School Trips – What’s the Plan?

There’s much to be learnt from a school trip, but not if children spend the whole time discussing yesterday’s episode of iCarly, says Lucy Hellier...

Picture the scene: a school is visiting a museum. Children are exploring the exhibits in small groups accompanied by a teacher, TA or parent helper. The children are clearly exhilarated, but on closer inspection how much learning is really taking place? The visit leader has a clear idea of the aims of the day, but she hasn’t communicated these to her colleagues. As a result the children have no focus to their exploration: they are simply running between exhibits, without reflecting on what they see.

Few people would question that school trips are an invaluable part of children’s education, but too often the full potential of these visits is not realised. So what turns a fun day out into a learning experience that has a lasting impact on pupils, and how can we achieve this?

Over the last few months, we have observed a sample of the 50,000 schools that visit the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust every year and our initial research has taught us much about how schools can improve their practice. Some of our findings support common practice, but there have been a few surprises along the way, too…

1. Be clear about what you want

Do you have precise curriculum outcomes, or are you focused on a fun day out? Is this a spark to ignite your topic, or an end-of-term treat? Any venue worth its salt can help you achieve your learning outcomes, but too often planning discussions focus on logistics over learning outcomes. For example, one of our learning staff had just finished leading a one-hour session introducing the water cycle when the teachers said, “Thank you very much. Now we’d like to sing you a song.” The class then proceeded to perform a word-perfect rendition of the water cycle song, complete with actions. The children knew everything we’d just covered, but the teacher hadn’t thought to tell us!

2. Make the most of your time

Teachers can be masters of time management: we’ve observed children grouped straight off the coach with ease (“otters to my left, ducks to my right”), lunch and loo stops timed with military precision, and route planning that would make a Scout leader blush. We have also seen classes spend 45 minutes ‘organising’ these practicalities. We’ll never cut out faff time altogether, but advance planning can really cut it down.

A really surprising finding is that when pupils are walking from A to B, they rarely seem to observe or chat about the birds, dragonflies or flowers they’re passing, and are more likely to discuss their favourite computer games. We plan to do more to support teachers to turn this into valuable learning time with simple activities that work ‘on the move’. We’d love your suggestions.

3. Use your adult helpers

When classes split into micro-groups, the leader of each party has a huge influence on pupil experience. We found most parent helpers are given a very short ‘briefing’ on the morning of the visit, and consider their key role to be keeping pupils safe and well-behaved. We observed one micro-group (facilitated by their leader) engrossed in conversation about bird adaptations, while another group from the same school were frogmarched past some particularly flamboyant flamingos by a frazzled parent helper! We are trialling a simple briefing note for helpers that encourages them to help pupils explore the wildlife encountered. What could you do to empower adult helpers?

4. Back in class

To quote Ofsted: “Learning outside the classroom [is] most successful when… closely linked to classroom activities”. The internet is a goldmine for ideas: ‘tweachers’ should search #lotc #wildtime #forestschools and #playoutdoors. Our website (wwt.org.uk/learn) has loads of resources that will support pupils’ learning back in class. And The Council for Learning Outside the Classroom (lotc.org.uk) offers a wealth of ideas and information, too.

When planning an educational visit, it’s easy to be consumed by consent forms, risk assessments, travel details and other admin. But this research is an opportunity to think more deeply about what makes a visit truly successful, and how we can implement good practice.

This article was written in partnership with Victoria Wilcher, LotC development manager at the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom (lotc.org.uk), a national charity that supports and promotes all aspects of LOtC, from school grounds to overseas visits, working with schools and providers of learning outside the classroom.

About the authors

Lucy Hellier is Learning Project Manager at WWT (wwt.org.uk/learn), a conservation charity that welcomes schools to its nine UK wetland centres each year. WWT offers guided and self-guided outdoor learning experiences, designed to support your teaching and learning in school.