Well, what a year! Before we dive into the excitement of 2026, here at TripPA we wanted to take a moment to reflect on everything we’ve achieved in the last 12 months. Seeing our new school trip app being used on real trips with real teachers and students has definitely been the highlight!
Ever been on a school trip and wished you were there at a different time of year? Timing can make a huge difference. Of course, the weather is a big factor, but the season you pick will also have an impact on costs, crowds, and the overall experience. In this guide, we’ll break down the best time of year for different types of educational visits and explore why doing your school trip planning by season can make your visits smoother, safer, and more educational.
Summer term is school trip season, and if you’re a teacher, chances are you’re heading off on at least one! Many summer trips will be residentials; while these over-nighters can provide students with the most amazing memories and experiences, they can throw up some challenges too. On every residential I’ve led or assisted with, there’s always been at least one student struggling to enjoy the trip due to anxiety or homesickness. So here are some practical strategies that have worked for me, which might help you support your students too, when dealing with homesickness on school trips!
Museum and gallery visits can be some of the most enriching school trips that our students will take part in. These trips offer powerful opportunities to spark curiosity, deepen understanding and make cultural connections. But to get the most out of visits like this, it’s important to plan carefully. In this post, we’ll share our thoughts on how you can ensure your museum and gallery trips are both educationally valuable and easy to manage!
School trips offer valuable opportunities for students to learn in a hands-on, immersive environment, but there will always be moments of downtime – we’ve all had to sit on a long coach or train ride, wait unexpectedly for an activity to begin, or deal with a delayed flight. While these moments can feel like a lull in the excitement, they can also be the perfect opportunity to boost student engagement, creativity, and enjoyment.
There are so many ways AI can save teachers time when organising school trips, from language translation to creating detailed packing lists. In this TripPA Tips post, we’ll explore five ways AI can help: brainstorming and comparing destinations, personalising the itinerary based on your students’ needs, and quickly suggesting some alternatives when plans need to change at short notice! Along the way, we’ll share tried-and-tested prompts, show you how to customise them for your own needs, and give you a peek at what the output could look like from some of the most popular free AI assistants available.
As busy teachers, we are always seeking to complete tasks as efficiently as possible. However, when organising school trips, this can sometimes mean that we forget to involve pupils’ families as much as we should. Engaging parents in school trips is an important part of the educational visit planning process – after all, they are often the ones paying the bill! In this TripPA Tips post, we outline why we think engaging parents and carers is beneficial for all, and provide some useful practical advice for schools and teachers.
Educational Visits provide memorable and unique experiences for our students, and teachers and chaperones generally have a great time too! However, one of the more stressful aspects for trip leads can be managing behaviour while outside of the classroom and school setting. In this TripPA Tips post, we’re sharing some hints which have served us well as teachers and trip leads on recent visits!
School trips can be expensive! This is one of the principal reasons behind the decline of educational visits here in the UK. Here at TripPA, we are frequent trip leaders and know very well the benefits of off-site activities for children, so we have laid out some useful tips for teachers to keep those school trips budget-friendly!
Schools are facing more frequent questions from parents about the use of electronic tracking devices on educational visits in recent years. There are both risks and benefits associated with the use of electronic trackers, presenting ethical implications to schools. This TripPA post considers some of the key points which schools will want to weigh up when designing school trip policy for these devices.
