Let’s face it; everyone looks forward to school trips (even the teachers!). However, if you’re the teacher or educational coordinator behind this excursion, you’ll understand how exhausting it can be to plan and execute. While they are exciting, as an educator, you are responsible for everyone thriving and surviving on these trips – highlighting the importance of being well-prepared.
To help you prepare, we share several tips aimed at teachers to help you survive your upcoming residential school trip, whether it’s your first or your twentieth. From allowing yourself to enjoy the journey and ensuring student safety to controlling student behaviour and taking an adequate amount of helpers, keep reading as we delve into the essential strategies for surviving a school trip.
Let Yourself Enjoy The Trip
While school trips provide invaluable outside learning experiences for students that cannot be replicated in a classroom setting and many other benefits, it doesn’t mean that the educators/volunteers on this trip cannot reap these benefits.
When students see their educators having an equally good time, it encourages them to make the most of the experience and fosters positive emotions throughout the group. For instance, if you’re on a residential school trip at an outdoor education centre like the ones offered by PGL, there’s no reason you can’t involve yourself in the activities while remaining diligent about student safety and behaviour.
With outdoor education centres like the above, you are supported every step of the way, which makes thriving and surviving for teachers much more straightforward. If you’d like to learn more, consider visiting their website for more information or contact a team member directly to see how they could help you survive residential trips today.
Group Students Into Pairs
Whenever you take a secondary or primary school classroom out of its designated education setting, you are responsible for ensuring everything goes smoothly. Above all else, you’re accountable for their safety. Although it’s every educator’s worst nightmare, if something happens to a child under your supervision and you weren’t with them when it happened… it’s not even worth considering.
To prevent this, you must always keep the students with you or assign smaller groups to parent volunteers on the trip with you. Or, if you’re chaperoning an older group of schoolchildren, they are separated into pairs (preferably people they like!) so that they don’t go off on their own and ensure that someone is there as a witness should anything dubious happen.
Take A First-Aid Kit With You
While you don’t want to even think of a student getting hurt while under your supervision on a residential trip, it’s always best to bring a first-aid kit. Depending on your organisation, you might have a first-aid kit already made and ready to take with you on school trips. Alternatively, you might have to make your own.
Typically, a standard first-aid kit only needs a few items like plasters, antibacterial wipes, gauze, surgical tape etc., as you would hope you wouldn’t need anything more! While it’s not something you want to think about (or to happen on your watch!), having an adequately stocked first-aid kit can make the difference between a major and minor injury and is essential for ensuring everyone on the trip is thriving and surviving.
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