I am currently going through the process of organising a school visit.
It's something I have done many, many times during my stint at Mickley Grange, but it never seems to become any easier. I have always been one of those people who sees the benefits of learning outside the classroom. I am also quite good at organising things, so the mantle for arranging visits often falls to me. It would also be fair to say that as I've organised many visits previously, there is the expectation that I will continue organising them in the future.
In the past I have organised week-long residential visits here in the UK and across in Europe. For a few years, I led a party of students and colleagues from across The Green Pastures Learning Trust on the annual week-long residential visit to Germany.
On this occasion it is a slightly more straightforward task, with the visit venue being a 30 minute coach ride away from Mickley Grange.
I usually start organising a school visit 2 or 3 months in advance, but occasionally it needs to be done over a much shorter period of time. I've had situations in the past where businesses have said "you can come and have a look around next Thursday" and so good was the opportunity that I've made it happen. Overseas residential visits are generally organised 10 to 12 months before they happen, as you want to give plenty of time for payments and passport applications etc.
As readers might be interested, I am going to outline the process of organising and implementing a school trip.
1. Identify the purpose, venue and dates
The visit I am currently organising fits in rather nicely with a topic the students will be learning about at the time. It is to a venue we have previously visited and know meets our requirements. If it was to a new venue, I would make extra enquiries and perhaps visit it myself beforehand. I would contact the venue with a few possible visit dates to confirm their availability. I would then contact the deputy head and ask him to check those dates against the diary and we'd come up with a best fit for both school and the venue concerned. I would then contact the venue to confirm the date of the visit.
2. Book transport
Once the date and venue are confirmed, I would then get in touch with the lady in the school office who deals with transport. I would tell her the number of students we expected to attend the visit. I would then ask her to contact local coach companies and obtain quotes from them. Within the space of a few days we'd typically have received quotes from several local coach companies. I would then ask the school office to book the transport that was best value and met our requirements.
3. Costings
Having now booked the venue and the transport I would have an idea on costings. Parents are usually asked for a voluntary contribution to cover the cost of visits, although they cannot be compelled to contribute for those visits that are an integral part of the curriculum. I will work out the cost per student needed to cover school's expenses and that is generally the contribution we ask for. It would be wrong to ask for any more than that. If I think that the contribution is too high, I will speak to the head teacher about school subsidising it.
4. Staffing
I would speak to the deputy head about staffing for the visit. Usually teachers would accompany their own classes and teaching assistants would accompany any student they were assigned to. Occasionally, if it looks like staffing is going to be a problem, I would ask parents/carers if anyone was available to accompany us on the visit.
No member of staff can be compelled to attend a residential visit.
5. Notify Parents/Carers
Having confirmed the venue, date, purpose and costings of the visit, I would now prepare a letter to parents/carers telling them about it. I would draft the letter, but it would be checked over by a member of the senior leadership team before being typed up by the office and distributed. These letters are generally sent out electronically, with a link parents/carers can click confirming their youngster's attendance on the visit. The letter includes information about the purpose of the visit, any special clothing/equipment that is required, lunch arrangements and contribution payments.
In the case of a residential visit, parents/carers would be asked to complete a form detailing any specific dietary, religious, medical requirements relating to their youngster.
6. Paperwork
The Green Pastures Learning Trust, in common with many others across the UK, uses an online system called Evolve for managing school visits. I would now be in a position to start inputting the details into Evolve.
The following information gets put into the system:
- The name and contact details of the venue.
- The date and timings of the visit.
- The name and contact details of the transport provider.
- The personal details of every member of staff and student expected to attend the visit (although this will undoubtedly need amending before the date of visit).
- Any relevant medical details of the students expected to attend the visit.
- A copy of any correspondence in relation to the visit (e.g. parent letters, letters/emails from the venue or transport provider).
- Any risk assessments relating to the visit. There is a range of generic risk assessment that can be used, but a specific risk assessment (called an Event Specific Plan) needs to be completed from scratch for every visit.
- Details of any groupings the students will be in during the visit. Typically a named member of staff will be responsible for overseeing a group of students.
Once all the information is inputted the completed visit form can then be submitted for approval. If there are any problems with the visit form, it will be rejected and returned for corrections to be made.
7. Pre-visit admin
The week before the visit I would make sure that parents/carers and students were reminded about it. This would involve verbal reminders in lessons and messages posted on the school website and social media.
I would also print out hard copies of the paperwork from Evolve and distribute that to staff attending the visit. If any parents were accompanying us on the visit, they would be provided with the bare bones of paperwork on the day - sufficiently sanitised so that they didn't receive any confidential, personal information about any of the students.
I would contact the school kitchen and order packed lunches for staff attending the visit and those students eligible for free school meals.
I would contact the school medical staff and ask them to sort out any student medication we had in school.
8. Visit day
Before the students arrived I would go to the kitchen and collect the packed lunches that had been ordered. I would also collect first aid kits and any student medication we had in school. I would also ensure we had a stock of bin bags, cleansing wipes, hand sanitiser, spare stationary and the like.
The students would usually meet at a prearranged location and a register be taken. The register would then be copied for each member of staff, so they were quite sure who was present in their group. A copy would also be left at the school office.
The students would then be walked outside the coaches. By this stage, we would know which students and staff were travelling on each coach. The students would be counted onto the coaches by their allocated member of staff, who would then ensure they were sat correctly and wearing their seat belts.
We would then travel to the visit venue and get on with the actual visit.
9. Post visit
Straight after the visit I'd return all of the medication and equipment we'd taken with us. I would also collect back in all the paperwork and ensure it was disposed of securely.
Within a couple of days, once the dust had settled, I'd seek feedback from members of staff who had attended, to see if there are any issues that need addressed before revisiting the same venue.