Anne Hunt from the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom explains the framework for schools.
Educational visits have always been one of the most powerful ways to bring learning to life. Whether it’s a museum visit, a residential, cultural experience, employer engagement or an outdoor adventure, learning beyond the classroom helps pupils build knowledge, confidence, resilience and a sense of belonging.
Now, with the Department for Education’s (DfE) new Enrichment Framework and Enrichment Benchmarks, educational visits have an even more significant role to play. Rather than viewing trips as standalone events, schools are being encouraged to think strategically about how every enrichment opportunity contributes to a coherent, inclusive programme that benefits every learner.
For Educational Visits Coordinators (EVCs), school travel organisers and teachers, this presents both an opportunity and a challenge. Here at the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom (CLOtC) we have been working closely with school leaders, the Department for Education and sector leads to understand what the new Framework and Benchmarks means for schools and provide guidance to help them navigate the changes without adding to their workload.
Educational visits shouldn’t be considered ‘extras’
The new Framework recognises enrichment as an essential part of education rather than an optional add-on. This is something that we have long been advocating at CLOtC as we know that learning outside the classroom (LOtC) has the most impact when it is woven into everyday teaching and embedded into whole school policy and culture. The eight benchmarks are intended to help schools evaluate whether their enrichment offer is:
- strategically planned
- broad and balanced
- inclusive and accessible
- developed with partners
- outcomes-focused
- continually improving
Learning beyond the classroom features naturally across all five enrichment categories identified by the DfE: Civic engagement; Arts and culture; Nature, outdoors and adventure; Sport and physical activity; Wider life and future skills.
This is reassuring news for schools. The educational visits they already organise are not separate from enrichment – they are enrichment in action.
Schools don’t need to start from scratch
Most schools don’t need to create entirely new enrichment programmes. Across the year they already provide educational visits, clubs, performances, residentials, sporting opportunities, employer encounters, volunteering, cultural experiences, and more. The challenge is often evidencing how these individual opportunities fit together to create a whole-school enrichment strategy.
For EVCs, this is an important shift in thinking.
Rather than asking: “How do we organise a successful visit?” schools may increasingly need to ask: “How does this visit contribute to our wider enrichment entitlement, support our school priorities and demonstrate impact?”
That strategic overview is becoming increasingly important as schools prepare for Ofsted’s consideration of enrichment.
From ‘what’ to ‘how’
The DfE Framework explains what high-quality enrichment looks like through its eight benchmarks, but it leaves schools to determine how they achieve them. This is where many schools will welcome practical support.
Following an initial mapping exercise, CLOtC found around 90% alignment between the criteria used within the LOtC Mark and the new Enrichment Benchmarks. Areas such as strategic planning, inclusion, partnerships, communication, evaluation and continuous improvement already feature strongly in both frameworks.
This means schools already using the LOtC Mark are likely to find they have much of the necessary structure in place. For schools beginning this journey, the LOtC Mark provides practical tools, guidance and professional development that can help them:
- audit current provision
- identify strengths and gaps
- develop a whole-school enrichment strategy
- embed learning beyond the classroom across the curriculum
- gather meaningful evidence of impact
- demonstrate continuous improvement
Rather than creating additional work, it helps schools organise and evidence the excellent enrichment they are already delivering.
Making every visit count
Educational visits have always delivered memorable experiences for pupils. The new Enrichment Framework asks schools to go one step further - ensuring those experiences are intentionally planned, inclusive, connected and evaluated as part of a wider vision for personal development.
For school travel organisers and teachers, this provides an opportunity to demonstrate the true value of learning beyond the classroom. Every museum visit, residential, theatre trip, field study or school club can contribute towards a broader enrichment entitlement that supports pupil wellbeing, develops essential skills and widens aspirations.
The government’s Framework provides the destination. Learning beyond the classroom provides one of the clearest routes to get there. And for schools looking to bring all those individual experiences together into a coherent, evidence-based whole-school approach, the strong alignment between the LOtC Mark and the new Enrichment Benchmarks offers a practical pathway from aspiration to implementation.
Find out more about the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom here.
