Top School Trips 6

Rising EHCPs may be the tip of growing SEND need, so what does really good, inclusive planning for your next trip look like? ALL ABOARD! F or a child with special educational needs, being able to access the wider world via school can be more important than it is for their peers,” says Kelly Jarvis, former head of a flagship residential school for young people with complex needs. “For a lot of families where children have additional needs it can be incredibly challenging to get out at weekends, so I feel it’s almost schools’ duty to provide that.” Now a specialist educator with a SEND consultancy (Sunshin e-support.org ), she advises SLTs on delivering inclusion on their own school trips. “I can see how in a mainstream setting it might feel daunting, but any teacher organising a trip where there are children with special needs or disabilities needs to start with the idea that it will work,” she says. “Then work backwards from that. Think ‘This is going to work because I need to take these steps. To complete those steps I need to ask these people these things and get these staff members to do this.’” Where to begin? The first step is to make sure you fully understand the needs of the individuals you intend to take off site. “An EHCP should give enough of a guide as to what additional needs a pupil may have within an educational context or setting,” says Steve Swift, CEO of youth disabilities charity Rose Road Association (roseroad.org . uk). “But, it won’t contain as much information as perhaps a care plan might have – for example, the ones we use document all the care needs of a child including their medication, their triggers, techniques for supporting them. So when planning trips, it’s useful to ask families additional questions to provide a fuller answer. In a typical outreach setting, the provider spends time with each family to better understand an individual so trips can be designed to provide the most opportunity possible. In a mainstream educational setting this could be more of a challenge, but understanding ‘triggers’ and ‘what works’ approaches will allow for a safer and more enjoyable trip for all.” Kelly advises an individual risk assessment for each child linked to their EHCP, which gives staff a first point of call to see if, for example, an ad hoc local trip down the road is possible, or if a second layer of planning is needed for going offsite. “Your line manager or SENCo should be your first point of call for risk assessments, because everything stems from that. We also had an ‘offsite status’ our children could attain,” she says, “so over a period of time via closely shadowed trips they could learn how to do short travel in the local community. For a week’s residential the planning was astronomical. If you’re a mainstream teacher, make sure your risk assessments around medication are watertight (because that’s a really big deal), have contingency plans about returning to the setting if you need to, and sort your staff-to- pupil ratios.” Briefing you team “Trips should also be carefully planned so as not to create cognitive or sensory overload for children with specific needs,” says Katie Hinds, a chartered educational psychologist and managing director of Changing Minds in Warrington, which works with schools, parents and young people. “All staff members who participate should have a good knowledge of the children’s needs, and substitutes should be kept to a bare minimum.” This continuity will minimise unexpected challenges along the way. “The trip team should be well briefed with the risk assessment and access plan and should be familiar with the school’s critical incidence plan,” says Katie. “ 62 | www.teachwire.net/school-trips