Interesting point there – I was bowled over by how amazing their reception year teacher was. Lessons included dissecting a real pig’s head and talking about the two world wars (an interest one of our girls is still utterly absorbed in).

I don’t want to find fault but today was just another day where I think this year’s teacher let them down.

It turns out she did okay on the way, was very subdued during the day and was in tears by the way home – this wasn’t helped by the fact the 1 hour journey there and back in her ‘group’ meant she was on a different coach than her twin and all of her friends.

In all a pretty shit experience for her 🙁

Still, her sister enjoyed herself.

and I have never been happy with her performance

When I read that, alarm bells rang. If the OP is so qualified, take em out and home school them. Sometimes, things don’t work out just the way you or
the offspring might wish and sometimes, it’s just not up to you.

A lesson (should be) learned…

But you should always be allowed to ask a question, and expect an answer. Parent teacher pupil relationship should always be an open 2 way street.

The trip is over and she will get over it OP, but do question them if you feel the need to.

Boblo – don’t be silly. As a parent I can have a view. Seeing them in the second year and not progressing as well as they did in their first is something I have seen. Mistakes their teacher has made (such as moving up the wrong child to the next level of reading) I have witnessed.

Does this make me a better teacher? No. Should I still be entitled to see my daughters get a reasonable education?

Long time lurker here – been reading the forum for many years but almost no contributions made. I’m genuinely surprised by the general opinion expressed here and have complete sympathy with the OP. Obviously, the issue has now passed, and I hope the OP’s daughter had a great day, but if a similar circumstance arises in the future, there is really no reason not to contact the school to just ask the question – I agree with Ads678 earlier posts. For what it’s worth, I say this as a secondary teacher with 27 years experience, and in my current job as Deputy Headteacher of an 11 – 18 school, I would prefer that any parent with a concern about any trip we were running let me know. There are plenty of opportunities in education to develop resilience, learn about the unfairness of life etc., but I doubt that end of year school trips in the early years of primary school are well suited to this…

If I knew that any of our students were in tears over an event that is supposed to be a highlight of the year, I would want to try and sort that out in some way, and I couldn’t do that if I didn’t know. Equally, if a member of staff was organising a trip, I would hope that they would be happy to explain their rationale for grouping to any parent that had concerns. I know there are other teachers on here – any posted yet? I haven’t seen any AA posts for a while…

Anyway – to the OP – did it all turn out to be OK?

Sorry Johndoh – didn’t see your post. Really sorry your daughter had a bad day.

Always amazes me how people think its just fine and dandy to make a childs life a misery. Children have no control and no authority. How many adults in a comparable situation would not do something about it to improve the situation for themselves – most of them I think. Yet a child being sad does not matter at all. Yes life is hard – so why make it even worse for children or anyone for that matter when its simple to change it.

OP, do something about this, even if its only to ask the school why things are being arranged this way. At school it is not only children that bully, plenty of teachers do too. There is nothing wrong and everything right in standing up for a defenceless child provided you do so in a polite and constructive way. Let your child see change is possible and that misery does not have to be tolerated.