Trip found for Hucknall schoolkids after controversial axing of original

Excited pupils at a Hucknall school can still look forward to a getaway next month – despite an original break being axed at the 11th hour in controversial fashion.
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Children from years five and year six at Edgewood Primary School had been hoping to go on a five-day residential trip to Staffordshire.

But they faced bitter disappointment after the plug was pulled on the trip by organisers Kingswood just 48 hours after the school had been told it was going ahead.

It left parents angry and pupils, who had already missed out on so much in the last year due to Covid, heartbroken, particularly those in year six for whom the trip represented a last chance to spend time with friends before they all move on to secondary school.

Edgewood School has been able to find a replacement summer trip for pupilsEdgewood School has been able to find a replacement summer trip for pupils
Edgewood School has been able to find a replacement summer trip for pupils

But now, the school has managed to organised a replacement trip to Walesby Forest and pupils are once again eagerly packing their bags.

Headteacher Ed Seeley said: “Thanks to a lot of hard work, we’ve been able to get a new trip over the same number of days with many of the same activities.

“In fact, the kids are actually going to get to do activities like kayaking and raft building, hopefully, that they wouldn’t have been able to do at the previous centre.

“It’s great for the kids too who were so disappointed when the first trip was cancelled.

“It was really important that we were able to do something and I’m pleased we’ve managed to get such a good outcome.”

Responding to criticism for the original trip cancellation, a spokesman for Kingswood said: “We have been operating under a tight set of operational restrictions since schools have been allowed to visit us again, which has limited our bookings to between 15 per cent and 40 per cent of our normal capacity.

“Restrictions differ across England, Wales and Scotland, and local guidance also varies across our centres – which has limited our capacity further.

Schools have understandably found it very difficult to commit to set bookings, so we have seen a huge amount of changes to occupancy on a daily basis.

“Despite our best efforts, trips for a small number of schools have been impacted.

“We’re really sorry for this.”

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