Pupil Left Alone in Dover After Passport Misunderstanding
Handsam School Trips Advisor
An 11-year-old pupil from Bedford was left devastated after a long-awaited school trip to Paris went wrong. Pupil Mohammed Aashir Zabid was left alone at Dover police station by his school Goldington Green Academy after it was discovered he didn’t have a passport.
His mother Sadia Haleema believed the trip was functioning under a collective or group passport, often used for school trips. On arrival at the school before the trip, she said no documents were checked prior to the coach journey to Dover. A few hours later, she had a phone call saying her son didn’t have his passport on him.
The school presented her with two options - to deliver the passport to Dover or pay to have someone deliver it. When it became clear the passport would not be delivered in time, the school phoned Haleema and asked for permission to send him home in a taxi for the 140-mile journey back home while the rest of the school staff and pupils continued on the trip.
Despite Haleema’s objections, the staff left her son alone at Dover police station to wait for her to pick him up.
Read more of this story on handsamschooltripsadvisor.org.uk.