Awaiting to hear when schools can travel: it feels personal….
March 15, 2021
Having written a recent blog post suggesting we needn’t beware the Ides of March, it turns out that the decision on schools’ travel has been postponed today until the 22nd. The immoveable Tim Farron MP has once again called the government out on yet another glaring omission regarding outdoor learning and school trips. It’s beginning to feel personal. As pubs and nightclubs receive financial support, we are left to assume that UK children (and their mental health, their access to challenging, new and outdoor environments) are playing second fiddle to alcohol, late-night partying and entertainment. We know that children can’t vote, but this is an extreme and distasteful bread and circuses moment.
And what a circus it’s been. Covid-19 turned Brexit into the dead-donkey that every news outlet dropped. BJ might have been delighting in getting off the hook when the catastrophic, pandemic penny finally dropped. The outdoor and school travel sector is the forgotten country, the poor relation, the dog left howling for scraps while fat cats in London award contracts without due scrutiny. The school travel industry has been a loyal servant, operating on low margins with great outcomes and now needs to be brought in from the Covid-cold by a Department for Education willing to put children and those who support their education, inspiration and encouragement before the interests of its masters. Gavin Williamson needs to fight for children, for education providers of every size - and then, perhaps, his job.
The safety argument has been put to bed for a long time. If it’s really about safety then let’s compare: children are safer in the unbroken bubble of an outdoor education centre than in the daily bubble-smash of going home from school each day. Sleeping in shared rooms with members of that unbroken bubble is precisely how international sports teams on tour remain in the game – and “safer” than coming home from work, from school, from anywhere as a family might do. So what is the hold up? What’s the fear? Answers on a postcard please.
As such, our representative body, UK Outdoors, sent an open letter to Boris Johnson last week to push hard on deciding when schools could travel.
Currently we’re only taking bookings from French children looking to do English as a Foreign Language with us over the summer. This is positive but underscores the uncertainty surrounding travel and the potential implications of Brexit. What if UK schools are allowed to travel but a centre in France can’t open? How do we ensure that ferries full of schools visiting France (armed with twice-jabbed teachers) aren’t scuppered by potential French regulations imposed after a fragmented Gallic approach to lockdown and vaccination?
The truth is that uncertainty is just that: uncertain. Yet we don’t address it with inaction. We hope to hear about insurance options soon and we know that France wants our pounds entering their coffers, so all we can do is encourage schools to book trips to France and to have confidence that, in the background, some sensible protection and legislation will emerge.
We at the Château are ready for schools to begin travelling here in September – and we are encouraged now we are starting to receive enquiries for then and 2022. Perhaps we’ll hear from you as well!