Student feedback for school travel operators

Most school travel operators ask the lead teacher to fill in a feedback form after a trip. The teacher sees the logistics; the students experienced the trip. This guide covers what to ask students, when to ask, and how schools and the LOtC Quality Badge use what they say.

What to ask

Ask about delivery, the part of the trip the operator controls. Enrichmark asks students about eight parts of it: preparation, novelty, challenge, autonomy, educator, reflection, group and transitions. Each is a short question on a four-point scale.

Ask the same questions on every trip. A rating means little alone; it means a great deal next to the same rating on last term's trip, or on the same itinerary with a different school.

When to ask

Just after students return, within a few days. Memory of the delivery fades fast, and answers given on the coach home are coloured by tiredness and the last day. Enrichmark asks three days after return.

How schools use it

The Department for Education's Enrichment Framework asks each school in England to have “clear and proportionate processes for feedback and review of work with external partners” (indicator 6.2), and to gather feedback from pupils and partners and act on it (benchmark 8). An operator who brings students' feedback on delivery to the conversation gives the school what it needs for both.

The LOtC Quality Badge

The fourth quality indicator of the LOtC Quality Badge reads “The provider reviews the experience and acts upon feedback”. Its detail asks providers to gather feedback from users on “whether what was agreed at the planning stage was delivered and learning objectives met”, and to change practice as a result. Students' ratings, collected the same way on every trip, are evidence of both. The Council for Learning Outside the Classroom says its indicators are under review, so check the current wording when you renew.

Keep it fair

Report a trip's ratings only when at least ten students answered. Never show one student's answers. On Enrichmark an operator sees how each trip was delivered, and does not see any school's report on what changed for its students.