There is very little doubt that a school trip is of the utmost benefit to any class, arming them with important educational “Learning Outside The Classroom” insights and lifeskills, especially a residential trip, where children may be staying away from home for the very first time. But when it comes to planning and organising everything, sometimes it can feel like a minefield.
But there are many highly reputable companies such as Kingswood Educational Activity Centres and out sister companies School Travel Services, SkiPlan, Equity Travel and STS Pavilion Tours, who are leaders in the field of providing residential school trips, organising everything for you, and ensuring quality educational benefits, combined with the highest levels of safety and security. We’ve provided you with 10 top tips and steps to organising your school trip, so don’t hesitate any longer – we hope you find these helpful!
1. If you can, plan your trip as far in advance as possible, ideally 9-12 months ahead. Some teachers are booking their trips as far forward as 2-3 years! This ensures you get your choice of location and time of year, and gives parents a chance to save for the coming trip. Some companies, like Kingswood, operate a novel Savings Card scheme, which allows parents to deposit a small amount of money each week in the months leading up to the trip, to spread the cost, which makes advance planning even more important.
2. Deciding on the location for your visit can sometimes be quite challenging, as there are many options available, from UK activity centres, to European and Worldwide tours. Do you want to visit a centre or location close to home, to keep transport costs to a minimum? Or would you like pupils to venture farther afield and discover new areas of the country? Or experience new countries and cultures on an overseas visit? It all depends on your educational aims and reasons for the trip. Once you’ve decided on the general premise, there are many avenues to research providers, like directory websites, contacting trip providers direct, recommendations from other teachers, or your LA will often hold a list of preferred providers.
3. Safety, safety, safety! School trip safety is at the top of the list of concerns for trip organisers in today’s litigious society. This high regard for health and safety issues does not have to stifle the adventurous spirit of school trips and visits though, instead it should create an environment which promotes challenge by choice in safe surroundings. There are many regulatory bodies which ensure the safety of the school trip industry, such as the British Activity Holiday Association (BAHA) and the Adventure Activities Licensing Service (AALS). The Government’s “Learning Outside The Classroom Quality Badge Scheme” has been introduced to make it easier for teachers to quickly be reassured of an organisation’s credibility when making enquiries. Check before booking that your chosen provider is registered with all relevant organisations and authorities. Before undertaking any school trip, teachers are legally required to carry out a written risk assessment. Reputable school trip providers, like Kingswood and Education Travel Group have already carried out all of the necessary risk assessments for teachers, and these can then be used to submit to all necessary parties, like the School Governors and LA’s.
4. People can make all the difference to the success of your school visit. Choose somewhere with staff teams that you feel confident about dealing with and working with during your trip. Staff and instructors at your chosen centre or location should be fully trained in any activities they are delivering, especially for adventure activities and sports which are regulated by the National Governing Bodies for each activity. This ensures a high level of instruction and also, more importantly, a regard to health and safety practices for those activities.
5. There’s nothing better to help a teacher’s understanding of exactly what to expect on their school trip then actually seeing the location in action before booking. Many teachers like to organise a preview visit to the centre they are considering ahead of the trip. This is a great opportunity to meet senior personnel and see the school trips in action before you commit. These previews can also help you to think about the particular courses and educational modules you would like your group to partake in as you see them in action.
6. One of the main reasons for a school trip is learning through having fun, whether that’s key lifeskills such as teamwork and leadership, new ICT skills, or even investigating a river study. Kingswood have a great variation of courses and programmes available for all age groups, like the KS2 Discovery and KS3 3+. Themed around specific study areas the full range of modules can be chosen in any combination to fire imaginations and stimulate young minds, covering ICT, the Environment, Enterprise, PSHE, Science and even Lifeskills, encouraging the development of essential skills like teamwork, goal-setting & motivation. The leading Environmental Field Studies Programme is perfect for covering GCSE and ‘A’ Level fieldwork requirements.
7. Once all the basic elements of your trip are decided on, it’s time to introduce the trip to parents and students. A great way of doing this is via a letter home or at a Parent Evening, where the proposed trip can be presented and any questions answered and objections overcome. A representative of Kingswood will even attend this with your own teachers to illustrate the trip with a DVD to really give students and parents a good understanding of the fun and learning that the trip will entail.
8. Many trip organising companies will organise the extras like transport and group travel insurance on a school’s behalf. Trips to structured companies like activity centres will generally be covered by their Public Liability Insurance, but when it comes down to last minute issues like chicken pox which may prevent some of the group attending, insurance can ensure that parents can get their money back without any extra hassle. Transport to your school trip can usually be organised through local coach companies, although if your trip is with an organised provider, like Kingswood, they can often obtain a better price than individual schools, from their preferred suppliers, so your school trip becomes even better value for money! Added benefits also include the assurance of high standards of travel safety.
9. Some schools like to tie in their school trip with project work both before and after their visit. Kingswood’s educational ICT modules like Mission Maker particularly lend themselves well to this. The module combines control technology with creativity and object-oriented programming in a fun, interactive and exciting format, where students design their very own computer game. The software is available to schools to then take back with them to further develop the learning experience.
10. Relax and enjoy the trip!
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