Select Committee report demands increased funding for school trips

Published today, the report, Transforming learning outside the classroom, urges the government to ensure that every school provides at least one school trip each term.

The government has invested £4.5m in its Learning Outside of the Classroom Manifesto since 2005, when the committee recommended the development of a manifesto on the same scale as the government's Music Manifesto. But the funding available for outside learning pales in comparison to the £332m invested in musical education for 2008-11.

"We see no reason for the very marked differential in funding levels between the Music Manifesto and the Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto, and request that the department provide an explanation for the discrepancy," the report states. "We believe that the allocation of a comparatively small sum would make an enormous difference to learning outside the classroom, and call on the department to look again at the resources it has provided."

The committee also branded a delay in revised health and safety guidance as "disappointing". It stated the guidance was needed to "ease concerns about litigation and root out the use of health and safety as an excuse for curtailing provision".

Replying to the report, Schools Minister Diane Johnson said: "We are disappointed the committee has not fully recognised the huge progress made. There is more to do — but the fact is that the vast majority of England's eight million children do take part in educational visits throughout the year."

She also said that "central funding is not the be-all and end-all of learning outside the classroom", adding that "schools should not let fears of paperwork or ungrounded fears of being sued deny their pupils educational opportunities".