Off the Premises Handbook : A Comprehensive Guide to Taking Students on Educational Visits

The Off the Premises Handbook is designed to enable you to run well-planned, efficiently managed, interesting and safe events away from school.

With this handbook you will be able confidently to plan, prepare, implement and evaluate off-site visits that will support learning and enrich your relationships with students in the knowledge that you have the full support of national, local and school policies. Taking your students out of school for carefully selected and suitable purposes is good for their learning.

A steadily growing body of research and practice shows that there are short-,medium- and long-term benefits to students from such experiences, whatever the subject or activity.

Being off the school premises can at times seem to be fraught with difficulties and danger.

However, the benefits of off-site learning make the efforts educationally worth while.

If visits, events and ventures are well planned and managed, with adult support that is well trained and informed, then the unanticipated and unforeseen are minimized. What the Off the Premises Handbook can do for you: *Provide comprehensive guidance on planning, implementing and evaluating every stage of your school visit *Help you identify and remove barriers to taking learning off-site *Relate off-site learning to your school's self-evaluation form (SEF) *Save you time and effort by providing templates for letters, forms and checklists *Provide case studies of best practice *Ensure you are confident and capable in carrying out risk assessments *Help you to budget for your trip *Help you to brief parents