Their Past Your Future (TPYF) is an innovative education programme led by the Imperial war Museum, and supported by the Big Lottery Fund. One key element of the programme is an extensive visits programme for young people. Since 2004, TPYF has organised 27 visits and overseas trips for 33 schools, youth and student groups. The visits aim to provide the students with an opportunity to look at the impact of 20th century conflict from a variety of different perspectives, and especially to look at the links between conflict, remembrance, citizenship and national identity.
Whilst the vast majority of these trips have been overseas, with an even split between long haul and trips to Europe, a handful have been in the UK. However, the principles of organising local and overseas trips are very similar, according to Dan Phillips, Deputy Director of TPYF.
"You need to set clear learning objectives. It is better that the visit addresses two or three key things, than trying to cram too much in. Attempting to visit too many sites in one day will just lead to burn-out and disengagement amongst the students," says Philips. "It also leaves less time to actually explore a site properly."
Planning is key. Developing a risk assessment and fesibilty study early on gives an indication of how realistic the trip is and helps secure senior management support and advocacy. "The earlier you start planning the better it is. It isn't a problem if you are ready for your trip early, but if you are running out of time just before the trip starts then you are more likely to overlook small but important details."
"The paperwork and risk assessment associated with a trip doesn't have to be a burden. If your risk assessment is thorough it gives you more confidence when you are leading the trip, and more ability to be flexible on the visit itself. "
Whilst the process is similar for organising local and overseas trips, more preparation is needed when organising visits abroad, particularly in terms of the risk assessment. If possible anything up to nine months in advance of the trip is good to start your planning. You will also have more need for a specialised travel provider to help make arrangements, and should always ensure that these are properly licensed and accredited. However, don't take the first package offered. "Travel provders will often try to get you to take an ‘off-the-shelf' tour, but if these don't suit your learning objectives then you shouldn't be afraid to ask them to provide a service that fits your requirements. Otherwise shop elsewhere."
Overseas trips can seem unweildy and daunting to organise, but there is lots of free advice available. Organisations like the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and the British Council have guidance on their website about organising school trips, and most education authorities will have a visits coordinator. "Even if you are leading a trip that you haven't organised before, you don't necessarily have to re-invent the wheel," says Philips. "Talking to other colleagues about their experiences and looking at existing risk assessments can save you time."
TPYF also have information on their website prepared specifically for teachers planning educational visits. Whilst some of this information focuses on visits to explore 20th century conflict, such as sample itineraries, historical background and learning resources, the site also has free health and safety guide and sample risk assessments, as well as advice on incident planning.
Student engagement is a key element of ensuring that the trip is successful and TPYF works closely with teachers to ensure that students are engaged in the preparations for the trip from start to finish. Students from Godalming College who went on the recent TPYF trip to Thailand and Australia participated in several preparation workshops, to engage them with the subject matter and planning process. These preparation workshops took place over a number of months in advance of the overseas trip and included visits to the Imperial War Museum; a visit to the Australian High Commission in London; a meeting with Second World War veterans; specialised training on creating blogs, video and audio recordings for the web (from Radiowaves.co.uk); and a health and safety planning meeting, just before departure.
By the time students travelled they were already used to working together with each other, and had already been introduced to the subject and health and safety guidelines so that they had a clear understanding of what they would experience whilst they were away.
"Using Radiowaves was great for keeping the students engaged with the trip," says Philips. "The students were encouraged to post their experiences online during the trip, with the knowledge that their friends, families and a wider audience might be following their visit through their postings."
Their Past Your Future has also found that the inclusion of a follow-up project in the planning process is a useful way of engaging students. If students have a clear idea of the end outcome, and know they will have to report back on their experiences, it helps them to stay focussed throughout. For the Thailand and Australia visit students were divided into groups and given questions to explore whilst they were away. On their return the students presented their findings and experiences at a special event, to a crowd including Australia's Deputy High Commissioner to the UK, the Imperial War Museum's Director-General, the veterans who had given their testimonies prior to the visit and staff from the museum. However, an end outcome does not need to be so formal, and involving students in a school assembly is one simple way of providing a follow-up task for them to focus on.
One of the most important things to remember when organising a school trip, according to Philips, is that it should be a fun and memorable experience for all involved. "The more enjoyable you can make it for the students, the more impact the sites they visit will have on them, which helps the group leader," says Philips. "Trips, when carefully planned, are great ways of developing life experience, and allow teachers and students alike to focus on some of the fun, creative aspects of learning, in a different environment to the classroom," he adds: "You might forget what you learnt during a typical lesson, but you will always remember a great school visit."
Ten Top tips when planning a trip:
- Before a trip, site visits should be carried out wherever possible - if not, contact the site for a copy of their own risk assessment
- Working with specialist schools travel companies can be useful as they risk assess accommodation and visit sites in advance
- Special care should be taken with any activities that take place either in or near water - including swimming (pool or sea)
- Security of and public access to accommodation should be carefully checked in advance, and unsafe hotels avoided
- Well organised and up-to-date paperwork is crucial - incident plan, next-of-kin details, 24-hr emergency contact details etc
- Young people attending the visit should be thoroughly briefed on health and safety requirements at the start of the visit
- Young people should be organised into groups - everyone should know who is in charge of which group throughout the visit
- Regular head counts should be made to ensure the group keeps together (all supervisory staff can help with this aspect)
- Check hotel fire certificates, activity instructors' qualification certificates etc in advance
- Make sure everyone has the hotel name, address and phone number and emergency contact details on them at all times
