Accompanying Trips

Thank you to all parents and carers for regularly volunteering to accompany our school trips. We rely heavily on family members to be able to take children out and about and really appreciate the time you have given up to support us in this way. Like you, we feel educational visits are a very important part of school life.

Please could you be mindful of the following guidance on trips:

• Please make sure you have been briefed about the risk assessment before going on the trip.
• To protect yourself and us legally you must not at any time take photographs of any of the children while on a school trip.
• In order to ensure your focus and attention is with the children in your group, phone calls/text should not be made/taken unless they are an immediate emergency. If you do need to do so, please make a member of staff aware so that they can supervise the children you have been allocated.
• All parent helper groups should stay close to a member of staff so that they can ask for support if needed, eg: with first aid.
• Staff members will ensure that the day/events are timetabled so that you are not in a situation whereby you are left alone with a child, for safeguarding reasons. If such a situation arises, eg: a child asks to be escorted to the toilet, please seek guidance from a member of staff.
• Close physical contact such as hugging or sitting a child (other than your own of course!) on your lap should not be made.
• If a child tells you something that concerns you in anyway, please tell a member of staff rather than trying to deal with the disclosure.
• If you have any concerns or questions on the trip regarding your role or what to do, please do not hesitate to ask.

Once again, we really do appreciate you coming with us. We couldn’t do it without you!