Doubleview Primary School kids will get their Year 6 camp after parents’ protest

Doubleview Primary School has backed down on its decision to abolish its annual overnight camp for Year 6 students after an outcry from parents. The West revealed last week around 60 students had been devastated to learn the three-day camp would be replaced with four “activity days” to be held on school grounds because of concerns about adding to teachers’ workloads and the difficulty of catering for kids’ food allergies. Following a barrage of complaints, the school held a meeting for parents on Wednesday where they were told planning was under way for a camp in July. A parent who attended the meeting said they were “happy and relieved” and thanked the school for listening to their concerns about children missing out on the camp milestone. Reasons the school initially gave for the decision to cancel camps included “teacher workload”, the school’s ability to cater for an “increasing number of dietary requirements”, cost to parents, its duty of care with the “increasing number of medical conditions” and “we don’t have a school nurse to travel with”. “All we ever wanted was to work with the school to try and work through these issues, and we’re appreciative,” the parent said. The department’s North Metropolitan Regional director of education Joanne Harris confirmed a Year 6 camp would go ahead this year during Term 3. “School staff will continue to manage all matters regarding the camp, including those who attend,” she said. “We recognise that camps can play an important role in a student’s primary school experience, and I’m sure parents will be happy with the outcome of yesterday’s meeting.” Principals Federation of WA president Bevan Ripp said that “reading between the lines”, he believed the Education Department had directed the school to change its decision. “That’s unfair because whether to have a camp or not is a school decision, it’s not up to anybody else,” he said. Mr Ripp said schools took into account a range of factors, but a big part of their decision on whether to hold a camp was staff availability. “Camps occur because of staff goodwill,” he said. “Staff have every right to say no, they will not go.” The State School Teachers Union last week warned that more schools were likely to abolish overnight camps as overworked teachers become increasingly burnt out. President Matt Jarman said the expectation that teachers would go on camps was a common workload issue. “It simply comes down to the fact that teachers want to give to their students and their schools, but they just feel they can’t give any more of themselves,” he said last week.