School Suppliers Directory Blog

The first officially-approved safe venues for school trips that have been awarded with the recently launched Learning Outside the Classroom ‘Quality Badge’ were announced last week.

The badge, which organisations and venues are being encouraged to apply for recognises safe working practices and educational value. Under the scheme, organisations will display the badge as a signal to schools that their venue has met the required standard, so teachers do not need to carry out their own risk or quality assessments.

Children’s Secretary Ed Balls said:

Educational visits are among the most memorable experiences in a child’s school life. I want to see schools taking advantage of the opportunities that learning outside the classroom provides to bring subjects to life.

Quality Badges offer teachers a guarantee that not only is a venue providing the sort of educational value that they can build on in class long after the visit but they also have the appropriate risk management structures in place.

Organisations can apply for a badge via the Quality Badge website and follow one of two application routes. Low-risk venues such as museums, places of worship and art galleries are able to apply via Route 1 which involves completing an online self-evaluation form. Other venues that carry much higher risks, such as outdoor activity centres, beaches and farms will follow route 2 and are to be assessed by independent awarding bodies, which will look in detail at their safety management systems before awarding the organisation with the Quality Badge.

The cost of the badge for Route 1 applications is £100, payable online when submitting the self evaluation form. The cost for Route 2 applications is anywhere between £60 – £750, dependant on the relevant awarding body.

Overall, the scheme is designed to get more pupils out on school trips and learning outside the classroom, whilst cutting the red tape and paperwork involved for teachers. It’s been welcomed by teachers’ unions and school suppliers alike, and is set to dramatically increase the number of educational visits being offered by schools.

More information for suppliers can be found here: www.lotcqualitybadge.org.uk

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A new website (www.lotc.org.uk) has recently been launched by the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom, designed to build upon the success of the Manifesto for Learning Outside the Classroom; a scheme the DCSF announced in November 2006.

The aim of the scheme is to enhance young people’s learning experiences by getting them out and about, and learning!

We believe that every young person should experience the world beyond the classroom as an essential part of learning and personal development, whatever their age, ability or circumstances.

Activities can take part almost anywhere; ranging from the school grounds and other local environments to day visits and residential trips. Not only is the manifesto designed to try and motivate young people and help achieve the Every Child Matters outcomes, but it can be used to combat truancy and school exclusions too.

So what does this mean for supplier’s?

Well, firstly it’s going to mean demand for good quality educational trips, visits & outdoor learning experiences is going to increase, however, suppliers need to do their best to relate any such experiences to specific curriculum areas and try to break down as many of the barriers as possible that often restrict teachers from organising such trips.

This could include providing activity resource packs, not only for pupils whilst on trips, but also including activities for when they return to school.  Produce adequate, detailed risk assessments and have available all the necessary information schools are required to gather. But more importantly, provide resources and guideance on how staff can evaluate any activities, and to gauge how successful they were, as this is a key part of the LOtC scheme.

Finally, making trips & visits cross-curricular is a big plus point in the eyes of the school – so where possible, try and incorporate this and ensure you highlight it to staff when they ask.

admin Industry News Council for Learning Outside the Classroom, learning outside the classroom, LOtC, outdoor earning