There is a buzz of excitement at the school today, they are all heading to the beach for a ‘school trip’ 37 children all heading to what hopes is an informative fun day. How do we ensure that all the children return? A proper risk assessment has to be completed on all the dangers. On May 2002 little Max Palmer died on a school trip to Cumbria, he drowned while ‘plunge pooling’. like most tragedies Max’s death could have been avoided.
Every year between 7-10 million school pupils in England go on school trips which are informative and recreational. With the vast majority of these trips being carried out with no incidents, this is down mainly to the proper planning and at the end the children are the ones who benefit. In order to prevent a major incident there are several things you can do.
- Look and see if any other schools have been on the same trip and ask if any incidents have taken place with them. One of the best ways to learn is from previous accidents/incidents.
- Observe the area what is the risk? Often the weather can turn a seemingly low risk area into a high risk area.
- The leader of the group has to be a competent/qualified person able to respond to the situation. Proper safety clothing has to be worn for all activities. They must always have the safety of the pupils at the top of their agenda.
- A proper risk assessment has to be done for each of the activities. Do not assume that nothing CAN go wrong.
The weather and the tide can often catch the best of people out, if not sure don’t do it. For the few teachers that think that nothing will go wrong, please remember that the teacher that was in charge of Max Palmer is now serving a jail sentence for his manslaughter.
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