Learning outside of the classroom

Our Educational Visits team can support your school in providing a safe environment for children to learn outside of the classroom, one which meets national health and safety standards.

We offer guidance on the effective management of outdoor learning, off-site visits and learning outside of the classroom. Our proven framework ensures that you meet all statutory health & safety responsibilities, while observing duty of care requirements.

We ensure that all visits are recorded, monitored and approved online by your school’s Educational Visits Co-ordinator (EVC) or Headteacher. Higher-risk visits may be approved by the local authority (LA) Educational Visits Adviser.

Support is administered via EVOLVE, an online approval system, select Essex Juniper Education or Warwickshire Juniper Education, while advice and guidance are provided through our helpdesk, or via the OEAP National Guidance website.

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Key features and benefits

  • Web-based educational visits system, for notification and approval of off-site visits
  • Educational Visits telephone helpline, for advice and support
  • Provider and visit monitoring
  • Secure document storage for important policies and visit submissions
  • Online resources, such as generic risk assessments, policy examples and numerous support documents for use by both visit leaders and EVCs/Headteachers
  • A robust system to evidence responsibility for health and safety and duty of care reporting
  • CPD staff training programme

Courses and Training Provided

  • Visit Emergency Training
  • Visit Leader Training
  • How to Use and Maintain Your School’s EVOLVE Portal
  • Outdoor Learning / Environmental card

Mobile Learning Modules for Visit Leaders and SLT

Our online Continuous Professional Development (CPD) modules in Visit Leader training are offered under annual licenses, so that your staff can complete the required training in their own time. Subscription costs for the year are based on school type/size. Our available modules are Critical Incident Planning and Educational Visits.

All of our modules can be adapted to suit your school’s needs. Establishments are monitored through the annual ‘Schools Health & Safety Audit’ and EVOLVE online submission systems, to ensure that they meet health and safety requirements.

Designed to cover all aspects of Visit Leader training, the mobile learning modules include:

  • 24/7 Access to training material on all devices (Including iOS & Android)
  • Audit trail for staff CPD
  • OEAP Adviser developed course
  • EVOLVE, CLOtC, and RoSPA endorsed training module
Modules can be purchased via our online shop:

  • Purchase Critical Incident Planning module here
  • Purchase Educational Visits module here

Responsibility for Health, Safety and Welfare

Legal duty of employers under the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) and associated regulations: Employers must ensure that employees are provided with appropriate guidance, training, and access to further competent advice.

The employer retains overall responsibility for health, safety and welfare. The Local Authority (LA) is the employer in LA maintained schools (community and VC), Statutory Youth Service, Looked After Children and other LA services or settings. The governing body, trustees, and owners are the employer at foundation, VA, academies, and free and independent schools.

Employers have overall responsibility but will delegate most visit approval to Headteachers, as they know the visit leaders and young people. The educational visits support service helps schools to ensure these responsibilities are met, staff are trained and competencies are developed and recorded.

Contact us to find out how we can help you to provide a safe learning environment outside of the classroom.

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Coronavirus (COVID-19) Educational Visits Advice

Guidance on Educational Visits is changing regularly, to see our COVID-19 advice please visit our Coronavirus – Educational Visits for Schools page here.