Behaviour and Uniform Policy

Educational visits add a rich layer of experience to children’s learning. They form an integral part of our curriculum, providing enriching social and cultural experiences, teaching life skills, and promoting independent learning as well as providing a foundation for lifelong learning.

This policy sets out our approach to planning and operating educational visits, to ensure the health and safety of our students and staff, and to make sure that our visits are available to all students. It sets out the roles and responsibilities of staff, students, and volunteers when it comes to visits. This policy applies to any educational visit taking place.

This policy is applicable to all community members.

To plan a visit, the visit leader is first required to complete the Educational Visits Request Form, providing information regarding the visit. The decision on whether or not a visit will take place will be made by the Head of the School, and based on factors including:

In cases where a trip involves activities for more than 24 hours, an overnight stay and/or travel overseas, the Executive Principal/Heads of School will seek approval of the governing board.

Once the Educational Visits request has been approved, the visit leader will need to complete the Educational Visits Risk Assessment Form, identifying the safety measures put in place in order to minimise any risks. The visit leaders will also be required to create an itinerary and group lists as part of the risk assessment process.

Only once these have been approved by the headteacher, and the governing board where relevant, will staff communicate with parents/guardians and provide trip information. Written parental consent will be required for educational visits.

All students, regardless of background or abilities, should be able to take part in every aspect of our school life, including visits.

If a student with special educational needs or disabilities (SEN) or any other specific needs (e.g. medical conditions including allergies) is participating in the visit, they will have the same support that is available to them during the school day.

Additional risk assessments may be carried out to ensure the safety of all staff and students.

We will carry out a full risk assessment at least 2 weeks before the start of all trips. This will be completed using the school’s Educational Visits Risk Assessment Template.

The risk assessment will include any specific medical issues and allergies (for sand students), the role of additional support on the visit, specified activities to be carried out, as well as risks associated with transport to and from the destination. Where practical, staff will be required to complete a pre-visit visit to the trip destination as part of the planning and risk assessment process.

Visit leaders will raise any concerns or questions about potential risks and safety measures with the headteacher and, where appropriate, third party vendors. Every risk assessment will be approved by the headteacher, and copies of all information should be shared with adults on the trip as well as a copy stored on the drive, accessible to the headteacher.

Risk assessments for each visit will ascertain the safe level of supervision required. We have determined these as:

On all educational visits, we will make sure:

Transportation for trips will be organised by the school, in line with our safety procedures. Bookings will only be made with companies who meet our safety requirements. We will ensure students, staff and volunteers are transported safely and efficiently, with the required first aid provision. Unless previously agreed with parents, transport for visits will leave from, and return to, the school site.

As part of the risk assessment process, we will check that any external organisations providing an activity have appropriate safety standards. We will have a written agreement in place with each external organisation outlining everyone’s responsibilities during the activity.

Where appropriate, parents/guardians may be asked to volunteer to attend and supervise students alongside staff members on trips. Where there are more parents/guardians volunteers than required on the visit, those invited to attend will be selected as fairly and transparently as possible, whilst taking into consideration:

Volunteers will receive a full induction from staff members on the day of the visit before departure, including the itinerary, responsibilities, expected behaviour, the process for raising concerns, emergency procedures, and contact details. We expect them to behave in line with our school values. Where practical and as required by the nature of visits (i.e. when volunteers may be left with children without staff members present), volunteers may be asked or required to undergo safeguarding checks including police checks.

At no point will volunteers on whom no safeguarding checks have been carried out be left alone with students or given sole responsibility for the care of a student unless it is their own child.

We will contact the parents/guardians of students 2 weeks in advance, as well as volunteers invited to take part in educational visits.

Communication will be via Horizons and Google Classroom and a printed copy of the letter will be sent home. The information provided will include the date, destination and purpose of the visit.

We will also communicate:

Parents/guardians will be asked to provide written consent for educational visits by signing and dating a form to be returned to the school.

Parents/guardians will also be asked to regularly update medical information and dietary requirements, as well as emergency contact numbers so that these are as up to date as possible during visits.

Generally, emergency planning will be defined as planning for:

The visit leader will be familiar with these plans for each visit.

In the case of an emergency, the visit leader or other supervising adult will contact the school office. The school office will inform a member of the SLT, who will contact parents/carers as required, and inform them of changes to plans or cancellations of trips and/or alternative travel plans. This will form part of a wider communication plan that covers how routine communications should be handled in such situations. 1 member of staff will always accompany a student seeking medical treatment.

In the case of a student being unaccounted for, the trip leader will search the area while another member of staff remains in charge of other students. In the unlikely event that a student cannot be found within the first 5 minutes, the trip leader will contact the school office who will notify SLT. The trip leader will then contact the police and provide them with the relevant information so they can take over the search, staying with them to comfort the student when found. The remaining staff and adults will return to the school with the rest of the students.

Smaller incidents, accidents or near misses that do not require external reporting will still be covered by an internal report, to include steps that can be taken in the future to avoid similar incidents.

Staff will need to complete the Reflection on Visit section on the Educational Visits Request Form to evaluate the visit once it has been completed.

All international residential trips must be approved by the Board of Directors. In-country residentials must be signed off by the Heads of Schools and Executive Principal. The planning and preparation laid out in this policy will apply to residential visits as well as 1-day visits. In addition, the trip leader will ensure:

Parents/Guardians will be given information about the visit and asked for permission two (2) months prior to the visit. Information shared with parents/guardians will include:

The total cost of Educational Visits will be communicated and collected by the visit leaders. The cost must include entrance fees, rental fees, transportation, and any other relevant expenses incurred for the visit. Visit leaders will then gather the collection and receipts and submit to the Finance Department together with the attendance list or consent form post visit. An official receipt must be issued by the Finance Department upon receiving the collections.

Planning for residential visits will be arranged by the visit leaders, and the Finance and Procurement Department will support the process for venue booking, accommodation, transportation or any other relevant costs directly. Parents/Guardians will pay directly to the Finance Department for any residential visits. An official receipt must be issued by the Finance Department upon receiving the collections.