I suppose the first reaction is: Disneyland… for a school trip?? I think there’s a huge pressure on parents to cough up for increasingly ostentatious trips. However, putting that aside, I think it is unfair.

True enough, parents were informed beforehand that there weren’t enough places, but why was a trip that they couldn’t all go on an option in the first place? Surely there were other choices available?

People have commented that children have to learn that there are disappointments in life; you just have to suck it up and get on with it. Yes, they do have to learn about not getting everything they want, but there are plenty of opportunities for that lesson. Why have something that is guaranteed beforehand to disappoint an unlucky few, especially something that is divisive and singles them out from their peers?

My school trip

OK, so I’m particularly passionate about this because IT HAPPENED TO ME (and boy do I not want to be in the same situation ever with my kids)!!

I’m 36 now so we’re going back rather a bit, but when I was at middle school (so I’d be about 11, actually I was definitely 11 as it was Italia ’90) there was a school trip to Normandy as part of our French studies. I loved learning French and was probably quite precocious in my appreciation of French culture, so was soooo excited about the prospect of going there with my friends. The trip was oversubscribed by two out of the entire year of almost 90 and I was one of the two drawn out of the hat not to go. I was devastated. Properly devastated.

My best friend at the time, who hated French, kept banging on about how much she couldn’t wait to go. I remember that I couldn’t stop crying.  Then kids at school began to say how they no longer wanted to go, which made me even more upset. I REALLY WANTED TO! It wasn’t a flash in the pan disappointment. I just didn’t get over it.

My mum booked a gîte in Normandy for the whole family at the same time as my year group was going to be there. I know that this certainly would not have been possible for many and that I was VERY fortunate that, as a family, we were able to do this, but she knew that I wasn’t just being a brat, that I really loved French and would have done anything to go; she even got the itinerary off the teacher so that we could replicate everything (I was a bit of a nerd like that).

We had a fantastic time and I have so many wonderful memories from our trip, but to this day I remember how so upset I was when I got drawn out of that hat.

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Last week I double-checked the girls’ red books to make sure they’d had both doses of the MMR vaccine (Mumps, Measles, Rubella).

I’ve seen an increasing number of news stories about pockets where there have been outbreaks. The Disneyland one was particularly headline-grabbing. Whilst most of these have been in other countries, I think it’s going to be a serious issue in the UK. By the way, in 2000, the US declared that it had eliminated measles.

I’m not going to debate pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine, I’m far too ignorant about all of the issues involved. All I know is I’m very happy they’ve had both doses of the vaccine.

There was much negative publicity about the MMR vaccine. This was enough to put many parents off getting it for their children. Again, I won’t go into that, but it does mean that uptake of this particular vaccination is severely reduced.

Measles is extremely contagious, so much so that 90 percent of those who aren’t immunised would catch it if exposed. It’s airborne and can remain in the air and on surfaces for up to two hours after an infected person has left. It is also transmittable before it can be diagnosed. Children who are too young to have had the first or second dose of the MMR vaccine are obviously at risk as are children with illnesses such as cancer who can’t be vaccinated and children who are immunocompromised.

I hope I’m wrong about a big UK outbreak.

What the NHS says about measles

Here’s what the NHS says about measles with some of the signs and symptoms:

Measles is a highly infectious viral illness that can be very unpleasant and can sometimes lead to serious complications. However, it’s now uncommon in the UK because of the effectiveness of the MMR vaccination.

The initial symptoms of measles develop around 10 days after you are infected. These can include:

• cold-like symptoms
• red eyes and sensitivity to light
• a high temperature (fever)
• greyish white spots in the mouth and throat

After a few days, a red-brown spotty rash will appear. This usually starts behind the ears and then spreads around the head and neck before spreading to the rest of the body.

Read more about the symptoms of measles.

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