A fine time is not always had in the great outdoors
28 February 2022
The BBC report that a Gateshead school has recently been fined £30,000 for involving pupils in a dangerous mountain hike back in March 2020. It is easy to be wise after an event, but Mountain Leadership requires more than wearing a cagoule. Experience, training and preparation are absolutely vital. Thankfully no student suffered serious harm but the result could have been very different. Schools have a duty of care to students on trips and this case highlights that even if no serious harm is suffered that proper care must be taken.
The AALA Adventure Activities Licence is available for each outdoor activity centre or activity base. The licence is not for, “schools or colleges offering activities to your pupils or students” As ever, the Health and Safety Executive offers more detail. Beyond any centre, the risks magnify exceptionally and exponentially. Many will know of the Mountain Leader Award, established in 1963. Significant experience, knowledge, and capability are required to qualify as a Mountain Leader (ML) and even more to achieve a Winter ML and beyond. Alternative training is also available for Hill and Moorland Leadership, and Lowland Leadership.
When I first started to teach, the Local Authority offered training and assessment for Open Country Activities. I gained accreditation for Rock Climbing and one for Mountain and Moorland Activities. Layering the right clothing and carrying the right reserves is an art. Navigation was map and compass, before the days of OS MAP GPS devices and their like, now available for location backup. I often see people reliant on such devices alone. Map reading forms the flappable fun for me, although I do have an OS Maps App subscription.
Over the years I have many stories to tell personally, in leadership, or when assessing students in competition. The outdoor environment is rarely uneventful. I often involved additional qualified leaders, particularly when climbing.
Whilst climbing personally I met two frightened young people lead climbing, with a young adult supervisor, over an hour into a route. I knew non of them. The climbing pitches were graded lowly Very Difficult (VDiff) to Hard Very Difficult (HVD) in Snowdonia, Wales. More pitches were required to reach the top. Weather was worsening. Nothing extreme but the group I was with helped get the young people safely up, offering top ropes for remaining pitches. A story of Faith, Hope and Charity, the name of three of my favourite warm up climbing routes at Idwal Slabs. I also saw a lead climber fall and then slide down a scree slope, two of his runners (metal wedged between gaps in rock) had not stayed in place and we helped a helicopter to find him, broken spleen and all. He was lucky.
Moorland can be challenging too. I was with a large group of pupils following an old granite railway on Dartmoor and the visibility disappeared as the legendary mist came down. I was prepared. I was with numerous staff and parents, and we repeatedly played, “Dartmoor Gate” to keep counting children through pupil arches. A rope was not needed. The children seemed to enjoy the experience, completely trusting their adults. I had a Compass, if needed, and we all got safely back to the bus relatively quickly. Whilst playing a final “Dartmoor Gate” some unknown adults came to the bus door and exclaimed, “I am a name not a number!” The parents and staff with me, laughed loudly at them.
It is easy to think of the outdoors positively, based on prior experience. It is also too easy to be overconfident in the ability of leaders and the capability of the group being led. Learning should be paced slowly, experience gained steadily over time. I don’t say that often. This is learning where it is not safe to let children try and fail without exceptional safeguarding control of the circumstances, predictable, or otherwise.
At Idwal Slabs (aka Cwm Idwal), beware of falling sheep.