Tuesday 5 April 2016

The Benefits of Educational Trips for School Children


The School Trip – it is an event most children look forward to all term, whether it is an educational visit to a historical monument, a day out at a Wetlands Centre, a visit to the theatre or a weekend away at an adventure camp. For the children, it’s a chance to get away from the school grounds, from their parents, and from their routine. An afternoon outside of the classroom feels like a hard-won prize at the end of a long term.

But school trips are more than a reward. Whilst important academic learning is done in class, it can hardly be compared to the wealth of real life experiences, simply because the two things are so very different. Life is full of challenges and opportunities that cannot be understood in theory the same way they can in practice. Whatever the nature of the outing, it is bound to teach them some very important skills and knowledge that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives, regardless of whether that is through adventure activities, sports, or written on the exhibits at a museum.

There is a new culture in parents and in schools – perhaps simply in society – that demands we be fully conscious of all the risks involved in every choice we make, especially for our children. This can lead to some serious molly coddling, with overprotective parents panicking about children catching something whilst playing in the dirt and fretful teachers banning playground games over scraped knees and elbows. Some people are concerned school trips put children at too much risk of harm. This kind of worry comes hand in hand with concerns over absorption in technology and obsession with phones, computers and games. Sometimes it seems like people argue against one as much as they argue against the other, and yet they are so very contradictory. If children cannot play outside in the real world in fear of the risks, but should not sit inside watching television or going online either, we’re left with a very limited spectrum of activities for them to enjoy and take part in.

The truth is, the benefits outweigh the risks for almost all of the modern worries, but this is particularly true for educational outings. The opportunity for children to experience a vast range of situations and challenges they wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to is key to their personal development. Educators on trips are often experts in their field, providing more in-depth knowledge for the children on the trip than could be conveyed in the classroom. Learning and interacting in groups provides a chance to build a community between them and their peers, to learn interpersonal skills and teamwork, respect and trust, and these strengths translate to the classroom, the playground, and beyond into the world. Teachers have noted that children who struggle in the classroom with speaking up frequently come into their own on educational trips, developing confidence, resilience and self-esteem that bolster performance in every area in school.

Psychologically, this is not the only benefit either. The routine of learning in a classroom week after week can cause lessons to blur into one another in the mind, making the retention of information more difficult. If you’re anything like me, you can probably think back and remember a single holiday or outing from your childhood far better than any of the school weeks surrounding it. Individual events like this create what are known as ‘Episodic Memories’ – autobiographical collections of experiences that can be explicitly recalled. Times, places, knowledge, and associated emotions are stored better in the mind during these events, and so time away spent learning in a manner and environment different from normal routine means children will remember more of what they learned than on any other day.

Aside from bonding with their peers and better learning, school trips can really open children’s eyes to the world around them. Visiting places they would never usually go, particularly for those children who aren’t fortunate enough to travel often outside of school, can provide a whole new perspective on the world. Activities they may have never tried can become lifelong interests. Places they visit can lead to future professions – hospitals, local businesses, University science centers. These visits can teach children more than information, helping them understand why the knowledge is important and how it pertains to real life. They will learn better behaviour too – responsibility and respect not just in the presence of an established figure of authority, but to the public, their peers and communities, and the environment.

The benefits of these trips are vast and the risks – particularly with our modern culture of rules and regulations at every turn – are containable and very carefully assessed by the schools. Of course, there is always a danger of injury. It can’t be denied – accidents happen. But they can happen anywhere, at any time, and it is important to keep this danger in perspective. If you ever find yourself weighing up whether to permit your child onto a school trip, remember this – giving in to your worries about the risks is denying them an opportunity to discover a future hobby or career, to expand their mind and realise their potential.

Educational days out are real adventures for children, and the memories will last a lifetime. I have treasured memories of my field trips. Some of them were disappointing, of course – the highlight of one visit to Waltham Abbey as a child was feeding my worksheets to the goats there – but some turned out to be undeniably important. I still explicitly remember what to do in the event of a house fire – and to check my smoke alarms regularly – all because of a few fun activities and a short lecture given by the local Fire Department on a school visit when I was nine years old. Others were simply awe-inspiring: a lecture at University College London on the concept of Virgin Galactic when spaceflight was only an inkling of a realistic idea, a visit to a Victorian London surgery where the tour guide demonstrated to us how a doctor in 1866 would have performed an amputation on a gangrenous leg, and on one life-changing Senior trip, a theatre acting class on Broadway in New York City. There can be no denying that these adventures helped define me as the person I grew up to be. They were as important as any factor in my school years.


School trips provide children with a reason to believe that the pursuit of knowledge is fun, worthwhile, and above all else – endless. Education does not begin and end in the classroom, nor should it, and these outings help children to see that the world around them is trying to teach them things every day, if they are only willing to open their eyes and take it in.

This post by Lauren Bowman.

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