In this article Elaine Skates, the Chief Executive of the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom (CLOtC), describes the benefits of choosing a provider with the Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge when planning a residential.

Residentials have the potential to be the most powerful learning experiences young people will experience during their entire time at school. As Tim Brighouse memorably acknowledged, “For some children a week’s residential experience is worth more than a term of school.” Indeed, residentials can be transformational – even life changing – events for many pupils.

With these potential impacts in mind, why wouldn’t schools and providers alike strive to improve the quality of residential experiences in order to maximise the benefits to young people?

The Learning Away final evaluation report, published in 2015, demonstrated that residential learning experiences provide opportunities and benefits/impacts that cannot be achieved in any other educational context or setting and asserted that impact is greater when residentials are fully integrated with a school’s curriculum and ethos. Through the Learning Away research, a clear picture of what makes a high-quality residential experience has been developed, and Learning Away has coined the phrase ‘brilliant residentials’ to describe these experiences. Recommendations for schools and providers outline how the quality of a residential can be improved in order to maximise its impact. We are suggesting that schools seriously consider adopting some (or all) of these Learning Away recommendations as a starting point for their journey of improvement from ‘good’ to ‘brilliant’ residentials.

There is no doubt that residentials take time to organise, however taking steps to improve the quality of a residential need not be onerous, and lots of help is available.

Many schools work with third party providers when delivering residentials; so as a first step towards improving the quality of residentials, schools can look for the Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge to gain assurance as to the educational quality and safety of the provision. The Quality Badge was designed to help schools organising educational visits and residentials to identify good quality educational experiences, where risk is effectively managed.

Providers’risk assessments and risk management systems are rigorously checked as part of the assessment process for the LOtC Quality Badge, reducing the need for schools to chase paperwork from providers when planning their residential and thereby helping to reduce the administrative burden.

The LOtC Quality Badge is endorsed in Government health and safety guidelines for schools and by the Outdoor Education Advisers Panel (OEAP). There are a number of safety standards and schemes for providers of school trips and residentials; so to make things simpler for schools the Quality Badge is designed to encompass all the existing schemes in order that schools just need to look for one badge when planning visits and residentials in the UK and overseas. The Quality Badge is only awarded if a provider has all the relevant standards and licences in place (including the AALA licence for adventurous activities and other appropriate and relevant accreditation standards). This means that schools do not need to research what standards should be in place and make these checks themselves; saving time and enabling schools to have confidence in the competence of the providers they are using.

However, the LOtC Quality Badge is so much more than a tick in the Health and Safety box! The Quality Badge is unique as it also crucially looks at the educational quality of the provision. In fact, five out of the six quality indicators covered by the accreditation framework look specifically at the quality of the learning experience.

The LOtC Quality Badge criteria are consistent with key recommendations from the Learning Away research. For example, Learning Away recommends that schools provide a range of inclusive residential experiences that progress throughout each phase of education and are integrated with class-based and learning outside the classroom activities.  Learning Away recommends that learning on residentials should be planned:

• with clear learning objectives based on students’ needs;
• collaboratively by school staff, venue staff and students;
• so that the experiences are embedded and reinforced once back in school.

The LOtC Quality Badge criteria support these recommendations by ensuring that accredited venues have processes in place to work collaboratively with schools to plan the learning experience effectively. Therefore all Quality Badge holders will have a process that:

• captures or agrees learning objectives;
• offers a menu or plans (where necessary) a tailored programme of work, with a purpose for each activity, linked to learning objectives;
• takes into account, any equality, diversity and inclusion issues and needs;
• offers guidance and/or resources to assist with preparation and follow-up activities, or discusses with the user preparation and follow-up to the visit.

All of the above support schools to work closely with residential providers during the planning process to ensure the right mix of activities and delivery, as Learning Away recommends.

Finally Learning Away emphasises the importance of rigorous evaluation as an essential part of the residential programme. The LOtC Quality Badge framework supports this by ensuring that accredited providers:

• offer guidance/information on or agree a process with the school for assessing learner progress during the overall experience and how the experience will be evaluated before the residential;
• have a process in place for monitoring and evaluating the quality of teaching and instruction during the residential;
• gather feedback on the learning experience from teachers and learners, review whether learning objectives have been met and have processes in place to change practices as a result of review, evaluation and feedback after the residential.

To conclude, when working with a third party to deliver a brilliant residential, the relationship between the school and the provider is critical. When a teacher or school sees that the provider holds the LOtC Quality Badge they can be reassured, not just about health and safety, but that they will be able to work effectively in partnership with the provider to deliver a high-quality, impactful and meaningful learning experience. Quality Badge holders have to be committed to improving and developing their offer and working in partnership with schools. So when selecting a provider the LOtC Quality Badge is a good place to start.

Full details of the LOtC Quality Badge indicators can be accessed on the website, where schools can also search for details of all the Quality Badged providers.