Teacher: Child Ration On A Local Walk

[Guest]

Hi, I have a class of 30 reception children and we are going on a walk in our local area to the firestation. How many adults do I need to take with me?

Thanks

[Beau]

Mel, there is nothing written down in terms of ratios. Obviously you would still need to cover your usual ratios but the onus is on you to do a risk assessment and make a judgement call on what you think would be reasonable. Bear in mind that if there was an incident where a child was hurt you would be asked to justify the ratios you decided upon.

 

Think about the types of roads you will need to walk along (density and speed of traffic, numbers of other pedestrians around), are there any roads to cross, what are the pavements like and the specific children in the class. Some children are more 'reliable' than others and you will need to take this into account.

[mundia]

Hi mel g

You may find that your LA has set an expected ratio for children even though as beau said there is no legal ratio on trips. Ours was set at 5:1 for reception and we always set this as our absolute minimum.

[Guest]

We have a ratio of 1:6 when we go on our local area walk.

[KST]

On our school trip for reception we have a ratio of 1 to 4. But for a local walk maybe your risk assessment will help you decide, depending on types of roads or what your children are like.