1. Greater priority given to supporting specific learning objectives
With the new Ofsted education inspection framework due in November, we believe trip itineraries promoted by operators are likely to be judged even more closely on their educational value. How they support specific learning outcomes,whilst promoting inclusion will contribute to meeting the Ofsted aim of helping raise standards for all children.
With more scrutiny from governors and parents, the ability of teachers and EVC’s looking to promote an educational trip will require them to demonstrate clear curriculum benefits, to justify the trips being given approval to run.
As such, we are seeing that teachers who can show how a trip enhances learning outcomes with relevant visits matched with the current curriculum, builds key skills, or supports exam preparation due to greater in-depth subject learning, find the approval process is smoother and parental buy in stronger.
With 89% of our trips for Secondary schools focused on curriculum learning, we see our role as being more important than ever before to ensure the time invested by teachers and the money contributed by parents achieves maximum impact for the students.
2. Larger group sizes driven by Multi-Academy Trusts and subject combo’s
With pressure on costs and resourcing, Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) are increasingly co-running trips across their schools, whilst individual schools are running more subject combo’s.
This approach helps secure better deals and group sizes, assists with planning internal resourcing and ensure enrichment opportunities are consistent across the trust and school.
For teachers, whilst this can mean greater support in organising trips and better prices for parents, it is sometimes at the expense of individual autonomy.
3. Rising demand for shoulder season travel
At Next Generation Travel we are experiencing growing interest in educational trips outside of the typical summer term & half term peak periods.
By travelling in the spring or autumn terms, we are able to secure schools their first choice accommodation, keep costs more manageable for families, and avoid congestion around channel crossings. We have seen October, February, March and May departures becoming more popular with teachers recognising the ease of travel and cost benefits.
