Learning-outside-the-classroom raises your school’s profile

Schools that regularly undertake learning-outside-the-classroom in their local area are able to form stronger links with groups and individuals in their community. And schools that regularly undertake learning-outside-the-classroom further afield are visible within the community through the school’s branding (uniforms, logos on the school minibus, etc.)

Your school thus has the opportunity to showcase its efforts and achievements and to communicate the school values which could lead to positive media coverage, impressing Ofsted and encouraging prospective parents to send their child to your school.

Reward, motivation and to boost morale

Not every school trip has to be based around learning. Sometimes, if there is time left at the end of term and the budget permits (or parents are willing to pay for it), the school might decide to plan a school trip as a reward for the work pupils have done, or to boost morale and further motivate them to future learning.

To ignite or re-ignite a passion for a subject

Benefit two links in nicely with benefit three. Learning-outside-the-classroom can be beneficial for pupils who are new to the school as it can ignite a passion for a subject which they may not have been introduced to before.

It can also be beneficial to existing pupils to re-ignite a passion for a subject, particularly after a period of exams, for example.

Improves pupils’ understanding of the world and where they (could) fit in

Learning-outside-the-classroom can also be highly beneficial to students when it comes to deciding which career they would like to pursue. School trips enable students to experience activities and events that they don’t have the opportunity to experience in the classroom, thus giving them a better understanding of where, in society, they (could) fit in.

Trust, independence and responsibility

With learning-outside-the-classroom comes an element of trust in terms of pupils’ behaviour as many school rules aren’t applicable when pupils are outside the school’s grounds. This thus devolves increased responsibility on to your pupils and encourages increased independence, which is of course a vital life skill.

Learning-outside-the-classroom can encourage diversity

Given that the demographics of pupils in a school are representative of the demographics of the people in the local area, schools located in an area where ethnic and cultural diversity is lacking naturally find it more difficult to fulfil Ofsted’s diversity requirements.

Therefore, by undertaking regular learning-outside-the-classroom activities (depending on where your pupils go, what your pupils do, and whom your pupils encounter) the school can offer good evidence to Ofsted that your school is encouraging diversity.

To cement the learning that they have done in the classroom

This is perhaps the most beneficial outcome of learning-outside-the-classroom. And there is not just one reason, but three that we can think of, for learning-outside-the-classroom being remembered more readily by pupils than learning-inside-the-classroom.

Firstly, learning-outside-the-classroom provides real-life applications of concepts learnt in the classroom which not only provides a greater understanding of these concepts, but also highlights to pupils why what they are learning matters.

Secondly, learning-outside-the-classroom often takes on a different type of learning style, steering more towards kinaesthetic learning than visual and auditory learning – styles which are used most commonly in the classroom. This therefore gives pupils, who learn best through movements and experience, the opportunity to learn in their preferred style.

Thirdly, some learning-outside-the-classroom can provoke an emotional response from your pupils which cannot be provoked in the classroom. Connecting their learning with emotion will ensure that the information they have learnt will be remembered more readily. This type of learning-outside-the-classroom might be a visit to a WW1 memorial or to a theatre production, for example.

Of course, as school minibus leasing is our area of specialty, if your school requires a (new) school minibus in order to undertake learning-outside-the-classroom, you can go to our website, call us on 01753 859944 or email minibus@benchmarkleasing.co.uk for more information.

And to get notifications of school trip activity and location ideas and how learning-outside-the-classroom can be used to benefit your students learning and development, follow us on Twitter @MinibusLeasing or like our Facebook page – Benchmark Minibus.