November 28 2006
Education Secretary, Alan Johnson has
announced a new government Independent Council
for the Organisation of School Trips.
Richard Bradford comments on the announcement
of 28 November 2006 on behalf of Cactus.
Over the years, Cactus School Groups Abroad has
tried to remain consistent in it’s approach to the organisation
of School Trips Overseas, and in its message as to the incredible
value of overseas visits in experiential learning, whether aimed
at language learning, or within the wider cultural immersion a
language learning trip abroad can afford. School trips can also
cement a strong learning partnership between members of a group
and group leaders, which can help enormously in the run up to
exams.
Despite the undoubted value of such a trip, teachers
are often reticent to offer their services to run school trips,
for fear of something going wrong. Even if teachers show willing
to take a group overseas on an educational visit, their superiors
within a school may not be sufficiently supportive, due to the
climate of fear, rife particularly amongst state-run schools.
Clearly the public conscience remembers only too well the instances
when a group leader is prosecuted for negligence or even manslaughter,
and there is a natural reaction as represented previously by the
NUSUWT, which advised its members not to run school trips. Regardless
of the hard facts of a particular case, it is commonplace for
the popular media and press to whip up of our fear levels.
However, in light of the large numbers of highly
successful trips which do take place every year, the number of
cases which hit the headlines is extremely small by comparision.
The announcement on 28th November by Alan Johnson,
Education Secretary, will go some way to reassure unions, teachers
and schools as to the government’s favourable intentions
to protect and support teachers and leaders of school trips abroad.
Their pledge “to establish an independent council as an
umbrella body to promote and advise on risk management, safety,
planning and funding for such excursions” (EducationGuardian.co.uk)
is of interest to us at Cactus, and we look forward to seeing
the detail from the Government in this area. The independent council
will hopefully formalise the kind of work which Cactus has been
developing over the past few years.
First and foremost, we believe at Cactus that trips
should be carefully planned long in advance so that Group Leaders
and other stakeholders in the Trip planning process can all become
sufficiently conversant with what precisely is to take place during
the trip. This means that risk assessments and proper understanding
of the risks can be appreciated in advance. It is impossible to
eradicate risk from a trip, so it comes down to planning for risk,
and developing a range of scenarios in which appropriate corresponding
courses of action can be also planned and agreed.
As an external, third-party agency, we are in a
strong position to negotiate with partner organisations overseas,
and ensure they come up to the standards and requirements expected
by UK educational institutions.
We also hope new guidelines will place more insistence,
for example, on Group Leaders being compelled to build in time
sufficiently ahead of the trip departure to conduct a Cactus-funded
full familiarisation trip in the chosen location.
This proves that a school is taking the planning,
risk assessment and risk management of a trip seriously. It can
also serve to confirm the ability of the group leader to structure
the trip in the right manner and cope with the many strands of
successful trip organisation. Something Cactus believes in and
promotes strongly.
Please feel free to
contact us at any
point if you have any questions or concerns. |
