Thoughts on 9 year old going abroad on school trip ?

I'm a grandmother of 5. If my children, their parents thought it was ok then I'm with them all the way!
I went to Switzerland at aged 9 with school. It made me some lovely memories.
My Daughter went to Barcelona with school she was 12, maybe 12 is a better age.
Children are held back far too much nowadays imo. Resulting in kids lacking independence & character. Yes it's all character building.

Coming rather late to this thread - my granddaughter went to France with school for a week when she was ten. She enjoyed it very much.

My sons both went away with school and so did my granddaughter who is now 12 she started boarding school when she was 8 both parents are in the military she goes everywhere with her school and she is always buzzing when she gets home with all the places she has been to and what her and her friends did etc. unfortunately like life she has to grow up she can’t stop in the garden all her life she has to experience things. My lads were brought up in the military life and have been to so many places when we came back to uk lots of kids hadn’t even left the town I think it’s sad you not to want her to enrich her life. It’s called growing up and learning them to be independent. Yes it’s normal to be nervous everyone is because the baby is growing up.

All my GC are now in secondary schools and during all their time in primary education no overseas holidays were ever planned by those schools - yes, they had short breaks at various locations in the UK that were relevant to the school curriculum but never abroad.

I doubt that my AC would have agreed for them to travel abroad with their schools either.

Just a thought, are you paying for the trip Drina01? In that case the school might allow you to ask a few questions to settle your mind. Like if grandparents pay school fees they are allowed conversations around that subject. (Independent sector.)

Primrose53

Something just made me look at travel advice on Govt website and for Greece it says in bold “terrorists are likely to carry out attacks in Greece.” It says they can happen in areas frequented by foreigners.

As Joseann says above incidents are very rare but parents do need to be aware.

If people agree for their kids of 9 to go to places which have warnings like that then that’s their choice but we all know from shootings in several countries that there are some crazy people out there.

Wether or not a child should go abroad with school is a parenting decision. Not a grandparents. Especially one who is anxious.

That aside, there is no reason to scare her with the idea of terrorists in Greece. Australia, the US, and Canada all warn of terrorism in the UK, and “exercise normal caution” for Greece. Based on that advice I’d say Greece was far safer than the UK trips so many are advising.

travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/UnitedKingdom.html

travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/greece-travel-advisory.html

travel.gc.ca/destinations/united-kingdom

travel.gc.ca/destinations/greece

www.smartraveller.gov.au/destinations/europe/united-kingdom

www.smartraveller.gov.au/destinations/europe/greece

I went to grammar school with loads of RAF kids as we lived near two huge bases.

They remembered very little about their earlier time living in many different countries.

I still worry about the 30 something year olds going all the way to Cornwall😬

Like they did when I went to Antarctica.

Serve them right

Manipulative is very much the word

It's just our place to worry, Drina01

But not to show it!

I think now we may leave it as me being definitely realistic, definitely not manipulative, am not a risk taker myself and feel I do have input into helping keep her safe as was trusted enough to look after her from babyhood until now. I hope she will always come to me as a trusted person as she grows, as my mother and mother in law did for all their grandchildren at certain times of their lives. We as parents can’t know/ think of everything. Good to talk though.

Galaxy

Yes I have heard of people using charm to get what they want. It's often not a positive quality.

I think the word is manipulative.

Oh dear.

It’s up to her parents at the end of the day, if they ask for your opinion then fine but otherwise it’s overstepping

Yes I have heard of people using charm to get what they want. It's often not a positive quality.

Of course we can Hithere People do it all the time. Have you never heard of charm and persuasion?

We are allowed to have our feelings

We cannot wish or modify other's actions to pacify those feelings

I don't think she is being risk averse - just realistic

She is but she needs to manage those feelings. Being risk adverse has its own risks.

But Hithere the OP Drima loves her DGD and wants her to be safe. Is she not allowed her feelings?

I don't agree Primrose53. My son was interested in history from a very early age and he still remembers visiting the Acropolis, which he'd seen in pictures and already knew about. It brought Ancient Greece to life for him.

Joseann

Talking about sleeping in the same room as the children, IF I out myself here, then so be it in order to show how seriously I take these trips - which have formed a large part of my working life.
The Caroline Dickinson youth hostel case really really shook me. Especially as she came from our neck of the woods and the YH in Brittany was one I knew. When worried parents came to ask me what precautions I was taking, I said a member of my staff would sleep in every room, in the bed closest to the door, with the children. We piled all the suitcases up as a barricade and if anyone needed the toilet in the night we dismantled the pile. These were 9, 10 and 11 year olds. There was no way I was going to take any risks and parents needed to trust me 100%. Nothing is more precious than your child.
When school parties came to stay at my own property in France we took every precaution too, putting the two dogs by the front and back door.

Sorry to ramble here, the mention of the poor school girl churned things up for me.

But, Joseann as you well know not all teachers are like you.
I’m afraid I have too big an imagination where children’s safety is concerned.

She is not yours to keep safe!

Many thanks for all comments now. Greece has now been eliminated which am pleased about but Spain could be on the cards for next Spring when she will be nearer her 10th birthday. I’m pleased. I don’t think it’s all about me being anxious but rather keeping a precious girl as safe as am able. I now don’t think I’m unusual. Just wary as these are totally different times even from when my children were young.

growstuff

I think children could learn quite a lot from a trip to Greece.

By coincidence, when my son was 9, we went on a holiday to Greece, which included a couple of days in Athens. When he returned to school that September, the history topic was Ancient Greece. The teacher asked him to take in some of the pictures he had standing in front of the Acropolis, some of the postcards he'd bought and one of those souvenir Greek vases. He wrote about the Acropolis and how it's much higher than the surrounding area and you could see for miles. He didn't have to imagine what it was like because he'd been there.

It is lovely if you can travel and experience things but it is possible to know everything there is to know about places you have an interest in and modern technology allows us to actually feel we are there.

I had an Aunt who had a very humble upbringing. She worked on the land in all weathers. She never went abroad as she could not afford it. But she read and read and had such an enquiring mind and good memory that if she got talking to someone who had holidayed in certain countries she would actually know more about the place than that person! Everything about it in fact. She was absolutely fascinating and probably the loveliest person I knew.

March for the win