Most people reading this article will have been impacted by the unique challenges and circumstances that are precluding our children from experiencing the life changing and interactive moments that camps, carnivals and excursions offer children during their formative years. This, in turn, has affected the operations and environment of schools as excursions that help to engage, empower, moderate, calm and inspire children have been put on hold. Schools have had to deal with the challenges of students having excess energy, increased anxiety and socialisation issues and disappointment, without access to events, experiences and activities that help to moderate these challenges. Thankfully, schools are places of hope and optimism, so while these types of events are on hold, we remain confident that our new reality is not going to be forever.
My Excursion Experience
My name is Jamie Bobrowski and I was the Director of Governance Risk and Compliance at a large Catholic boys’ school in Victoria for 12 years. During my time at that school, I planned and conducted (and then reviewed) over 100 outdoor education camps to rugged and remote locations including Mt. Stirling, the Great Ocean Road, the Grampians and the Otways. I also led six international tours to Kokoda, the USA and New Zealand. My practices and approach at the school were greatly informed by my rich experiences as a policeman, a role I held with great pride for over 11 years. These experiences confirmed that there is a ‘front line’ in both these roles and that the risks in both roles can only be mitigated and managed by extensive planning, preparation and execution. I have experienced first-hand what happens when camps, events and excursions go wrong, both as a school leader and policeman.
My experiences have ideally prepared me for my current role with CompliSpace, where I am working with schools across Australia in relation to meeting their risk and compliance obligations, particularly in the area of excursions, carnivals and camps.
Recent Questions from Schools Prompted this Article
In the last few weeks, I have fielded so many questions from schools about what they should be doing during this period of uncertainty, highlighted by a cessation of activity. To assist schools, I have written this article to share my experience and recommendations for teachers and educational leaders about excursion and camp planning during second semester 2020.
This article explores why now is the perfect time to review how you manage excursion risk and also sets out a methodology for how I approach excursion risk. The second article will explore specific things that schools can be doing now, including insights from schools that are being proactive with their planning now.
Why Now is the Perfect Time to Review Excursion Risk
Experience has brought home to me the devastating consequences of when things go wrong on camps and excursions and the ensuing trauma that envelopes families, students, staff, and the wider school community when tragedy strikes. I vividly remember how my insides curled up when, as a member of the Victoria Police, I had to deliver a parent the most devasting news that their child had died due to unfortunate circumstances while on camp. The instant fear and horror that the mother conveyed even before I opened my mouth still haunts me and ensures that memories of that day will never leave me.
My belief is that the COVID-19 pandemic has also made most of us more aware of risk generally as, as a country and across our communities, we have had to face a risk that almost all of us hadn’t really anticipated. We are now more conscious of the fact that things can and do go wrong.
From my experiences in school leadership and community safety as a police officer, I’ve learned that the common denominator in relation to the task of keeping people safe is preparation, planning and training.
Whether in the streets of Melbourne’s CBD or hiking Kokoda or the Victorian High Country, both generally-accepted research and my own personal experience highlight that incidents that compromise student safety and wellbeing can for the most part be avoided by good simple planning measures. This can range from strategic decisions to select appropriately trained staff for the camp or excursion, the sourcing of appropriately stocked first aid kits or by ensuring that all attending staff have been briefed on the students in their care with high risk medical or behavioural issues. Sadly, experience also tells me that, for some schools, tragedy is really only avoided by luck. In time this may well run out, leaving students exposed to all manner of risks.
It is now, while excursions and events are on hold, that schools have a unique opportunity to address their risk mitigation systems and, in so doing, start to cultivate a risk management culture based on planning, attention to detail, strategy, policy and procedure rather than luck and good fortune!
With excursions on hold, teachers and/or compliance officers, who would usually be spending lots of time managing the excursion process for current excursions, can instead make the most of the absence of those excursions and commence the process of properly planning for next year’s annual scheduled camps and excursions such as the Year 7 induction camps, swimming and sports carnivals, retreats and immersions.
What are Some Questions for Schools to Ask when Thinking About Excursion Planning?
Schools can also use this time when excursions are not taking place to stop and think about the management of excursion risk.
My fallback position for ‘everything risk’ whether on the frontline in a community or leading a school group is the HIARC methodology. This simple and effective tool that I learnt from my policing frontline management days reminds me to ask three questions:
- HI (HAZARD IDENTIFICATION) -Have I identified all the potential hazards? How can I mitigate these hazards? This is where we can start to reflect on previous excursions and staff debrief notes and incident registers, discuss the events with past leaders of the experiences and gain a better understanding of the ‘what if’. What previous incidents or injuries have occurred on these activities, were staff qualified, was the campsite safe? Have we recently conducted a campsite inspection and taken photos for staff briefings? Ultimately have we asked ourselves “What else could go wrong?” NOTE: a recent poll of 400 non-government schools during excursion risk management webinars revealed that 82 per cent of schools do not have an excursion de-brief process.
- AR (ASSESS THE RISKS) – Risk Assessments are an ongoing process that schools needs to regularly review and consider. After asking “What could go wrong?” the next simple question might be “Why could things go wrong?”. Refer to the school risk library. Are the school policies effective in providing staff with clear and accurate guidance? Determine the school’s risk appetite and whether the risks are appropriate for the excursion/camp/carnival objectives and/or the school curriculum.
- C (CONTROLS) – Have suitable controls been introduced? How can I minimise, reduce or eliminate the likelihood of an incident occurring and do I have contingencies? Are my staff appropriately trained? Recent polls conducted with over 400 schools during excursion risk management webinars revealed that 88 per cent of schools don’t train staff on excursion risk management.
Conclusion
The absence of excursions during the COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced to schools and their communities how wonderful opportunities to attend excursions and camps are.
Schools nevertheless need to make sure that they fully understand the risks involved in taking students on excursions and camps.
Without proper excursion management, the absence of incidents and injuries is down to luck.
Schools can use this time to ensure that they are fully prepared to launch into excursions, carnivals and camps again when life gets back to ‘normal’ and when students and teachers can experience these things again.
In the next article, (Part 2), I will explore specific things that schools can be doing now, including sharing insights from schools that are being proactive with their excursion planning and risk management.
I welcome any questions or feedback. Click here to contact us.
Resources to Help you with Excursion Risk
Professional Development Webinar Course - coming soon
CompliSpace recently presented a series of webinars on excursion risk management. One of these is being converted into an online professional learning course that will be made available – at no cost – via Jamie’s next article.
Excursion Risk Management Solutions
For years, schools across Australia have requested help with excursion risk management because excursions are one of the riskiest services that schools provide. CompliSpace has worked with schools to deliver an excursion risk management tool that works with any excursion planning process. If you’d like your school’s excursion risk assessments to be correct, complete and consistent, and to help your teachers feel confident that they’ve considered every aspect of excursion risk, click here to learn more about providing simply safer excursions.
