EVC Spring 2026_magazine_AWdigital - Flipbook - Page 11
school story
HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR A VISIT?
We really push teachers to tell the children why
they are going; for example, “We’re visiting the
British Museum because we’ve learned about
Ancient Greek vases and we’re going to see and
sketch three examples.” For that trip, I made
some slides that the teacher can show the class,
and the children then arrive ready to do the work.
“A really useful tip from EVC training
was to plan for how you’ll capture
the learning after the visit.”
We also make sure that each visit helps children
to see the bigger picture. When Year 6 learn
about World War II, we bring in a big wireless
and role-play being a family listening to the
declaration of war. Then we go to RAF Hendon,
where they stage a fake air raid and we all hide in
the shelter. The children zoom in on what it was
like to live in London during the war, which is
the next thing on the curriculum. They can then
bring that knowledge to a later lesson, about the
experience of being evacuees. All these stages
are carefully planned, and it works really well.
DO YOU RUN RESIDENTIALS?
Yes, and we make them more challenging each
year, so they grow from an overnight trip in Year
3 to a five-day stay in Year 6. They are important
for things like social skills and team-building,
but they are still linked to the curriculum; for
example, Year 6 learn about farming at Wick
Court (one of the Farms for City Children) and
Year 4 develop their survival and map-reading
skills on their camping trip.
Just like all our visits, we make sure the children
know what the residentials are for – they’re not
just a holiday! We explain what we’re going to
do and what we’ll be learning. That’s consistent
across the school now, which I’m really proud
of. If I look back at trips I went on earlier in my
career, they weren’t always curriculum-led, so
I’m glad we’ve changed that.
We’ve always had a very busy visits programme
at Eleanor Palmer, but each year we review and
improve it. The more we plan and refine and
share information, the more we get out of each
visit – and then we can offer a really enriching
and interesting school year.
TOP TIPS FOR A WORTHWHILE SCHOOL TRIP
1 Draw on other teachers’ knowledge and experience of a trip, and share your own.
2 Really think about why you’re going and exactly how it’s enhancing the children’s learning.
Choose activities for the visit that can’t be done in class; a worksheet can be completed at
3 school, but you can only sketch a mummy in the museum.
ask the children to write an account of the trip, because they tend to just write about
4 Don’t
the train and the snacks. Set a more focused task, such as writing about the Rosetta Stone
or what it felt like to be in an air raid shelter.
THE EVC MAGAZINE – SPRING 2026
11
