A school trip is often the highlight of any school year, for both staff and students alike. They are a great way to enhance the learning experience and can be terrific fun too, but they also present a lot of logistical issues for school who need to manage the trips in the best way possible, whilst keeping children safe at all times.
Lanyards are now a big feature of most school trips as they can help to maximise safety and they experience at the same time. Read on to find out how…
Identity
One of the most crucial aspects of any school trip is being able to identify your own students quickly and easily. This can be more of a challenge at typical school trip venues such as museums where there can be a number of schools all in one place at the same time.
With many schools asking parents or staff members from other year groups to attend school trips, it is not possible to simply rely on recognising familiar faces. Uniforms have been one solution, but with many students wearing coats and bags, and other schools choosing similar colour schemes, this is not always as easy to spot as you might think.
School lanyards that have been customised in the school colours or a dedicated colour that is easy to see, make it much easier to pick out which students belong to you. This means that you can round them up easily and count up from a distance to make sure that you still have everyone with you.
Missing children
The idea of losing a child on a school can trip can keep teachers awake at night, but lanyards can play a role here too. Should anyone go missing, the lanyard can help to make people in authority aware of who the student belongs to.
It can include the name of the school and emergency contact details so that a member of staff can be reached, and the child can be returned safely. This is particularly useful for trips with small children or those who are neurodiverse or have disabilities who may not be able to articulate this information for themselves.
Behaviour
Whilst most children will enjoy a school trip, there will always be the odd one or two that do not behave as well as they could. Some will go with the intention of causing trouble whilst others might just get caught up in the moment, but they often believe that they will get away with it because no-one will know who they are.
However, wearing a lanyard that can not only identify what school they belong to but who they are as well can help to act as a deterrent to bad behaviour, as they know this could be reported back to the school by other officials or members of the public.
Team spirit
Whilst lanyards play a big part in the safety of children, they have some other roles too. They can play a big part in creating a sense of team spirit, whether it is because everyone has the same lanyard or because they are colour coded into different groups. On a school trip where children might not be wearing uniform, this is a great way to help bring everyone together and get them to form new and stronger bonds.
They can also help to create a sense of pride in the school itself, and a group of well-behaved children all sporting the school lanyard can do a lot to boost the reputation of the school in the local area.
Residential trips
A residential school trip means staying away from home for at least one night, which can make it even harder to keep track of students. Whilst they will always be supervised, these kinds of trips allow a little bit more freedom, and so safety and security is even more important.
These trips are vital for helping children to understand other cultures and values and to complete activities that they might never have dreamed of, so it is essential to make sure that they are provided.
Lanyards can help to keep them safe during these trips by providing the same identification tools as they do on day trips. As lanyards can be versatile tools, they can also carry all sorts of handy things such as cards or fobs to open doors, or attachments to carry things such as torches, hand sanitiser or a whistle to help keep them safe while they are on the move.
New learning experiences
Many schools have been reluctant to take children on as many trips as the might like because they are concerned about safety. However, lanyards can allay a lot of fears, which means that children are more likely to benefit from some new and exciting learning experiences. Learning outside of the classroom gives them the opportunity to experience new things for the first time, and it can present a whole host of enrichment opportunities.
Not every child responds well to the traditional classroom style of learning, and so getting out and about in different places can help to ensure every child is able to learn. By seeing things in action, it is possible to help cement the learning that has taken place in the classroom, as well as provoking new questions and lighting new passions.
School trips can also benefit teachers as well, as they get to see their children in a new light and can get a better picture of how the individuals in their class view the world. This gives them new information that they can take back to the classroom to help them plan future lessons that will get the best responses.
Improve your student experience with lanyards
Lanyards can seem to be such a simple thing, but by providing an affordable safety option, schools can find it much easier to get their children out of the classroom and give them new ways to learn, form new bonds and friendships and give them memories that might last them a lifetime. You can view our range of school lanyards today on our website, and if you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch!