Supplementary evidence from the Department
for Education and Skills
STANDARD RISK
ASSESSMENT AND
PROCEDURES
DfES guidance contains model assessment forms
for risk assessment, which take up just two sides of A4. It is
up to LEAs and schools whether they use our forms. Activity providers
can, if they wish, encourage schools to use standard forms. The
main point is to assess and manage the risks. Forms are useful
for structuring and recording, but the doing is more important
than the recording.
Additional information in response to points
raised during oral evidence sessions is attached at Annex A.
ACADEMIES
Evaluation: The evaluation of the Academies
programme is a five-year longitudinal study. The first annual
report is due to be delivered in December. There are no plans
to publish the findings at the end of the first year as these
would be based on a very small number of schools over a very short
timescale.
However, preliminary, indicative findings of
the study are that "Academies do seem to have made a strong
impact on the educational aspirations of large numbers of children
from disadvantaged areas and their families." We also have
provisional 5+ A*-C GCSE results for Academies which again show
an overall increase to 30% (compared to 16% in the predecessor
schools of the first wave Academies).
But the Academies policy is a long term strategy
and we do not expect all Academies to be an immediate success.
They are a radical solution to the most intractable problems of
poor performance.
Outdoor education: Most of the outdoor
education proposals from Academies are still in the very early
stages, and as many of the Academies themselves are still in the
planning stages, the information provided below could change.
Most of the information refers to plans rather than outdoor education
which is currently provided by Academies.
Bexley Business Academy
The Academy is planning to provide an outdoor
learning area and have taken advice from the Department's "Growing
Schools" programme. One of the guiding principles behind
the approach is that it is sustainable. The Academy has been advised
on sources of funding from the voluntary sector.
Grace Academy
Whitesmore school, the predecessor school for
the Grace Academy which is due to open in September 2006 has an
impressive market garden which is built into the vocational curriculum
for KS4 pupils.
Macmillan College
At Macmillan CTC, which is due to open as an
Academy in 2005, all pupils have a module of outdoor education
as part of their core curriculum. The school works with Mobex
which provides outdoor education activities, equipment and minibuses.
Planning for this area of work is in the very early stages.
Academy of St Francis Assisi in Liverpool
The Academy, which is due to open in 2005, has
a planned specialism of the Environment and Sustainability. Each
Year 7 class will have its own garden and the produce will be
used in the canteen or sold to the public. There are also plans
to work with local conservationists to restore a local park.
The Waltham Forest Academy of Design
This Academy is in the early planning stages
but has part of its vision that each student should embrace the
richness of the world beyond the local community. Students will
be encouraged to understand the land and learn through doing,
in particular by growing their own food, preparing, cooking, and
sharing it with their families and friends. There are also plans
to convert some adjacent ground into a meadow for use by students
and the local community.
WHAT IS
THE EVIDENCE
BASE SHOWING
THAT LEARNING
IN THE
OUTDOORS IS
VALUABLE?
In the last three years, the Department has
initiated and part-funded several studies. This year, through
the Growing Schools programme we are funding Action Research by
NfER/King's College/CREE with teachers and outdoor providers and
scoping further studies into Initial Teacher Training and practice
in a sample of LEAs. The Department commissioned Ofsted to report
on outdoor education, which was published in September. The Department
is also funding a survey into residential experiences with the
Duke of Edinburgh/Scouts Association.
The literature review of the research into using
food, farming and the countryside as a context for learning (UK
and abroad) was funded by Growing Schools in partnership with
CA & FACE (published report available at www.dfes.gov.uk/research).
Among the main findings, the study found current evidence highlights
the potential of:
— school visits to farms—which
offer a wide range of learning opportunities in the affective
and cognitive domains;
— other out of school learning associated
with fieldwork, after school programmes, camps, outdoor centres
and supermarket visits.
The Department part-funded the Field Studies
Council led literature review into outdoor learning which was
published earlier this year. The study examined 150 pieces of
research published in English between 1993 and 2003. The literature
covered three main types of outdoor learning with primary and
secondary pupils and undergraduates: fieldwork and outdoor visits;
outdoor adventure education; school grounds/community projects.
The study found strong evidence of the benefits of all three.
The executive summary reports:
— substantial evidence to indicate
that fieldwork, properly conceived, adequately planned, well taught
and effectively followed up, offers learners opportunities to
develop their knowledge and skills that add value to their everyday
experiences in the classroom;
— substantial evidence of how outdoor
and adventurous education can impact positively on attitudes,
beliefs and self perception; and on their interpersonal and social
skills;
— significant evidence that social
development and greater community involvement can result from
engagement in school grounds projects. Students develop more positive
relationships with each other, with teachers and with the wider
community.
The Growing Schools Action Research is due to
report Spring 2005. The research has three strands:
Strand 1: The research team has undertaken in-depth
qualitative investigations into the processes and impacts of outdoor
learning activities in the three research contexts (school grounds
and gardens, farms and city farms, field study/nature centres
and parks). The aim is to carry out research with pupils, teachers
and other educators both during and after outdoor learning activities
in order to generate grounded understandings of outdoor learning
across a range of age levels.
Strand 2: Involves a small group of teachers,
field study centre staff and farm educators carrying out small-scale
investigations in their own outdoor settings. With support and
training from the research team, these have focused on: (a) trialling
and evaluating teaching and/or evaluation strategies, or (b) exploring
ways of planning outdoor experiences into schemes of work.
Strand 3: designed to explore individuals' and
organisations' different perspectives on the benefits (academic,
social or personal), planning, management and evaluation of purposeful
and/or successful outdoor learning provision in relation to curriculum
requirements, alongside other possible constraints and barriers.
The Ofsted report into outdoor education concentrates
on the opportunities provided for students of age 9-16 years in
outdoor education, linked to the National Curriculum in physical
education (PE). Among the main findings, Ofsted report:
— outdoor education gives depth to
the curriculum and makes an important contribution to student
physical, personal and social education
The Department has commissioned the Duke of
Edinburgh's Awards and the Scouts to carry out a map of Residential
Experience opportunities for young people. It will help us to
look at how residential opportunities can contribute to more young
people taking advantage of extra curricular activities. The work
is due to be completed by the end of December.
Annex A
Q101, Q179. LEAs and schools, by adding to
DfES guidance, deter teachers?
We have had good feedback on our safety guidance
from the education sector. Our guidance says upfront (page 1,
para 2) that we do not intend it to replace LEA guidance where
that already covers the same topics. We would be interested to
hear first-hand from any teacher who has decided not to organise
an outdoor activity because of LEAs and schools asking them to
follow two lots of local safety guidance, and DfES guidance on
top of that. So far we have only heard third-hand, that someone
thinks they heard of someone else who might have felt deterred.
Our first-hand evidence is that most LEAs tell us outdoor activity
in their schools is stable or increasing.
Q103. Is there no need for schools to assess
aspects of a centre which AALA have already safety-inspected?
DfES agrees. DfES wrote to all AALA licence-holders
and every LEA in England in May 2004, to remind them that there
is no need for schools to duplicate AALA safety inspections at
AALA-inspected centres.
Q105. What about schools which banned playing
conkers because they believed it was dangerous?
DfES is not aware of any school in England banning
playing conkers for safety reasons. We read in the press of one
school that was happy for children to play conkers, and gave them
safety-goggles in case splinters went in their eyes. In response
to press coverage of that isolated case, the HSE stated that wearing
safety goggles while playing conkers is the sort of thing that
gives sensible health and safety a bad name.
Q107, Q113. Is DfES aware of claims rising
or falling in this area, litigated in court or settled out of
court?
Published Government figures show that public
liability claims overall fell by 16.7% last year (including both
claims that went to court, and claims where the insurer settled
without going to court), as mentioned by Lawrie Quinn MP during
the debate on the Promotion of Volunteering Bill [Hansard col
1672-3, 16 July 2004]. We have not found any insurance company
that separately records personal injury claims against schools,
which in itself might suggest that claims against schools are
not a significant proportion of claims overall.
Q109. Government has issued requirements that
lead to a lack of insurers willing to insure school activities?
We would be surprised if the requirements of
the Health and Safety at Work Act, or the recommendations of DfES
guidance, in any way deterred insurers from insuring school activities.
On the contrary they should, by reducing the likelihood of injuries,
have a positive effect. If a school can demonstrate its good practice
on safety, that should help it to find insurance on reasonable
terms. The Government has recommended that the insurance industry
should take full account of a school's safety practice when it
costs the risk of insuring an educational activity, and is working
with the industry to that end.
Q111, 179. How many accidents on different
types of visit? When a pupil is injured where staff leading the
activity had followed guidance from eg the employing authority,
should that authority (and not the staff) be answerable?
In the last eight years, DfES is aware of 26
fatal accidents to pupils from England on educational activities,
of which nine so far have led to prosecutions. Of those, four
were overseas—hence our 2002 Guidance on LEA oversight and
on adventure standards; and six involved water—hence our
water margins guidance in 2003. Courts found that an employer
in the case of four fatalities, and an employee in five, had neglected
health and safety law or their duty of care. In cases where the
court found that the employer was at fault and not the staff,
the court did hold only the employer responsible, fining one LEA
£30,000 plus £50,000 costs over two drownings, and another
LEA £120,000 plus £11,000 costs over one drowning, and
not penalising staff in either case.
Q173. Should outdoor centres provide generic
risk assessments?
Centres inspected by AALA have done such assessments
in order to pass their AALA safety inspection—schools can
rely on this (see Q103 above). School staff should still
discuss the assessment with the centre: the centre knows the activity,
but only the school knows its pupils. For school-led provision,
generic risk assessments are discussed at paragraphs 17-36 of
the Department's "Standards for LEAs in Overseeing Educational
Visits" (2002). Generic assessments for activities regardless
of venue are usually prepared by the LEA; we do recommend sharing
these with others, to reduce duplication and spread good practice.
Venue- or group-specific assessments were seen by our drafting
group of outdoor experts as best carried out by the in-school
EVC on the basis of knowledge of the group's needs in the venue.
But there is nothing hard and fast about this. EVCs and outdoor
education advisers can come to their own mutually helpful arrangements.
Q82. Continuing professional development
We do not have statistics on the volume of Continuing
Professional Development (CPD) in outdoor learning. This is because
the majority of CPD is carried out at school or LEA level.
Central to improvements in teaching and learning
is excellent professional development for all teachers—with
more emphasis on classroom observation, practice, training, coaching
and mentoring. We are building up teachers' demand for high quality
training and development, by linking participation in professional
development with career progression.
There is no evidence of lack of opportunities.
The Growing Schools web service regularly updates training and
development opportunities available. For example, in October and
November alone 44 are listed, ranging from Mountain Leader awards
and managing coastal zones, through to bird identification, first
aid and garden design. Many LEAS run their own courses for teachers
as well.
We do know, however, that many more teachers
than before are being trained in the practicalities of outdoor
supervision. This results directly from the DfES establishment
of the Educational Visits Co-ordinator or EVC programme. Training
the trainer sessions were begun in 2001-02 at local authority
level and the Department distributed £3.5 million to LEAs
in England to help them send delegates. All LEAs are signed up
to the programme and at least two local authorities in England
already have an EVC in every one of their schools. The second
phase training for teachers will soon begin.
The aim of the EVC programme is to ensure that
school staff are competent—and therefore more confident
and ready—to lead pupils off-site to the benefits of learning
beyond the classroom. The EVC function is not a new idea—it
formalises what exists in some degree in most schools. The programme
encourages co-operation between schools and LEAs over such matters
as visits-approval and monitoring. For the high-risk kind of exercise—where
the overcoming of natural hazards is the whole educational objective—we
continue to encourage those teachers who lead pupils and who are
properly experienced and qualified.
At the same time we have recently renewed our
commitment, by means of a revised Statutory Instrument, to the
operation of the Adventure Activities Licensing Authority; this
means that schools wishing to contract with a licensed provider—one
inspected on the government's behalf and declared to be safe—can
continue do so. Some 1,030 providers hold licences to provide
outdoor activities to schools and youth-groups, a good sign of
a booming market.
15 November 2004
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