School Trip Risk Assessment Template for Teachers

Louise Petty

September 29, 2016

3 min read

A risk assessment is simply a careful examination of what has the potential to cause harm so you can identify what needs to be done to prevent it. A thorough school trip risk assessment helps you to comply with health and safety law and ensures that your school activities are carefully planned and the risks are adequately controlled.

This means considering things like how many children will be present, the transport arrangements, the safety of the venue and the activities the children will be doing.

Of course not all the risks can be eliminated completely: a risk assessment simply helps you to ensure children aren’t unnecessarily exposed to things that could cause them harm and proves you’ve done all that you can to keep them safe.

The Health and Safety Executive advises that you take a common sense and proportionate approach to risk assessment.

The main steps of a school trip risk assessment:

Identify the significant hazards – you don’t need to consider absolutely everything that could go wrong, only the hazards over which you have some control. For example, food safety, slips and trips, getting lost and unsafe equipment. Keep in mind that the nature of the school trip will influence the hazards you may encounter: not all school trips will carry the same risks and some will be more high risk than others.

Specify who may be harmed by each hazard – this may be the whole group of children and adults, only the children or only specific children. Pay particular attention to children with physical and/or learning disabilities who may be more at risk from harm.

Evaluate the likelihood of the risks and decide on suitable precautions – use the risk assessment to rate each hazard by how likely it is to occur, from remote through to very likely. This will help you to determine how you will act to minimise the risks.

Record your findings – it’s important that you keep a copy of your completed risk assessment form. This helps you to comply with health and safety law and acts as evidence of your diligence should anything go wrong.

Review the assessment and update it if anything has changed – before the school trip, read through your completed risk assessment and check that all potential hazards have been covered. Update the assessment if anything has been missed or if the circumstances have changed, such as a new activity, a different mode of transport or the addition of more children.

Download our blank template and fill it out in advance of each school trip you have planned and don’t forget to review it before you set off.