School and college trip ratios are a significant part of the risk management of the trip. The school trip ratio will be impacted by the nature of the visit, the location, the makeup of the group and the level of staff competencies. You also have to mitigate against the risk that a member of staff will be unable to perform their role due to illness, family, emergency and such like.
While you will likely have specific guidance for your school or college that is written into policy, we thought we would summarise information from national guidance, acting as a simple reference point to help you in your trip planning.
Try our trip ratio calculator to easily work out how many staff you need or students you are able to take.
Decisions about the supervision required for a school or college trip should address the following key questions:
1. What is the nature and duration of the visit and the activities that are planned?
You should be prepared to increase the ratio of staff if, for instance, there are outdoor activities such as canoeing or climbing.
2. What are the location and the environment in which the activity is to take place?
You may need to guide students around a busy city. If this is the case, then you should consider increasing the number of staff.
3. What is the nature of the group, considering the age, level of development, gender, ability and needs?
The gender profile of your team of staff will need to represent the gender mix of the student group, for instance. If there are students with behavioural or emotional needs, you may want to include someone with sole responsibility for that student.
4. What is the level of staff competence?
It is common to boost staff to student ratio with student teachers due to practicalities such as cost. However, you need to consider whether these adults will have the necessary experience to deal with an emergency should it arise.
5. What is the consequence should a member of staff be indisposed, especially where there is a single leader for a group of students for a significant time?
People become ill, and people have a family crisis. Consequently, over-staffing trips, especially if the trip is residential, is a good idea. It gives you room for staff to need to leave to take care of this personal issue.
Sometimes trips are run every year. However, it is important to revisit these questions each time. It is easy to forget that the profile of the student group will change and the level of expertise in the staff. It is always best to avoid any assumptions.
There are defined numbers laid out in the national guidance. However, the documentation is clear that these are starting points, the minimum required. You may need to include more teachers and other staff to account for the particular risk profile of a group.
Here is what is laid out for school trip ratio:
- The Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework does not set a different minimum requirement for out of school as that is required on-site. The framework requires that there is a risk assessment and that the ratio should reflect the considerations in this document. They advise that the appropriate proportion is likely higher than the legal minimum.
- For children aged three and over the ratio is 1:8 or 1:13. Beyond this, in reception class and above, a rate of 1:30 is the minimum.
As you can see, there is no set requirement for a higher teacher to student ratio than would typically be the case at school. However, if the trip is abroad or in a remote location, the possibility of the trip leader becoming indisposed must be accounted for in the risk assessment. Equally, there is no requirement for children to be accompanied by a member of staff of the same gender, even on residential trips. However, again, teachers are pointed to consider the potential risks and what could be done to mitigate these risks. Teachers of different genders would likely be required to account for all possible privacy, safeguarding, and pastoral support required.
The national guidelines suggest employing the SAGE framework when assessment requirements for school or college trip ratios: Staffing, Activities, Group Characteristics, Environment. If you have addressed these questions in your risk assessment, then you can apply the suitable proportions, which mean you are more than likely going to need more staff than in school. How many more team members you need, and their qualifications, is left to your professional judgement. It makes sense to leave it open, as the possible differences between contexts make a generalised and standardised ratio unhelpful.
The best advice, especially for residential trips is to over-ratio at the start of the journey. Also, teachers should be made aware of the school policy has specific information for minimum safety levels that should be applied no matter the trip.