School trips & visits

Jesus said, ‘I am the Good Shepherd… I know my sheep and my sheep know me.’ John 10.14

About our school trips

Learning outside the classroom (LotC) is really important for us at Bayford, and you can find out out more about that in the learning pages. We believe it’s a real strength of our school, and so do the Council for Learning outside the Classroom, the national body which has awarded us their LOtC Mark (Silver) in December 2022.

Sometimes ‘outside the classroom’ means working outdoors within our own school grounds or in nearby woodlands, but sometimes it means a day trip or even a residential stay for the older children. We regularly organise trips to outdoor learning centres, or to places of cultural or religious significance, or to musical or sporting events and competitions. Each class will go on an off-site visit each half term. Some trips, visits, and activities are simply the way in which we deliver the National Curriculum; others are experiences we feel will enrich the process of learning for our children and be really exciting and stimulating for them all.

All trips and activities are well researched, risk-assessed, carefully planned, and properly organised.

Photograph of pupils at Bayford School
Photograph of pupils at Bayford School

No one is ever left behind!

We try to ensure a really good range of visits and activities is offered to all children during their time at Bayford.

In line with our inclusion policy, every attempt will be made to make all school trips fully inclusive by planning in advance and using accessible places, and by providing additional support staff when required.

Some activities are paid for directly by the school from our delegated funding, but for other opportunities we may invite voluntary contributions from parents, or ask FOBS to help by raising the money needed.

Our top priority is to minimise the financial barriers which might prevent some pupils from taking full advantage of the opportunities offered. If an event is going ahead, no child will be left out, unless that is what their parents actually want (parents are always free to withdraw their child from trips or similar activities off site), and that includes residential trips. Our school vision and values make it unthinkable that we could do any less.

We have a policy document (our charging and remissions policy) which sets out when and how we may invite voluntary contributions, and how we will help any family which would find it difficult to make such a contribution (always in complete confidence and privacy). It’s a section of our general financial policy document, but you can also download the relevant section using the link below. If you have any concerns about a school trip, please just talk to us: there are no forms or any formal process, and everything will be totally confidential.

This page was last updated on 15th December 2022