Trips can have important educational benefits

The annual conference of the NASUWT classroom union said that if teachers did choose to go on trips they should be "facilitators" - not leaders.

At least one child has died on a school trip each year for the last decade and there had been 7,000 "near misses" in the last three years alone, the conference heard.

Newly-revised Department for Education guidelines say schools should have a member of staff trained as a "visits co-ordinator" - but the NASUWT has told its members not to volunteer.

Philippa Weightman, a member of the union's executive, complained at the news media's tendency to focus on "the mercifully few tragedies, not on the trips that are successful".

"The headlines scream out, 'Scandal of kids on school trips', announcing the latest incident and, almost with glee, adding the fact that nearly two out of three teachers taking school trips have received virtually no recognised health and safety training and no training in risk assessment."

'Blame the teacher'

People seemed to expect that every circumstance could be foreseen.

"No amount of legislation or form-filling will alter the fact that youngsters will do daft things if you take your eye off them for one second during the 24 hours you are on duty - and you are on duty 24 hours a day."

Leeds delegate Bernard Simpson said: "If something goes wrong, someone must be blamed and of course that someone is a teacher."

The resolution was adopted on the 10th anniversary of the Lyme Bay canoeing tragedy in which four children from a school in Plymouth drowned.

They were on a trip organised by an outdoor activities centre, whose owner was later jailed for manslaughter.

Thomas Healy, an NASUWT official from Plymouth, said he had attended the funerals of the four victims.

"I love taking school trips but you have to be realistic," he said.

"There are those out there who will go over with a fine-tooth comb whether or not you observed every dot and every comma of every line of guidance.

"They will have your guts if you are judged to be in any way deficient."