24 April 2024
Schools across the country are increasingly choosing to stay in the UK for their residential school trips. In this article, we explore the compelling reasons to consider a UK trip for your next school adventure.
The top reasons to choose a UK school trip
- Value for money
- Curriculum Enrichment
- Incredible natural locations
- Convenience and reduced travel time
- Inclusivity
- Lower environmental impact
Value for money
It seems obvious but school trips in the UK offer better value for money than trips abroad.
The sharp surge in the cost of living has forced most families to think carefully about their spending. Expensive international residential school trips add pressure to many household’s strained budgets. With overseas excursions averaging between £1,500 to £3,000 for a modest duration of 4 to 7 nights, the financial barrier becomes insurmountable for countless UK households.
Conversely, the considerably lower average cost of £200 to £500 for UK school trips of equivalent duration presents a much more feasible option. Opting for local destinations not only addresses financial constraints but also fosters inclusivity, ensuring that a broader spectrum of students can partake in these enriching experiences.
This shift towards local exploration not only eases the burden on families but also enables schools to extend the benefits of educational travel to more pupils.
This isn’t a new problem, The Guardian newspaper wrote about the cost implications of school trips back in 2018 and the value of school trips in the current economic climate makes it even more important a consideration today.
UK school trips are ideal for curriculum enrichment
A 2019 Ofsted announcement of their shift in focus for assessing a school’s effectiveness, placing the teaching of the curriculum front and centre was important and widely welcomed.
This shift in focus signals a departure from the exclusive emphasis on exam outcomes within schools, towards a more holistic approach to education, centered on a diverse curriculum. This shift empowers schools to explore innovative teaching methods, granting them the freedom to offer students educational experiences beyond the confines of traditional classroom settings. For instance, curriculum enrichment days dedicate entire sessions to a single subject, employing unique and inventive approaches to deepen students’ understanding or present subjects from alternative, often vocational perspectives.
Moreover, school excursions venture beyond the school premises, facilitating the development of social skills, collaboration, and resilience alongside the academic content linked to the trip. The days of routine ferry trips to Lille for curriculum enrichment are fading into memory. While overseas school trip destinations have expanded to include a range of exotic locales, albeit sometimes with tangential curriculum connections, UK options have likewise evolved to become more adaptable, accessible, and economical.
Across the UK, a wealth of culturally, historically, and geographically diverse destinations await subject leaders seeking to embed their teaching in meaningful and enduring ways. For instance, what better setting to explore the dynamics of coastal change than the Holderness Coast in Yorkshire? Here, students can engage directly with the coastal erosion phenomena, gathering firsthand data along one of Europe’s longest coastlines, thereby enriching their learning experience with tangible, real-world insights.
Incredible natural locations
We’re incredibly lucky to have such wonderful natural landscapes on our doorstep in the UK. Our woodland locations in Hertfordshire are excellent examples of rich wildlife, flora and fauna that’s all within easy reach of the capital.
Trips in the UK help pupils to appreciate where we live. Especially for children residing in bustling urban centres, the chance to delve into and discover rural landscapes within an hour of cities like London can be truly enlightening.
Convenience and reduced travel time
A contributing factor to the reduced cost of UK school trips is the reduced travel. The added benefit is less time spent travelling and more time enjoying the enriching activities of the trip itself. Parents tend to see the added benefit of spending more time on the experience of the trip rather than on a costly flight or coach trip.
Inclusivity
The media often argues about how expensive it is for students to go on school trips abroad. This can make it unfair, leaving some students unable to afford the experience. Both schools and parents agree that all students should have the chance to go on trips, no matter how much money their families have. That’s why many teachers are now choosing cheaper options.
Lower environmental impact
More than ever schools are aware of their environmental impacts and it’s fantastic that so many take positive action to reduce their carbon emissions. Traveling to other countries can of course offer great benefits for pupils, but striking a balance with UK school trips too can help to reduce the environmental impact of international travel.
As a provider of UK school trips and with nature being incredibly close to our hearts we’re proud of the steps we’re taking to make sure our trips and our organisation in general is as sustainable as possible. We’ve partnered with Ecologi to plant more trees and offset our digital carbon footprint with the carbon offset website scheme.