School trips are unlucky victim of efficiency drives
John Freeman
Friday, May 13, 2011
The squeeze is on for anything that does not appear immediately important. For colleges, enrichment funding is being slashed. This is funding that has contributed to a wide range of important discretionary activity, from sport to family education.
And for schools, we are seeing trips away becoming an avoidable extra, even though the positive impact of them is well documented — Ofsted says that they can "contribute significantly to the raising of standards".
But Education Secretary Michael Gove has rejected a call from the education select committee that every child should benefit from at least one school trip each term, saying, as he does on these occasions, that it should be for head teachers to decide where to wield the axe.
Of course, schools serving affluent areas will continue to be able to rely on parental contributions, with schools in more deprived areas losing out. And the educational destinations themselves will come under increasing financial pressure. Those destinations in deprived areas that rely heavily on school income will close or reduce their scope.
Perhaps the most pernicious example is the accelerating rate of closure of field study centres, operated mostly by councils. The combination of reduced council subsidies and reduced overall turnover is proving overwhelming. But the social benefits of these centres are huge. They provide tens of thousands of primary-schoolchildren with their first experience of living away from home and help them develop social skills.
How might local authorities, schools and colleges be encouraged to continue with these valuable educational experiences? Ofsted is the key agency — if it reports on something then there is a real incentive to do it. But you will search in vain for any mention of these activities in Ofsted's children's services assessment for 2011. Reduced funding, diminished accountability, and back to basics. It's all rather familiar — and depressing.
John Freeman CBE is a former director of children's services and is now a freelance consultant Read his blog at cypnow.co.uk/freemansthinking.
