A spotlight on school sports tours

In the summer of 2014 the School Travel Forum and the Education Company surveyed PE & Sports teachers across England. The objectives were, for the first time, to identify the type and frequency of sports residentials currently being undertaken; find out the objectives that prompt taking tours, measure the success in achieving those aims, identify where possible the underlying factors that shape schools’ decision making and to question if there is a link between school & pupil attainment and the propensity for schools to support residential travel.

LINKS TO ATTAINMENT AND RESULTS
The STF is interested in finding out the links between pupil and school success and the propensity to include residential trips in curriculum planning. We recognise that individual evidence is unlikely to be measurable, but we consider the trends to be a valuable indicator. Whilst these results only reflect the recent sports tours survey, our other surveys and independent evidence from research by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, reports by Ofsted and the diverse wealth of research made available by the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom support the proposal that learning outside the classroom, in all its forms, has significant benefits for school managers to consider.
   
The trends show that those schools which are more predisposed to include residentials (or in this case Sports Tours) in their curriculum were more likely to have high pupil attainment and higher Ofsted Inspection results.
   
The survey results also confirm what might be considered already well known; schools with a high free school meal (FSM) ratio fared less well in accessing the benefits of regular school trips. In fact the type of school least likely to take sports tours were state schools funded by Local Authorities with a high percentage of FSM. This is despite the availability of the Pupil Premium to support such activities.

WHY TEACHERS UNDERTOOK TOURS
Team and relationship building were rated the most important consideration when deciding to run a sports tour, with other skill development objectives also rated highly. Using tours to teach new sports is much less popular.
   
Learning outside the classroom, of which sports travel is a part, is recognised as an effective way to engage with hard to reach pupils. However this survey reported that this was considered less important than their effect as a reward for pupils.
   
From this we deduce that sports tours are primarily used to enhance and motivate existing teams.
   
Sports tours are overwhelmingly successful at meeting the original objectives with 99 per cent of responders reporting their tours met objectives ‘Extremely Well’ (53 per cent), or ‘Quite Well’ (46 per cent).

CURRENT LEVELS OF ACTIVITY
Whilst concern continues to be expressed about the reduction of school trips (including sports), the STF’s own research has identified the opposite is the case. In this survey 75 per cent of schools reported that they run residential or touring sports tours. 
   
Additionally, when compared to two years ago, only 10 per cent said that the number of tours they run had reduced, whilst 25 per cent confirmed an increase.

WHAT ARE THE BARRIERS?
Price is the major barrier quoted by all school types, but is most significant for Local Authority funded schools with a high proportion of FSM. This correlates with the above results and despite the introduction of the Pupil Premium the reduced opportunities for the most deprived section of pupils appears to be continuing – at least in this case with regard to developing sports skills.
   
However, with tours regularly travelling to far distant (and inevitably more expensive) destinations, clearly price barriers are not the entire story. 
   
Closer analysis shows that safety worries are less significant than perhaps previously supposed.  When asked if “Concerns with Homestay” and “Health and Safety and concerns about personal responsibilities” were barriers to organising a trip, 56 per cent and 35 per cent respectively said they were not a factor.

In fact the ‘dreaded triumvirate’ reported as major factors creating barriers were: “Unable to travel in term time” (45 per cent), “Time” (43 per cent) and “Excessive reporting and paperwork” (39 per cent).

DESTINATIONS
UK schools travel world-wide on their sports tours. Rugby and hockey reported the greatest spread of destinations; cricket and rugby are most likely to travel long-haul their pattern perhaps reflecting the enduring Empire legacy of the spread of their sports. Least widely travelled was Athletics mostly travelling within the UK and with only a small proportion also venturing to Southern Europe.
   
When asked which destination they would most like to take a sports tour, but have not yet travelled to North America is top of the wish list, scoring almost twice as high as any other destination. Distance and cost are less of a consideration in this wish list with the easy to access destinations in the UK and Northern Europe coming only 4th and 5th respectively.

HOW VISITS ARE ORGANISED
Teachers overwhelmingly said that they were free to make decisions about their trips including the choice of operator. 
   
Use of a specialist educational tour company is the preferred way of organising tours. However, knowledge was low about tour operator approval schemes and the UK’s Package Travel Regulations, all of which help schools manage their liability for supplier assessment. “Price” was quoted as the top reason for choice of operator.

This has implications for school management and employers as such a reliance on one factor does not evidence taking reasonable care in the selection of a suitable supplier for this specialist type of service. Worryingly there are past cases where unscrupulous persons have used this lack of checks to the detriment of schools.
   
The majority of Local Authority Outdoor Education Advisors have a policy of recommending use of a Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badged suppliers; for sports residentials the STF are the Awarding Body for the Quality Badge.
   
Some schools reported that they either self-organised all or some of their tours. But again there was very little knowledge about the implications of the Package Travel Regulations which place significant responsibilities on tour organisers in the interests of consumer protection. 
   
Legal advice obtained by the STF is that schools organising their own tours have the same duty of care and needed to make the same checks on third party suppliers that a reputable tour operator would do.

Again this has implications for employers and management who have the responsibility to ensure such checks are made and due diligence is maintained.

ABOUT THE SCHOOL TRAVEL FORUM
Founded in 2003 and a not-for‑profit organisation, the School Travel Forum’s Assured Member scheme won widespread recognition and support for the way it simplified and provided essential reassurance for leaders looking to organise school trips.

Every year all companies holding or wanting the awards are audited by independent experts to ensure they are complying with the organisation’s STF’s safety management systems, financial protection requirements and fair trading policies. L

FURTHER INFORMATION
Access the survey results at:
www.schooltravelforum.com/white-papers-guides