Supervise children and young people on journeys

The legal and organisational requirements for supervising children and young people on journeys, visits and activities outside of the setting are: *Risk assessments; risk assessment needs to be carried out as a legal requirement. It will enable you to: identify hazards and dangers decide who might be harmed and how  evaluate the risks and decide whether existing precautions are enough or whether more should be done record your findings  review your assessments and revise them if necessary.

You should always carry out risk assessments that include ; *the medical needs of children, with control measures including knowledge of known health problems by the group leader and enough medication and contingency measures if an adult has to accompany a child to hospital.

*behaviour of students with control measures, including a code of rules on behaviour

*weather conditions, with control measures including obtaining local information about tides, assessing potential for flooding and establishing the likelihood of sudden weather changes.

It is also important to have a ‘plan B’, for example if the coach were to break down there would need to be a back up one, ready to come and take the children.

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A plan ‘b’ would need to be in place in case a child went missing whilst on the school trip. It is important that a mobile phone is carried as the school would need to be notified immediately and the park also. Making sure the children are all together and safe, a search party should be organised checking all areas. Alot of factors must be taken into account regarding transport, such as, the driver having necessary licence, CRB checked

traffic conditions
Passenger safety
Insurance
Weather
Supervision

Informing parents and obtaining parental consent; parents should be informed by writing about the trip before they are asked consent.

Parents should be reminded that pupils cannot be taken on a school trip before if their written permission has not been received by the school beforehand. You should ensure that you have given a lot of time to chase parents that may have forgotton to submit. The information given to parents should include;

Date and purpose of visit
Departure and return times back to school
The collection point
Travel arrangements
Clothing, equipment and money that should be taken by child
Information about activities
Procedures for children that may fall ill
Name of group leader
Information about plan ‘B’
Stopping points on long journeys

It is also necessary that parents provide any information about their child that is likely to be relevant to the management to the school trip. Apart from any specific information, make sure you ask;

If child has any allergies or phobias

If child takes medication and if so, who should administer it during the trip

If any recent illness

Child has dietary needs

Childs swimming abilities (if relevant)

Any other information they may think is necessary

Arranging supervisors, when planning a trip you need to think about the correct adult to pupil ratio.supervision should be based on a reasonable judgement of the numbers and expertise of adult supervisor’s necessary, taking into account the nature and hazards of the trip, the number and the age. At least one of the supervisors should have completed a first-aid course. All volunteers, including parents, should be checked with the Criminal Records Bureau. An Enhanced Disclosure will normally be required for a volunteer who will be in sole charge of children and young people.

All participants on a school trip must be fully and correctly insured. It is important that the insurance covers possible personal liability for all adults who are responsible for students on the trip. Any existing school policy should be checked carefully. Accidents and emergency procedures should be clearly written policies and every group leader should have a checklist for immediate action in an emergency. Reflective account on the Theatre Trip January 2105 When I arrived at the school in the morning, the class teacher, teaching assistant and I discussed the order of the trip. She gave me the names of the pupils I would have responsibility for, told me none of my group needed medication or had any special requirements. The teacher explained that we were taking a coach to the destination and gave me times of arrivals and departures and that the bus would take the children right into the car park to ensure safety when they left the bus and that is where we would be getting back n the bus as well.

The resources that i took for the trip were, drinks, each child had a goody bag that we made up, we took rubbish bags, first aid kit, mobile phone, register and contact details of school and parents. There was also a list of medical requirements for children that needed them and a first aider was present. We gathered the children together explained what was going to happen and an what the correct levels of behaviour were to be, we then made our way to the coach with children in pairs and got on the bus safely. On the bus we head counted, checked all children had belongings and that they all had their seat belts on. I helped with zipping u coats and the seat belts children were struggling with. When we arrived we reminded them to collect all their belongings and when we got off the bus we did another head count. They walked in pairs into the theatre where we did another headcount. We followed the theatre attendant to the seats ensuring all children were seated comfortably and safely again taking another headcount.

When the children were seated and had taken off the coats we took the ones need to the bathroom and supervised this until they safely returned to their seats. before the production started two children were excitable and became noisy with that i told them to calm down behave sensibly not to disturb other people and show respect for the theatre and others present and sit back in their seats. When the production had finished i made sure that the children that needed to went to the bathroom again and supervised them bringing all children back safely and did a head count before and after. I then started getting the children to collect their belongings and put their coats on helping those who needed.

I then went round the children and encouraged them to pick their rubbish up and put it in the rubbish bag i was carrying. Leaving the theatre the children were lined up in their pairs again, and another head count was carried out. I made sure the coach was in the car park then th children were led safely to the coach. A head count was carried out on the coach and children were encouraged to sit quietly as i checked they all had their belongings and were sat in their seatbelts. When we pulled back up to school at the correct time the parents were stood outside, the children were not allowed to go straight off we led them back into school where they were checked again and then went to parents.