The National Educational Visits Conference at the British Library in London explored topics such as inclusion for autistic pupils, overseas safety management, and how to ensure every child benefits from learning outside the classroom.
The event, which took place on 11th June, brought together EVCs, senior leaders and others, all passionate about providing meaningful experiences for children and young people.
Organised by EVOLVE Advice and with School Travel Organiser as an official media partner, the conference featured guest speakers, interactive workshops, as well as a look at the latest on waivers, European travel and inclusion.
Teacher Tapp’s Laura McInerney hosted the day, sharing insights from some of the surveys Teacher Tapp had carried out, along with her own experience as a former secondary teacher. One of them was that 49% of teachers and EVCs asked said that if money was no object and they had total freedom, top of their list for improving learning in the classroom would be to plan more visits.
Laura also shared some of the best and worst experiences that teachers had from visits and told the audience: “It’s not whether to run visits, it’s about how every child gets one.”
Interesting concepts and the new education landscape
EVOLVE Advice’s director of advice and operations, Andy Smith looked at what school leaders and EVCs can take from a concept known as the ‘Dirty Dozen’, a model used in aviation to avoid human error. He explained how the concept can be applied to support the performance of visit leaders and their teams.
Emma Wiid, director of learning, development & standards at EVOLVE Advice, focused on educational visits in the new education landscape, discussing how they can support the aim of the Curriculum and Assessment Review.
Speaking of the value and impact of school trips and learning outside the classroom, Emma said: “We will absolutely remember our first camping trip, our first visit to the museum and so on. We will remember those experiences that gave us opportunities that we wouldn’t usually have had.”
Managing parents anxieties and safety abroad
In another workshop, Ben Brittain-Dodd, educational visits manager and advisor for Hampshire Outdoors, spoke about managing parent and carer anxieties around visits and the importance of a good parent presentation ahead of a trip.
Other topics covered included ‘Managing allergy on educational visits’ during which Sarah Knight, founder and CEO of The Allergy Team, explored what the new statutory guidance means for visits specifically, giving practical tools to help manage allergy safely during such experiences.
In one of the afternoon sessions, Kelly Wigley, operations and customer relations director at Rayburn Tours gave a presentation about managing safety and safeguarding on overseas educational visits, outlining the huge benefits of school trips abroad and the importance of organisations and accreditations such as the School Travel Forum and LOtC Quality Badge.
She said: “For senior leaders, providers holding STF membership combined with the LOtC Quality Badge, supported by streamlined systems such as Evolve, provides externally verified assurance that strengthens decision-making and significantly reduces administrative burden in the approval process.”
Go to www.evolveadvice.co.uk to find out more about EVOLVE Advice.
