Top School Trips 6

Hello... F or experiences that are the exception rather than the norm, school trips manage to have an outsized impact on students. It varies by school and individual, of course, but let’s assume, as a rough ballpark figure, that UK children get to enjoy 25 educational visits across their time in primary and secondary school. Even if all those trips were week-long residentials, which they’re clearly not, tallied against the hours spent in more conventional academic environments, that figure seems almost irrelevant – and yet, as touched upon in this issue’s news pages, almost 40% of 2,000 adults who completed a recent Outward Bound Trust survey reported that experiences outside the classroom taught them more than what they learnt inside it. How can we explain that? Well, firstly, it’s interesting to note the types of skills the survey’s respondents identified when asked what school trips taught them. Leadership and decision-making, discipline and adaptability, and kindness and social skills all featured highly – all of them essential for navigating the world as a grown-up. Perhaps these life skills just can’t be taught as effectively in the classroom. Secondly, it’s safe to say that the novelty of school trips is itself part of their appeal – given a choice between memorising the day spent feeding the lions or ordering lunch in Paris and those times it was confronted with informative but rather dry worksheets, the average hippocampus is likely to settle on the former. The main thing to take away from this, naturally, is that school trips are worth the time and effort required to organise. Whether they take place over hours or days, the educational benefits are clear to see. That said, not all trips are created equal, and that’s where Top School Trips can help – whatever your subject focus, we’re sure you’ll find something that will stick in your students’ memories over the following pages. The Top School Trips team CAROLINE ALDOUS-GOODGE Head of year and education researcher STEVE BRACE Chief executive of the Geographical Association BENMCCAFFERTY Head of sales & product at Halsbury Travel GORDON CAIRNS English and forest school teacher HANNAH BROWN Audiences manager at Black Country Living Museum DRNIKHILMISTRY Head of curiosity at Winchester Science Centre The Experts PUBLISHERS: Joe Carter Sam Reubin Richard Stebbing CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: Jacob Stow GROUP ADVERTISING MANAGER: Samantha Law, samantha.law@artichokehq.com 01206 505499 GROUP ADVERTISING MANAGER: Hayley Rackham, hayley.rackham@artichokehq.com , 01206 505928 DEPUTY ADVERTISINGMANAGER: Hannah Jones, hannah.jones@artichokehq.com 01206 505924 ART EDITORS: Richard Allen & Sarah Barajas ACCOUNTS: artichokemedialtd@integral2.com SUBSCRIPTIONS: subscriptions@artichokeHQ.com PUBLISHED BY: Artichoke Media Ltd. The views in this magazine are not necessarily those of the publisher. Every effort is made to ensure the veracity and integrity of the companies, persons, products and services mentioned in this publication, and the details given are believed to be accurate at the time of going to press. However, no responsibility or liability whatsoever can be accepted for any consequence or repercussion of responding to information or advice given or inferred. Copyright Artichoke Media Ltd. www.teachwire.net/school-trips | 3