Sides presented at the first 'Education Visit Coordinators Conference' for Northamptonshire Schools on 24 January 2018 at Grendon Outdoor Education Centre

1. Learning Away was founded and initially developed by Paul Hamlyn Foundation

2. The transformative impact of a
Brilliant Residential
Educational Visits Conference for Northamptonshire Schools
24 January 2018
Kim Somerville
@LearningAway @KimSomerville
#BrilliantResidentials #WinterResidentials
Learning Away was founded and initially developed by Paul Hamlyn Foundation

3. Learning Away is led by a Consortium of organisations united in their
commitment to ensure more young people have access to high-quality
brilliant residential learning experiences.

4. Action research
• PHF funded special initiative
• Over 5 years
• With 60 schools in 13 partnership
• A range of residential settings
Rigorous evaluation
• 12,500+ pre and post surveys with
students, parents and staff
• 100+ focus groups

6. “Learning Away has shown that a residential
learning experience provides opportunities
and benefits that cannot be achieved in any
other educational context or setting.
The impact is greater when residentials are
fully integrated with a school’s curriculum
and ethos.”
Learning Away Final Evaluation Report
York Consulting 2015

7. Impacts and benefits
We have strong evidence which demonstrates that there are
numerous positive impacts of Brilliant Residentials, showing
that they improve students’…

9. Resilience , self confidence and wellbeing

10. “You can't "do" #Wellbeing to young people.
But you can help them gain the skills to do it
for themselves.”
@BrathayResearch

11. Attainment

12. Relationships

13. Engagement with learning

14.  Fully integrated with school curriculum and ethos
 Led by teachers
 Led by students (where appropriate)
 Co-designed with students
 Inclusive and affordable for all
 Planned with clear learning objectives to meet specific learning needs
 Planned so that learning is embedded and reinforced back in school
 Part of a progressive programme of experiences
 Designed to include a wide range of new and memorable experiences
 Designed to allow space to develop collaborative relationships
 Evaluated rigorously
 Supported by senior leadership
What makes a brilliant residential ‘brilliant’?

15. 10 Recommendations for schools

17. “The feeling that you are something more
than you thought doesn't go away.”
Teacher from a Learning Away partner school
Surely if residential experiences have this type of
powerful impact, all children - regardless of
their background - should be entitled to benefit
from them during their time at school.
Learning Away Consortium

18. New Study: The state of school
residentials in England 2017
A study by LKMco
(with the support of eduFocus/Evolve & OEAP)
“Only one in five children experiencing a
residential every year.
More worryingly still, there is a picture
of patchy and inequitable access with
young people in in the poorest areas the
least likely to participate”

20. Key findings
• Residentials in schools are generally of
high quality but availability and cost is
stopping many poorer students from
participating
• Over a third of teachers did not believe
that their pupils could afford to
participate in their residentials
• Schools often using pupil premium, but as
funding is squeezed, this will become an
increasing problem

21. Teacher responses to survey - affordability
“Some children were unable to afford to attend the residential,
so they were offered an activity week in school which had a
minimal cost and was completed with the teachers remaining.”
“Some pupils did not have the means to access this opportunity
[the residential] even though they would probably benefitted
the most from the experiences.”

22. Key findings
• Residentials are frequently focused on
personal development, and less so on
curriculum subjects
• Not all teachers want to use structured
approaches to evaluation, however
some who wish to do so are not sure
how to go about doing so
• Residentials more likely to take place in
the summer and spring terms

23. Shared Vision with teachers
“The benefits of residential experiences and outdoor education are
indisputable. It is distressing to learn that they are not available to all
students. The education funding crisis is only going to reduce
opportunities to participate in residential activities, which is why we
are campaigning for protected funding to enable children to have
greater access to high quality residential experiences.
We want more residential opportunities, for more children, more of the
time.”
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT

24. Pupil Premium
“Schools should consider the affordability of any trips they plan to
ensure no-one is unfairly disadvantaged. Schools are best placed to
understand and respond to the specific needs of their pupils.
This is why we have given them flexibility over how they use the pupil
premium funding to help improve the progress and attainment of their
disadvantaged pupils. This can include covering some or all of the
costs of going on a residential trip, if the school believes that this will
help improve a pupil’s academic outcomes.”
Department for Education spokesperson - September 2017

27. “The Learning Away evidence proves
what I have always known, children
benefit in a profound way from the
adventure of a residential and the
opportunity and experience of being
absorbed in what they are learning in
the great outdoors.”
Sir Chris Bonington CVO CBE DL

28. Kirk Ella Primary School, Hull Park SEN School Kilmarnock, Scotland
Neston High, Cheshire

30. Why not?
• Winter weather
• Less daylight
• Enrichment activity (and therefore held at the end of the school year)
• Timetabling
• Cover for staff

31. Why?

32. Benefit 1

37. Learning Away was founded and initially developed by Paul Hamlyn Foundation

38. “There is a more positive
relationship between pupils and
their teachers as we have all
battled Storm Desmond
together. None of the students
will have ever leant at 45
degrees into a 60mph wind on a
beach before. They loved it!”
Teacher’s comments about a winter residential to
Snowdonia.

39. “Everyone digs a snow hole in
which they sleep out under the
stars. This is the crux of the
experience - being out in the
winter elements overnight.”
Teacher’s comments about a winter residential to Loch Eil in
Scotland

43. Ideas and top tips

44. More ideas

45. And more …

46. Free resources, ideas and top tips

47. Free resources, ideas and top tips

48. Free resources, ideas and top tips

49. 1. Information
• Consider the recommendations for schools and providers
• Use the free resources and top tips for winter residentials
2. Action
• Make your pledge to work with others to provide more and higher
quality residentials
3. Share
• Become a champion school and share best practice
• Use the tools in the campaign pack to put Brilliant Residentials on the
map
Working together

50. Thank you

51. Website: learningaway.org.uk
Twitter:@LearningAway #BrilliantResidentials #WinterResidentials
Facebook: /WeAreLearningAway
Email: kim.somerville@lotc.org.uk