'Safety Guidelines for Education Outdoors'

Mark Dingle

Learning outside has been an essential feature of education for centuries. Research affirms what many of us understand instinctively - that connection with natural environments is good for us.

“Prior to adolescence, children relate to the world through their senses and bodily movement, which is strongly motivated by the diversity and freedom of outdoor environments.” Robin C. Moore

It’s this first hand engagement with natural environments that inspires and engages students and provides a valuable balance to the equally important learning that occurs in classrooms.

With the opportunity to learn outside also comes a responsibility to plan and prepare for the risks that inevitably exist regardless of the learning environment.

In July 2007 after more than two and a half years of development and consultation by the Victorian Outdoor Education Association (VOEA) the Victorian education department published the Safety Guidelines for Education Outdoors.

These new guidelines bring together planning support materials; approval documentation; and, advice relating to outdoor and adventure activities.

The Safety Guidelines help teachers and educators think through the development of excursions and ensure schools communicate the nature and scope of the planned excursion.

In many ways it is a 'one-stop-shop' for excursions requiring school council approval.

So why 'education outdoors'? The title of the site reflects the heritage of the guidelines. For almost four decades the education department in Victoria has supported outdoor and adventure based experiences as valuable contributions to the education of young people in our schools through Guidelines for Outdoor and Adventure Activities. What became clear during the review was that the process for approving and managing outdoor and adventure activities was consistent for all excursions requiring school council approval, not just adventure activities. Hence the new Safety Guidelines for Education Outdoors have a broader scope and encompass a wider range of excursions. Specifically these include:

- overnight excursions; camps; interstate and overseas visits; excursions requiring sea or air travel; excursions involving weekends or vacations; and adventure activities.

The common element in the majority of these excursions is that they occur outdoors. They are not necessarily outdoor education experiences, but the learning environment is beyond the school grounds and students are more often under the canopy of the sky rather than the confines of a classroom.

It is expected that these guidelines will be used by a wide range of people involved in planning, supervising and approving excursions. Such people are likely to include:

- teachers; year level coordinators; excursion or camp coordinators; principals; parents; school councillors; external providers; campsite operators; and, land managers.

The Safety Guidelines for Education Outdoors have been developed as a sub-site within the education department's website so that they can be quickly and easily updated. One of the challenges of hard copy guidelines of any kind is maintaining their currency. Publishing the guidelines as a website allows for new information or changes to be made without the expense of printing and distributing new guidelines.

www.education.vic.gov.au/management/schooloperations/edoutdoors

This also means that it is important that the website is revisited regularly to check for any updates rather than sections being printed and kept on a shelf. Updates of significance will be noted on the homepage of the Safety Guidelines for Education Outdoors site and noted in education department circulars.

Being online the guidelines are also accessible by a range of individuals and groups from parents to activity providers and link those users directly to information they would otherwise have had to find themselves. As teachers and educators providing outdoor experiences you may find it useful to refer parents or land managers to the Safety Guidelines.

One of the challenges for users of the site is that there is a lot of content. 130 pages in fact. So finding the right pages requires attention. The following introduction provides a guide to the main elements of the site that users should be familiar with. (Readers from outside Victoria will find the site useful , but should refer to their own state or territory guidelines for excursions.)

Your role

One of the first things users should do when accessing the site is identify their role in the planning and approval process. The ‘People’ pages identify specific information about the responsibilities of teachers, principals, school councillors or external providers. A checklist is also provided for these individuals to ensure they have covered the essential tasks they are responsible for.

The revised Safety Guidelines also seek to recognise the important relationship between providers of outdoor activities and schools.  It helps to clarify the responsibilities of each party while recognising the non-delegable duty of care of teachers. The following statement is contained in the 'Staffing' section of each of the activity guidelines.

"A teacher registered with the Victorian Institute of Teaching and either employed by the Department of Education or endorsed by the school council must be present and have overall responsibility for the activity.

Where not directly responsible for the instruction of the activity or assisting the instructor, the teacher present must understand the activity and the environment in which it will be conducted. This teacher must confer with the designated instructor about the supervisory role and establish areas of responsibility. If the teacher is not the designated instructor he/she is to act on the advice of the designated instructor on technical safety issues."

Planning

Once visitors to the site understand their role they should then consider the planning support pages. The ‘Planning’ pages prompt teachers with a range of targeted questions that should be considered in the planning of an excursion. The questions are generic questions which, when applied to a specific excursion location and student group, highlight potential opportunities and challenges that may exist. Essential in this and other steps in the preparation of excursions is the documentation of the planning process. Without a record of the planning undertaken there is no evidence to demonstrate the care and thought that teachers put into the planning of excursions.

Approval

Having considered the planning questions in the context of the proposed excursion the next step is to complete the Proforma for school council approval excursions.

This proforma is available as a word document on the ‘Approval process’ page of the website. The document is best used by saving to the user’s computer and developing during the planning process.

Schools may have developed their own internal approval documents that account for specific school requirements (such as timetabling issues created by teachers participating in the excursion). The Proforma for school council approval excursions may be complemented by other school-specific documents, however, it must be completed in full for school council approval.

The Proforma for school council approval excursions has fields that allow you to complete the relevant sections. All text in the proforma is locked so that it cannot be changed.

Ensure you have the most current version of the Proforma for school council approval excursions by visiting the website regularly.

Risk management

One of the more detailed requirements of the excursion planning process is the development of risk management plans. Identifying those elements of an excursion that pose a risk to the safety and wellbeing of students is an important part of a teacher’s duty of care.

The Safety Guidelines for Education Outdoors provides a step-by-step introduction to risk management that integrates the materials provided on the site (such as the planning questions and approval proforma) to support the process of identifying risks within the proposed excursion.

Further support

This is only a brief snapshot of the guidelines. There is much more to explore within the site and much more that will support the practice of teachers and school communities. The Victorian Outdoor Education Association will provide further briefings and seminars on the guidelines and is available to support schools in their implementation.

Safety Guidelines for Education Outdoors
www.education.vic.gov.au/management/schooloperations/edoutdoors

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