 Ergh! I hear you cry! To be honest I feel the same way about most excursions and the food that's served. It's crap and all the staff try and sneak off for coffee or brunch at any fleeting opportunity. I've had a lot of camp food over the years and it's varied from 'I think they're trying to poison us' to 'that's really awesome!' So why is it so inconsistent between venues? Is it because it's hard to cook for so many people? Well... In a word... No! It's actually not! A lot of the time it comes down to total laziness on the part of the caterers. Once the kitchen has a look at dietary needs, that's it! They simply concoct the most average bollocks they can imagine and slop out to everyone. Since you're only there for a few days nobody seems to notice (or care)! But does this make it okay for them to do a rubbish job?  Absolutely not!!! If a venue and program want to have a great reputation for quality, they need to put just as much effort into their food as they do the safety and management of the activities they run the two shouldn't be seen as mutually exclusive. If you serve crap and kids aren't eating, this just adds to the activity risk, so don't do it! I've owned my own café and been a cook for a residential snow sports training camp in the US, so I know from experience that it's not that hard to cater for large groups with decent food. It just takes a bit of thought and effort!  Cooks need to stop using the excuse that some people don't like spice for making food taste like crap. Too many of them try to race to the bottom to cater for the minority and end up producing nothing but rubbish. This results in food being neither delicious, nor nutritious. However, my experience hasn't been all bad and I can think of three programs I've worked on, where the quality of the food was awesome! Every meal was simple, flavoursome and there was plenty of it.  So what's your point? Well, my point is don't accept mediocrity when it comes to what's served! Leading up to your excursion, as part of your planning, talk to the catering staff and see what they're going to provide. Make changes if it isn't suitable and provide some honest feedback for what's served. Failing that, leave someone else in charge of the kids and join the rest of the staff at the local Thai restaurant.
Happy eating!
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 Risk is the potential of loss or harm and it's a huge issue when taking kids away on an excursion! But when managed effectively, it means you can provide kids with some fantastic learning opportunities out in the real world! One of the most important things to remember in this litigious world, is that we should never stop taking kids out on excursions! We should just make sure we do a great job in preparation and execution.
Unfortunately when it comes to the issue of risk, most people switch off, or think that it's too hard and that it's someone else's problem. However, if you're taking kids out of school on an activity, then it's not someone else's problem... it's your responsibility! The fact is that most of it comes down to common sense. I'll be posting more on risk and managing that risk through out the year, but here's a few tips on where to get started! 1. When planning an excursion - go and actually do the activity yourself ahead of time. 2. When you do the activity look for issues or concerned based around what could cause an injury or loss of any kind. 3. Take photos of the locations and make note of any issues, or concerns you have seen. 4. Come up with a solution for removing, mitigating and managing each possible risk. It's that easy! And it doesn't matter if it's a local art gallery, or you're trekking the entire overland track! Get out there and do it! Have some fun as well! Oh and it's a work trip so get them to pay for it! So as a good starting point for managing risk on an excursion, never be in the situation where you don't know what's around the next corner. Go there! Do it! Know what to expect! Nothing makes for a better risk assessment than seeing things first hand!  Thinking back, can you remember the first time you had to deal with a real first aid emergency?
My first experience is something that's always stuck in my mind, as it was confronting and my reaction wasn't what it would be now. We were out on a night navigation exercise, ascending a spur under head torch light, when one of the students collapsed. As soon as I saw him go down, everything I learnt on my two day first aid course went out the window... I completely froze... This left me feeling overwhelmed and helpless! I wasn't sure what I should be doing. I had this sudden debilitating feeling... I can't deal with this! Thankfully I had another really experienced teacher with me, who jumped in and took charge of the situation. The day had been ragingly hot and it turned out the boy was severely dehydrated and suffering from heat stroke. It's hard to train for this sort of situation and until it actually happens, it's very hard to know what your initial reaction is going be and what it's going to feel like. It's even harder to know what to do about it. However, one important thing you can do in any situation, in the words of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is 'Don't Panic'. Take a deep breath, be calm, collected and assess the situation. Run through the DRSABCD calmly in your head and look around assessing the area as you approach. This will give you time to put your gloves on, collect your thoughts and balance out the adrenaline that your brain has just shot into your body. Don't let your body overwhelm you in this sort of situation. Calmness and common sense helps a great deal and first aid is not a solo effort, so if you can, call another teacher in to help manage the situation and provide support for the casualty whilst you wait for emergency services. Remember, most importantly, you're there stabilising and protecting your students from further harm until the ambulance arrives. After that incident I decided I should upgrade my training beyond the basic two day course and so I studied wilderness first aid. This helped develop my confidence in treating injuries and managing casualties, but still nothing focussed and developed my skills more than the experience of a student walking up to me dripping with blood from massive cuts to his chest, hands and stomach! But that's a story for another time!  What comes to mind when you think about excursions you went on as a kid? Was it the excitement of going away? Did you get to try cool new activities? Was it just fun not being at school?
Since this blog is about excursions, it should come as no surprise that getting away from the classroom formed the most exciting times I had at school. But of course my memories vary from awesome adventures, to downright boring! I’ll give you an example of each! Ok boring one first to get it out of the way! Canberra! Sorry year 6 teachers around the country, but it was a seriously boring trip! We even didn’t stop to pickup fireworks in Fischwick… So yeah… Anyway, before I get too critical, Canberra is an important trip and is something, I’m going to revisit later in the year! So now for the best trip! Maths Camp! Seriously??? Maths Camp??? Hey, before you mash that keyboard and fill my inbox with complains about our national capital… Hear me out!! Ok so maths camp was a wild ride of excitement. I was fourteen at the time, and to begin with it was lame, I mean really lame! The camp was at Lake Keepit Sport and Rec, near Tamworth. As the name suggests, there’s lots of sport and recreational activities to be had there, like archery, canoeing, grass skiing, rock climbing and sailing! Yet the maths teachers hadn’t correlated this until part way through the first day of gruelling maths sessions! Anyway, I won’t delve into that Freudian mess! They decided at the last minute.., wait… how about we do maths sessions, mixed with outdoor activities! Wow Snap! I think you’re onto something there Mr. Kepler! And so this was my first experience of trigonometry followed by sailing! In the end, what made this camp so good, was simply variety and a great balance of activities. I loved the maths sessions because they were all problem solving, which was then followed by some new and exciting outside! I have to confess though, on the same camp, I did manage to get locked out of my room several times, banned for life from a game of dungeons and dragons, mistook a girl for a boy and got handcuffed to a flag pole! At the time you don’t realise how much effort those teachers put in to making this such a success, but for me, the mix and variety of challenges turned what could’ve been a very forgettable camp into an amazing and memorable experience! |
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