School Trips Overview
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Laurel Park School provides numerous opportunities for students to take part in a wide range of educational trips and visits throughout the year. These help to enrich the curriculum and allow students to experience the world beyond the classroom.
The school has a strong commitment to the added value of learning outside the classroom, some of which takes place beyond the statutory school day and beyond the school premises.
Upcoming School Trips and Visits
We have many exciting school trips and visits ahead. If you have any questions please speak to the relevant departments and trip leaders who are organising the trip or visit concerned.
How do school trips help your child go further in school?
1. THEY INCREASE INDEPENDENCE AND CONFIDENCE
We introduce annual trips at Laurel Park from Year 7. Experiencing this independence in a safe and positive environment will boost your child’s self-confidence. Trips are essential for personal and social development, allowing new friendships to bloom and new challenges to be faced.
2. THEY TAKE YOUR CHILD OUT OF THEIR COMFORT ZONE
Experiences that take your child out of their comfort zone are essential for personal growth and developing an appetite for trying new things. “School trips enable our pupils to enjoy experiences that cannot be replicated in the classroom environment,” Adele Christofi, Headteacher, explains. “A bustling, busy city, the ambience of the large open spaces of a cathedral or the excitement and power of a live London show.”
3. THEY CONTRIBUTE TO A WIDER WORLD PERSPECTIVE
With each school trip, your child ventures into undiscovered territory and as their life experience grows, so does their perspective on the world we live in.
Our pupils enjoy trips as far afield as Winchester and Warwick, but trips nearer to home have just as much potential to teach valuable lessons. Navigating the Underground from Arnos Grove into Central London and developing confidence in the London travel network builds confidence and competence needed for adult life.
4. THEY ARE A GREAT WAY TO LEARN AND REMEMBER INFORMATION
School trips transport education to a new and exciting location. A change to the routine of a school timetable, trips are always memorable and therefore make effective learning tools. As your child thinks back on the fun they had at the Millfield Theatre, Alexandra Palace, The Snow Centre and various other places, they will be able to recall the information learned and the experiences they had outside of the classroom.
5. THEY MAKE A CLASSROOM TOPIC FEEL NEW AND EXCITING
A well-chosen trip has the power to breathe new life into a classroom topic. Activities and interactive tasks add an element of excitement to learning, which are especially effective in engaging visual or hands-on learners. Trips support and enhance the curriculum, whilst providing new perspectives and wider context for your child to think about. The GCSE Geography fieldwork trip to Epping Forest brings the theory content of the GCSE syllabus into a practical dimension, supporting students to achieve their best possible results in the subject.
6. THEY TEACH YOUR CHILD NEW SKILLS
Some lessons in life cannot be taught in class. Trips are an opportunity for your child to conquer challenges outside the classroom setting, where a different set of skills is required. The imagination to picture yourself in a different era, the map-reading skills to navigate an orienteering course or the courage to take on the high ropes!
A school trip allows your child to take risks in a controlled environment, which adds to those vital life skills that will shape them into successful adults of the future.