealing with this?

I don’t want my child to be excluded or miss out. He wants to attend. It’s costing £600 so not cheap.

Should they be putting adjustments in place? Should I offer to stay near by? Should he only do half the trip (I don’t want this option).

They are worried that he doesn’t always follow instructions and takes things very literally.

I appreciate this as I’ve been on the residential school trips myself.
i’m not sure however how this information about Staff not being paid is relevant to whether my son can go on the trip or not

The main problem is that it’s 2 hours drive away and I’m a single parent with another child.

Sorry, I posted on your thread already but didn't address your actual post. My advice would be to ask for a meeting about the trip. What are they specifically worried about? Are there particular activities? Is it sleeping arrangements? Is it ratios?

You might have advice for those situations. You might disagree with their assessment of risk. You might decide that they have a point and ask for a refund.

I think this may be a challenge that increases as the number of children in mainstream schools also increases. It is incredibly hard and I can see it from both sides.

There are times in schools now that due to children’s needs, staff find it hard to keep children safe in school where the environment is well known and things are more predictable. Take children out of school and what is just manageable becomes unsafe.

Children with SEND should always be included where possible but should that be at the expense of others? I honestly don’t know the right answer. We all want them to be included but there are times when this is simply not possible for genuine reasons. Do we find an alternative trip where everyone can go even if it then becomes a very watered down version of what children have always done in the past? Do we cancel for all and not take them?

It’s getting harder and harder in schools. These things are voluntarily led and some staff I know are saying it’s getting too much. But, if we are having more and more children in school with needs they should feel that they belong, are valued, included but will this be at the cost of other children?

We have a child with a PDA profile at school. She is a really clever, brilliant kid but she needs a 1-1 escorting her between every lesson, at every break time and during sports events because you never know when she’s going to lash out or have a meltdown. She has hurt other kids quite badly. On our recent residential, she went for the days but not the nights. It was totally unfeasible that she share a dormitory and not reasonable to expect an adult to watch her 24-7 for 3 days. Having her picked up after dinner each night was the reasonable adjustment.

I don’t think anything should be at the expense of all the other children. Why should everyone else miss out? I have a dd who is on the list for ADHD and ASD assessment, if we were ever told she couldn’t go as it was unsafe for her I’d accept that and not want the trip to be cancelled or not arranged for everyone else.

I understand and that would be my approach too but not everyone does. We have the equality act thrown at us all of the time.

I hope you would first ask to see the risk assessment, and discuss and advocate for reasonable adjustments, before deciding it was unsafe?

Which is what most posters are advising. Discuss concerns with the school - the OP may be able to raise areas of concern the school wouldn't know about. Then work with the school to see what can be done to.mitigate the risks.

The key word is 'reasonable' - the school can't just exclude a child because it makes life easier, but there is also a limit to what they can accommodate.

And the teenagers in and out of each other's rooms, dodgy accommodation etc is completely irrelevant to the issue of whether a child with unspecified SEN can go on an unspecified school residential.

I’d talk to them about their concerns and really think about whether they are reasonable. If for example your child tends to lash out or walk off when dysregulated, are they able to supervise him enough to manage the risk, and does that leave other children with inadequate supervision?

My DD went in a residential, all the indicators were that she’d do ok with the supports put in place - fully risk assessed, allocated staff to support her. As it turned out she did fine for a couple of days but I needed to go and bring her home 2 days early. She just ran out of capacity to deal with being out of routine for 5 days and there were safety concerns for her primarily.

I was proud she managed as long as she did, but also recognised when she had reached her limit. She stopped having fun and needed to be at home.

All that to say it’s fine to say schools need to make reasonable adjustments, and they should, but all the adjustments in the world won’t help if your child can’t cope with a schedule, changes to routine, food, expectations and there’s a point when they stop enjoying themselves. It’s normal to want your child to do the same things other kids do, it’s also necessary to be realistic about their ability to do that in a way that isn’t distressing for them, especially if they can’t manage their behaviour when dysregulated.

I know of a case where a pupil with Autism and ODD (undiagnosed but definitely ODD) was only allowed on a residential if a parent stayed close by and took them to stay with them in a hotel in the evening.

The pupil could not have been kept safe by the staff and this was the only compromise the school could arrive at.

It is the only time in almost 30 years of education I’ve encountered a story like this.

The day to day stuff was OK but there was no way staff could keep this pupil safe (to themselves and others) once bedtime came. I wonder if this is the type of issue OP’s DC faces?

But how do they know he’ll be unsafe?

Yes - thank you

My DC has an EHCP and is in a special unit with very high staff to pupil ratios but I still have to go on every school trip if he wants to attend, let alone a residential.

The year 6 residential my youngest (sen) did not attend it was unfair on everyone to expect them to cope with my child he is lovely....he doesn't sleep and will only eat a limited type of food

My friends (sen) child did attend they assured the parents it would be fine his usual TA was going she would be his 1-1 he would be sleeping with friends everyone knew him everything was going to be fine he got there they assigned him a room with his bullies his 1-1 was busy he wanted to calm himself down by walking outside they refused to allow it due to safeguarding and they had to call his parents to get him he couldn't spend one night parents literally spent money for them to roll back on everything they said they would do they literally told him to suck it up like he was a regular child he was set up for failure in my opinion (there was more things that went wrong obviously this was just part)

I would think very carefully how your child would cope

It will be relevant in regards to how severe your child’s needs are. If the school are politely suggesting it may be best he doesn’t go or is collected early etc and you push back and demand he’s included and the teachers know it will be an absolute nightmare I can fully understand them saying fuck that and pulling out if they are not being paid to be there.

How awful that some residentials get cancelled because a parent feels their child is entitled to go regardless of their individual needs or the safety of other children. Equality doesn’t mean everyone is treated the same, one size doesn’t fit all, if a school says they have safety concerns parents need to listen to them.

Experience of the child.

Because they see the behaviour of that child at school every day!

When I was on my df school trip as her 1:1 it was quite eye opening about how easy it would of been fir her to escape. After dinner I was the only adult member of our party with them while 90 pupils was with two teenage camp staff..lots of woods around the camp and older teen school trips there. The school staff all had down time while the camp staff took over. I was only there for my child as not staff, insured etc. I would have stopped any kid doing anything obviously dangerous or stupid but I wasn't going to stop them from disappearing into the woods, squabbling etc out if my hearing or sight.

I do feel she was safer with me there as in reality she was only one being watched like a hawk. Until bedtime. God knows what she hot up to then.

I'm.also a LSA now and unless I really wanted to see somewhere I wouldn't volunteer to attend