Ravenscroft Nursery School

Information for Parents regarding Educational Visits & Outings                    

·         Our Educational Outings and visits are carefully planned in advance

·         Buses are booked and checked in advance

·         Visit made to venue made prior to outing

·         Risk assessment carried out for each outing/venue

·         Parents sign permission for each individual outing

·         Adult child ratio of no fewer than 1:4

·         Children requiring additional support will have a 1:1 adult- occasionally this may mean a parent being asked to accompany the class group.

·         Children are toileted (and often have snack) before departing from school for the outing

·         Children wear school coats and high vis jackets leaving the school /whilst on outings

·         Children remain in class groups- line up in pairs with adult volunteers/staff holding the hands of 2 children and 2 children holding hands with each other. When walking near roads, adults will take the outside of the footpath and children link hands.

·         Each adult volunteer/staff member will be given the names of children in their outing group and staff ensure that children and volunteers are introduced to each other.

·         Principal/teacher briefs parent volunteers first prior to leaving the school building

·         Bus boarding is done slowly and carefully- one staff member boards the bus, one parent volunteer supervises the step up onto the bus. Children are settled into their seats from the back to the front.

·         One staff member remains outside the bus until all children have boarded.

·         When all children are safely seated, staff will ensure that all children have their seatbelt secured.

·         Mrs Fayle & Mrs Symington then do a headcount back to front, front to back, then swap.

·         Disembarkation is done in a similar manner except in reverse.

·         All children are instructed to stay seated well back on their seat throughout the journey.

·         Children may not remove their seatbelts until the bus has come to a complete standstill- this instruction is clearly conveyed to the children prior to stopping.

·         Whilst on trips/outings, class groups stay together under the supervision of the class teacher- one staff member remains at the front/head of the group and one staff member remains at the rear of the group to ensure it stays together- additional staff are interspersed at equal distance throughout the class group and alerts other staff members if they observe anything untoward happening in the class line in front of them.

·         Occasionally, the nature of the venue and the number of staff and volunteers available made it possible to allow the children freedom to explore- for example, W5 and Mo Molam Park at Stormont are self contained, with one entrance/exit which can be supervised by a staff member. Staff members/parent volunteers are evenly distributed throughout the venue in such scenarios.

·         Only permanent staff members may attend to an ill/injured child or toilet a child/take child to toilet

·         Staff carry spare clothes, medicines, contact numbers and a school mobile phone in case of toileting mishaps or emergencies

·         If a child becomes unwell or is injured during an outing, appropriate help is sought and parents are contacted.

·         Headcounts are done regularly throughout the outing

·         Photographs are generally available on the school website following each outing- we text parents to advise them that the photo gallery has been updated.

·         Staff do not/will not permit members of the general public to photograph the children.

·         Staff members at receiving venues will only be permitted to photograph (no videos permitted) Ravenscroft Nursery School Children with prior agreement/permission of the school.