Today Education Travel Group has published a new report into Learning Outside the Classroom. This independent survey covers the views of more than 400 primary and secondary school teachers. It found that 90 per cent of teachers said they take children to learn outside school and one in five (21%) do so at least once a term. The vast majority however (57%) arrange excursions once or twice a year, one in eight (12%) said they only undertook visits every few years and 10% cent said they never took school trips.
Paul Gilbert, chief executive officer of Education Travel Group which arranges visits for more than 250,000 children every year said: “Research has shown that learning outside the classroom is hugely beneficial for children. Just last year Ofsted said that well-planned visits had the potential to significantly raise standards and improve children’s personal, social and emotional development. Our review of teachers’ opinions found that teachers agree this is vital. They value trips because they give students a broader understanding and provide a fun, first-hand experience of their subjects as well as facilitating team building and socialising. But the biggest barrier we found to arranging excursions is now concern about costs for parents – nine out of ten teachers we spoke to said the current economic climate would make it harder to arrange trips in future. Education Travel Group works in conjunction with teachers to find a cost-effective tailored solution for every school”.
Barry Sheerman MP and chair of the children schools and families select committee introduced the Education Travel Group report and said “In 2005 the committee I chair in Parliament decided to launch an enquiry into education outside the classroom. We found that the provision of outdoor education was extremely patchy. Many schools were being deterred by the false perception that there is a high degree of risk associated with outdoor education not to mention the cumbersome bureaucracy and issues of funding time and resources. A great deal has been done since that time, but Education Travel Group’s report shows there is still a lot of work to be done. With 94% of teachers taking part in this survey saying it will be harder to run school trips in the current economic climate it’s clear that government, the teaching community and parents will have to redouble their efforts in the coming months to ensure that more children have the opportunity to access these learning opportunities.”
Initiatives already underway to support and promote school visits include the new Council for Learning, which launches in April 2009 and a new accreditation scheme for providers. But awareness of these initiatives appears to be low amongst teachers. The Education Travel Group report found only ten per cent of teachers said their schools had signed up to the government’s learning outside the classroom manifesto.
As well as cost, the other major issues deterring teachers from arranging more school visits are that they involve too much organising (41%), too much paperwork (41%), concern about litigation (41%) concern they put a burden on school staff (36%), that there aren’t enough teachers to take children on trips (25%), not enough time to pre-visit sites (21%) or staff to help organise trips (20%), fear of disciplinary action (17%) and fear of accidents (15%). Education Travel Group supports teachers to tackle these concerns right from the planning stage through to assisting with completing paperwork and providing risk assessments.
Teachers felt government support to encourage more school visits could include more funding (79%), less bureaucracy (63%), providing lists of accredited providers (63%) simpler paperwork (56%) clearer guidance on legal and insurance responsibilities (33%) and training in managing risks (21%). Teachers also felt they could do more to encourage school trips by helping parents to understand the value of school trips (56%), by being willing to attend school trips (46%) and researching providers (31%) or the value of school trips (24%).
To view a full copy of the report please click here for the online version or download a pdf version here.