SCHOOL TRIPS

Top tips for school trips

Former teacher and member of the School Travel Forum, Alf

Scrimgour, offers his top tips for planning school trips

arranging school trips. A report from Education Travel Group recently found that 20 per cent of teachers rarely or never took their pupils on school trips. This is understandable – there is a good deal of

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Plan ahead

Teachers should always give themselves as much time to plan a trip as possible and should talk to their school trips provider from a very early stage in the process. Not only will this mean that groups are more likely to get their first choice of location and accommodation, it

Union address: Voice

Conspiracy of pretence

Too often, says

John Till,

politicians pretend

that what they have done has made a difference, when the real challenges remain unaddressed

THE FORTHCOMING General Election will no doubt follow a predictable pattern when the parties set out their proposals for the education service. Some will be claiming credit for past initiatives deemed to be successful. Others will point to proposals which will address perceived problems and transform the system. What will be lacking will be any honest appraisal of the success of previous policies and the extent to which they are delivering the results that were promised. Remember how, in the 1980s, it was argued that

schools needed to be exposed to “market forces” and competition to shake them from their complacency and their indifference to the concerns of parents and employers. Parents would be able to choose the school, funding would follow the pupils, schools would have to meet parental expectations or perish, so standards would rise as schools sought to attract pupils, and parents would get the kind of schools and education they were seeking. Twenty years on, has it happened as intended?

If so, why are politicians and the media still complaining about poor schools and standards? If not, why not and what does this say about the original assumptions? Remember the city technology colleges (CTCs)

– a handful of sponsored, revolutionary new schools, located in inner cities or communities with the characteristics of inner cities, free from the requirements of the national curriculum (how insensitive was that when other schools were having to implement them?), whose radical approaches would provide a model which could be followed by other schools in similar circumstances.

Have they delivered? If so, why are the ideas

and practices which have worked for them not being adopted elsewhere? What is it that is preventing all secondary schools from being like theCTCs? To what extent are they what we were told they would be? Or take the academies, which continue to

proliferate. Where is the evidence that changing the designation of a school will allow it to succeed where predecessors have been deemed to fail? If there is convincing evidence, why are not all secondary schools so redesignated? So when the politicians promise new initiatives

to put right what they argue is wrong, perhaps we should ask them how those initiatives will be evaluated and when we shall be told if they have been successful (or not!). Too often it seems that politicians pretend that what they have done has made a difference, when the real challenges remain unaddressed. At election time this conspiracy of pretence should be exposed. Can there really be unrestricted parental choice?

If not, why pretend that that is a party’s policy instead of explaining the realities of providing an education service for all? If academies and the former CTCs are succeeding, what are the reasons for that success? And, critically, can what they do be done by all other secondary schools without undermining a public education service which has to provide for all? For if these particular institutions are doing what others cannot do, comparing them with the others is not only unfair but also pointless because it does not help to address the causes of problems or poor performance elsewhere. These are self-evident questions to those working

in the education service, but they are not unintelligible to those without a professional interest. Yet they do not seem to be asked by politicians or by those in the media who pride themselves on exposing the shortcomings of one party or another. It seems that awkward questions and inconvenient

answers can be brushed aside in favour of broad assertions and selected statistics which support the required outcome. But pretending like this is no way to run a public education service. Politicians cannot be experts on everything, but

they can listen to experts. By doing so they might become more ready to appreciate that there are no quick and easy legislative and structural solutions to deep-rooted problems.

• John Till is professional officer with Voice. Visit www.voicetheunion.org.uk/electionmanifesto

also gives parents a fair amount of time to save for the upcoming trip.

Ask questions

Do not be afraid to ask questions. This is a trap that many teachers (just like their students!) fall in to. The more information that teachers have under their belt, the better prepared they will be to “sell” the trip to parents and children and also to oversee the trip.

Plan outcomes

Know exactly what you want the outcome of your trip to be. Is your priority that your pupils learn lifeskills such as leadership or teamwork? Do you want them to develop an understanding of other cultures and languages? Or do you simply need to cover a key element of the curriculum that you cannot achieve in the classroom? You might also like to think about how your trip

might benefit pupils in other disciplines. For example, there may be geographical, historical or linguistic tie- ins that you had not thought of and that may help to secure support from colleagues. Remember to speak to your operator about linking your requirements to the exact learning outcome that you are aiming for.

Trip providers

Selecting a school trips provider can be a tricky business, so do your research. These days there is a relatively wide choice of providers, but teachers would be well advised to select an operator who has a proven track record.

Safety first

Safety, as we all know, is a huge concern for trip organisers and this, along with the sheer level of planning involved, is one of the main reasons that a school trip can be difficult to plan. Teachers should ensure that any provider they may use has a strong health and safety record and can demonstrate robust health and safety processes and systems. There are a number of organisations or schemes

now in place to make sure the school trip industry is as safe as possible. When teachers are choosing their provider, they

might check that they are members of the School Travel Forum, which is a not-for-profit organisation of school tour operators that promotes good practice and safety in school travel. You could also check whether providers have

been awarded the government’s Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge, which is a voluntary scheme introduced by the government to reassure teachers of an organisation’s credibility when making initial enquiries. Elsewhere, if you are opting for a UK residential

course, be sure to ask for onsite security and risk assessments.

Risk assessments

Do not be put off by risk assessments. Although they are a notable part of the organisation for teachers, risk assessments can be off-putting. Tour operators should be able to cut down much of

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the work by helping with these. Although they cannot complete them for you, they will be able to provide guidelines and it is their responsibility to carry out checks on all the component parts of their visits, from the accommodation through to transport. This means that teachers can use the operator’s safety

management system as part of the risk assessment, saving you time and effort.

Education specialism?

You should be aware that some providers are education specialists and some are just travel operators.Obviously, the education specialists will be able to demonstrate how their tours or courses tie in with the curriculum.

Get out there

Dust your suitcase off. The best way to get to grips with what to expect on a school trip is to actually see the location before booking. Although it may seem like a lot of extra work,

many teachers use preview visits to anticipate potential problems. They are able to meet senior team members before they arrive and see other school groups in action. Teachers may also find that these preview trips help them to think about the kind of excursions or educational elements that they want to include in the trip.

Deadlines

Be crafty with deadlines. Make sure you set students deadlines well in advance of the actual ones that you must meet so that you give yourself a bit of room for manoeuvre. It is inevitable that someone will forget to bring back their form or get it signed in time!

Right facilities?

Check out the facilities. If you are planning a UK residential break, make sure that your chosen centre fully understands and has kept up-to-date with current educational requirements. Centres should be well resourced, with the correct facilities for modern learning. One of the key resources that must be checked is IT

provision, as IT hardware and software easily becomes outdated and in need of an upgrade.

Promotion

Promote your trip! A good provider will be able to help you with resources to promote the trip to children and parents, whether this by via a simple letter home, via DVD, or at parents’ evenings. Many providers might offer to attend parents’ evenings, to help teachers present the proposed trip and to answer any questions.

SecEd

• Alf Scrimgour is a former primary school teacher and headteacher. For the past 20 years, he has been working in the school and student tour industry, and is on the committee of the School Travel Forum. He is currently head of product development for the Education Travel Group (www.educationtravelgroup.com).

Further information

www.schooltravelforum.com

SecEd • March 25 2010

organisation and planning that goes into a trip and it can feel like a minefield.However, by starting early and keeping the tips below in mind, a school trip can be a rewarding and relatively painless experience.

CHOOL TRIPS are vital, not only for their educational benefit but because they enrich children’s lives. Taking children out of the classroom can bring their studies to life and make a real difference to their academic and emotional progress.

Sadly many teachers are apprehensive about Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24