Posted By Jon Bradburn My partner's child returned from a school trip yesterday extremely distressed over an incident while swimming on the east coast. While full details are unclear as yet but it appears 4 14-15 yrs olds got into difficulty, were pulled out of their depth and had to be assisted by a number of other pupils. There is also some confusion as to whether staff took the matter seriously either during or after the incident. Pupils were dimissed on return to school and no attempt was made to contact parents to explain events. (comment has been made that pupils have been told not to make a fuss so as not to jeopardise future trips. A point of note is also that the news yesterday reported an unusal tidal surge at Scarborough). At present we have been unsuccessful in contacting the school and therefore plan to do so on monday. Clearly the duty of care and need to conduct a risk assessment for this activity is in no doubt. My current view is either this has not occurred or has been inadequate. Aside from the obvious I would ask: - the competance of the person conducting the risk assessment (pupils were advised to take spare clothes as they would be allowed in the sea). - Lifesaving skills / swimming ability of staff - Control / supervision of pupils while in the water - Contingency plan in the event of someone getting into difficulty (didn't appear to work for 1, let alone 4) - Whether the event was forseeable (tidal surge notwithstanding) - Local conditions and suitability of coast (it is suggested the location has a known sudden drop off and strong currents). I really would appreciate others thoughts particularly from those involved in assessing this type of activity. While there is always a potential to over react or over embellish where children are involved the fact that all 4 pupils have had disrupted sleep, 2 vomitting and all still distressed, I believe something has gone wrong here and events could have ended very tragically. Thanks Jon

Posted By Peter48 Hi Jon, The answer is in the first instance very simple the school should have undertaken a risk assessment in line with Young persons regs and where they found a high risk should have advised parents - know turning to the school and I dont know which one or where on the 'South Coast' but if it is an LEA school they would have guidance on outwrdbound type of work. We only have to think of Lyme bay incident to send shivers up the spine..I would suggest on Monday (if you are the parent) to seek a meeting with the head and ask what happened, also for a copy of their risk asessment and what actions, including reporting of to the relevant bodies HSE/LEA etc they have done - then write to him/ her on the subject. Surley this is an accident waiting to happen and classified as a serious 'near miss' Good luck Peter

Posted By TBC I used to live in Scarborough and would advise anyone to seek advice from the coastguard services as to where and when to allow swimming. Over the years there has been a few drownings due manly to ignorance of the undercurrents and force of the tide in many locations along this tame looking beach. Wave dodging being the worst culprit and freak waves are quite common up to 5 metres on occasions. Only after consultation with local knowledge can a full RA be completed. http://www.independent.c...and-children-528366.html

Posted By steven bentham Jon Additional points: (1) what was the educational value of the trip? (2) will the Headteacher carry out a review of the incident and share results/lessons? If it had been a drowning accident the HSE & Police would carry out their own review and potentially prosecute. However, at the end of the day no one was really hurt and you should keep it in perspective. Kids have to grow up and face the dangers of a modern world. I think it is more important for parents to get sound answers to 1 & 2. If not next year parents have a choice about similar trips.

Posted By Pete48 May I just say, in order to avoid any confusion, that the name peter48 is not the same contributor as pete48, one of us will have to morph I guess thank you Pete48

Posted By D H Hi - a lot of good advice here on keeping things in perspective. Jon - you say the school has not been in contact - if your child was not directly involved in the incident, why would the school need to contact you? I would also expect the school to have facts before contacting anyone -this may explain the delay. Remember half truths are dangerous things to work with. We also need to think about how we manage this in future - you say one of the chaps was a very good swimmer with life saving skills. Ok a risk assessment should be in place, but the leaders are also on their leisure time and may not wish to go to all the effort - so - an easy way out of this in future is for the school to ban swimming - which would be very much OTT - but may come if there is a witch hunt occurred without hard facts. At the end of the day, no one was lost, so let the school do the investigation and distribute findings and learning's in a controlled, responsible manner. Dave

Posted By Jon Bradburn Pete48, Thanks, the link has been quite enlightening! I've got more than enough to enable a constructive dialogue with the school. Though its a bit off topic from my original post, I disagree with comments about keeping matters in perspective - to say no-one was hurt is incorrect in that 4 girls (not boys!)have been harmed ('harm' not being confined to physical injury but also mental (shock) which may manifest physical symptoms). As is commonly the case, tradgedies such as Lyme Bay (and indeed many workplace incidents) generally occur because near misses have been ignored or ineffectively investigated. The swimming activity was a planned part of a science field trip (the appropriateness may well be a matter of debate). I personally do not object to this (assuming proper planning has occurred). It is unfortunate that lessons learn't may well be that its not worth it and 'elf n safety' bans another school trip, so adding to the lunacy we see today. I'm an avid canoeist and fell walker amongst other 'adventure sports' and as such encourage our kids to push the envelope and experience life. What saddens me most is 'don't rock the boat or the kids will suffer' At the end of the day IF something has gone wrong its better to put it right now that endure another tradic headline

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Posted By Graham Bullough Jon As an adviser to a local authority dealing mainly with its schools, including off-site and adventurous activities, I would echo the earlier responses and suggest that you contact the headteacher to tell him/her what you have heard and ask 1) if the sea swimming was a planned activity and 2) what risk assessments were made for the activity, bearing in mind that water has been the common denominator in a number of highly publicised tragedies involving young people engaged in outdoor activities in, on or near water. However, as you say, if there were shortcomings which led to the 4 pupils getting into difficulties then hopefully these will be identified and used constructively for planning and running future trips rather than as an excuse to ban them. Also, as Pete48 has commented, even with good planning and supervision, things can still go wrong sometimes - that's a fact of life. By all means copy in the school's chair of governors. However, he/she will almost certainly contact the headteacher (effectively the school's "chief executive") for information if not already aware of something apparently having gone amiss during the trip. It is quite likely the case that the headteacher and the school's educational visits co-ordinator (EVC) already know of the alleged incident and that the teachers who ran the trip have spent time compiling a report since returning. They would probably anticipate that pupils on the trip would probably tell their parents, as your partner's child has done. Also, as some pupils and parents might decide to tell the media, the school should be prepared for the possibility of queries from journalists. Thus, it could be that the school will shortly provide for parents of pupils who went on the trip at least an interim report about the circumstances. If the school is part of a local authority, it will probably be notifying and getting comments from the authority's outdoor activity adviser and/or health & safety adviser. The same goes for telling the council's public relations people so that they can deal with any media enquiries which arise. In due course would you consider briefly summarising the outcome of this matter for the benefit of forum users who are parents of school pupils or are otherwise involved with school trips? However, if this could compromise the anonymity of the school and any local authority, forum users should respect you for declining the request.

Posted By TBC Peter as I said in my earlier posting the 'unusual' tide effect is not so unusual in many parts of Scarborough and local knowledge is extremely valuable in the RA process.