As one of my first projects at CfEY, I was delighted to join the team working on a rapid review of the current landscape surrounding school trips in England on behalf of the Clore Duffield Foundation. Our project aimed to gather key insights on how school trips can be made more accessible to children and young people from underrepresented backgrounds so that the memorable and transformative experiences offered by these trips are available to all. Coming from rural North Yorkshire, the importance of this work was immediately clear to me – and I also had some sense of the barriers to access we would be investigating.
Our report sought to answer these key questions:
- Do school trips matter?
- What enables school trips to be impactful?
- What is the current situation regarding school trips?
- What are the barriers to greater participation in school trips?
- How are policymakers, cultural organisations, other funders and education leaders responding?
To answer these questions, we combined a rapid desk review – looking to policy reports and evaluations for evidence, as well as some additional academic literature – and interviews with senior leaders across various sectors. In these interviews, we sought the expertise of those working in culture, heritage, education, and youth work across England to inform our report. It was fascinating to participate in these interviews with leaders from so many different organisations, gathering insights on their first-hand experiences of school trips and current initiatives supporting them.
