Leading a School Field Trip
When school groups go on field trips, volunteers often lead them.
Practical tips for taking children on a school field trip. Make sure to keep the children under supervision all the time, and make sure they know the rules.
Here are some practical tips for taking children on a school field trip.
Field trips are still school, but with a difference
It's wonderful to leave the classroom and visit a special place for a day as a class. Museums, zoos, historic sites, police and fire stations, sports arenas, parks - is there any place a field trip can't go?
The students are excited and often feel like the field trip is an extended recess playtime. They need to be reminded sometimes that they are still in school, even though they are not in their familiar building.
Docents, interpreters, and other staff working at host locations
Quite often, the field trip will be to an institution or location with an established school program. The field trip may be
- entirely teacher-led (usually with volunteer parents assisting)
- entirely led by the staff of the host location (again, usually with parent helpers)
- shared leadership.
It's important to understand up front who is leading the program. In settings where the host insitution provides the leaders, there should be clear communication about
- to whom the children should give their attention
- what the teacher's role is
- what the parent helpers' roles are.
The students should only have to be paying attention to one leader at a time. Having a formal handover of the class helps. For example, upon arrival, the teacher may say to the class, "Students, this is Mrs. X from the Museum. She is going to be our leader this morning." That's all it takes to signal to the students that their attention should now be on Mrs. X.
The teacher's role when the program is led by someone from the host location
Unless there are other specific instructions about this, it is usually best if the teacher remains free to be a resource to the entire class rather than taking responsibility for any small group of students. Where staff and helpers are in short supply, of course, this can't necessarily happen. Everyone has to be somewhat flexible on a field trip.
In the case of an emergency, the teacher is the one who should stay with the whole class as she is the one the students all know, and she can tell, for example, if a child is missing or hurt. If it's necessary for an injured or ill student to be taken for special care elsewhere, e.g. to the first aid room, that job should be done by a parent helper rather than the teacher. Again, if the particular host location or the school board have other policies on this point, those should be followed.
Tips for parent and other helpers
When the leader from the host location (and they have many names - docent, educator, facilitator, leader, guide, interpreter) - is presenting the program, he may ask many rhetorical questions just as a teacher would in class. The questions are for the students! Let the students answer and explore verbally on their own. Even if they get the answer "wrong", that is part of their learning experience. You can see the wheels turning as a skilled educator leads them to the answer that is "right".
If you are placed in charge of a small group, it is your responsibility to make sure they stay with you all the time, and that they follow whatever rules the host location has set out.
Taking children on a walk
Whether it's indoors or outside, students always want to walk ahead of the leader! Where they think they're going is sometimes anyone's guess, but they have to get there first.
This is not something a leader should allow. The best way to take a class on a walk is to make sure that no one goes ahead of the leader, and to have one or more responsible adults at the end of the line. Children should never be anywhere other than behind the leader and in front of the trailing adults. That is for when they are on a walk. If they have been asked to explore a location, then put adults at the corners and let the children know what the boundaries of the permitted area are, and that they are not to leave the area.
