Planning of Educational Visits – some useful Checklists Following an audit of visits on the Evolve system, there have been some areas of visit planning where significant aspects or key stages of the planning cycle have been missed or overlooked. This could be due to there being ‘known unknowns’ on the part of the planners, where perhaps time constraints might act against seeking the answers; or even ‘unknown unknowns’, where planners are simply unaware of what they need to consider or what is in scope of the process for that visit.

As the Outdoor Education and Offsite Visits Advisor I try to pick up on these on an ongoing basis and advise accordingly and am on hand to answer queries and always look at visit proposals on Evolve, or otherwise, before approving visits.

Below are links to a series of Checklists compiled by the Outdoor Education Advisors’ Panel National Guidance team (www.oeapng.info ) which will aid the planning stage and help to ensure nothing of significance is missed. If after reading the checklists anything is still unclear, or confirmation of an action or process is needed, please don’t hesitate to contact me for advice or reassurance:

3.3g Checklist Overseas Visits

3.3e Checklist Visit Planning

4.4f Checklist Assessing a Provider

4.5f Checklist Assessing a Coach Hire Company

8.2b Checklist Visit Planning Mind Map

8.2c Checklist Visit Planning Flowchart

3.3a Checklist EVC

3.3b Checklist Headteacher/Manager

Paul Bowen

Outdoor Education Advisor AfC/RBWM

paul.bowen@achievingforchildren.org.uk