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Remote area mountaincraft and exploration-special leadership and management skills are needed here
The aim of this site is to place in the public domain research and studies undertaken primarily by me, but with input from some Hunter Instructors, since 2001 - which has included school visits' accidents, accident prevention, causes of accidents, new school visits procedures, legislation, international developments, and a visits accident register.
The main content of the site will be
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The background to educational visits leadership.
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The historical perspective to safety on school and youth group visits.
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Educational Visits Co-ordinators roles within schools.
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Risk Assessments - value, compilation, and examples.
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EVNAR school and youth org. visits accident register from 1970 onwards.
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Advice on wilderness medical aid
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Information, comments, courses, and findings relating to Search & Rescue
RAF Survival Training :Instructing Course ASC 1704 Sea King Conversion Course off the coast of southern Cornwall ©BJH
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Introduction
An extract from The Geographical Magazine Vol.II No.4 Feb. 1936.
'Public Schoolboys in Newfoundland'
by Sgn. Commander G. Murray Levick RN.
"After a moderately good crossing from Liverpool we got to St. John's on the 8th. We reached our railhead, Gleneagles, on the evening of the 9th after nine hours journey in a special train of our own. This was good fun, but next time the members will not be allowed to stroll from end to end of the train on the tops of the carriages (whilst the train was in motion). As it was, there were no mishaps."
Hopefully we have a come long way in our planning, supervision, and good practice since 1936 but one look at the accident statistics will indicate that this hoped for good practice is common but still not universal. Accidents, being what they are - the occurrence of an unforeseen and unavoidable conjunction of individually negative and destructive situations - rarely happen; however my research indicates that the vast majority of 'occurrences' 96.4%** - in which young people have been injured or put in danger thus increasing the likelihood of danger - were avoidable if prior steps had been taken. These prior steps need discussion.
**Unavoidable situations have been recorded in the Educational Visits National Accident Register (EVNAR) as rockfalls, and bad weather which was not forecast; I have gone back over 34 years of forecasts as provided by the BBC; and un-diagnosed medical conditions which resulted in physical injury or death for which leaders / supervisors were found by Rescue Teams, Police, or Coroners Court not to have been to blame.
The EVNAR covers the period January 1970 to August 2004. It documents 160 occurrences where schools children, members of youth organisations, or uniformed organisations have been killed, injured or placed in danger. See above and section headed EVNAR. 44 young people have been killed in that period, 12 since January 2000.
Fording...one of 27 rivers forded en route back out of Thorsmork southern Iceland
The Background to Educational Visits Leadership
Children enjoy being away from the confines of the desk, and whether they're just off-site for 40 minutes of a lesson doing an ecosystems study of a local wood, or cross-country skiing through Norway in winter, they invariably comment on it; ask yourself about your memories of school and I'll wager 'the school trip' will figure large in your memory.
So these visits are very powerful tools to use in education. We must honour childrens' faith in the system which allows them out of school to provide not only a meaningful and gainful experience but also to manage them and their outdoor programme in such a way that they have what I (clumsily!) call 'an outdoor return' ie they'll want to come back for more and more.
I have to confess that my interest in being a part of off-site visits started at infants school when we did 'nature walks' and it led onto bigger but not necesarily better things; I hope to inspire my charges in the way that Miss Cavanagh used to in 1956. Thus part of our repertoire has be 'inspiration'.
We have lost our inspirers. Where are those that motivate you to 'get out and do it'? Did your teachers drag you up the hill on the geography field course? Did you hate every minute of it? No humour, no understanding - and probably the only reason he was doing this route was because he wanted to do it and thought little about his impact on you.
We have lost our struggle. What gives you such a hard time that you come out better at the end? A well prepared and challenging outdoor pursuits course will. Struggle is not the reason for the challenge - but it is a life honing process which many (most?) young (and old?) people have failed to face up to.
I was leading The British Snaefellsjokull Expedition in 1982 mountain walking / scrambling the length of the Snaefellsnes peninsula in western Iceland ultimately to do an ascent of the central tower of the jokull on the volcano - and remember saying to myself near the Frodaheidi col - I will never, never, ever do this again. But.......!
I've often wondered how many potential quality exponents of outdoor leadership have never appeared on the scene because they have been either scared of going for the qualifications, or have thought that they must have a piece of paper before they showed any ability to lead.
In the 1960s I remember a 'Great Debate' about 'Paper Tigers' - young men (predominantly!) who got, for example, their ML very early on in life - had little or no real experience to back it up - and failed their clients, failed the industry, such as it was then, and ultimately failed to keep safe, creating media speculation about 'killer mountains' and 'the most unsafe sport in the UK.'
Virtually no teachers had anything like the ML - there was no BELA equivalent - but the advent of Countys developing their own outdoor centres was just beginning, and cities - such as Birmingham - had places starting up such as Ogwen Cottage. Good practice ensued, but the teachers were beginning to be left high and dry; not all school visits were in mountains; and this was at the centre of the problem.
A teacher did not have to have a qualification to lead (there still isn't one). If the geography teacher from the local secondary school wanted to take a group to a youth hostel to do some 'O' level fieldwork, there was no County check, and each school ran a different set of criteria; parents put their faith in the teacher who had a set of guidelines which amounted to just one side of foolscap paper. In fact an original copy sat in my office for many years alongside the 102-page modern equivalent from the County Council.
School visit tragedies and disasters always, and naturally, create questions about cause; however for decades that was simply the only outcome - just a recognition of a cause, with little done to act in the name of prevention for the future - National Governing Bodies, education authorities, and outdoor education organisations wrung their hands, albeit sympathetically, but then carried on and almost waited for the 'next one' - the next school / youth group visit death or serious injury. It did of course happen with frightening regularity.
Ironically these accidents and deaths have NOT diminished since government legislation has been put in place. Certainly the regulation of, inspection, and practices of outdoor centres have changed since the mid '90s but accidents and deaths continue to occur - some would say alarming frequently - in the youth organisations and to some extent in school visits.
The disaster which was the catalyst to changing law, practice and public perception of safety in the outdoor industry, where young people are concerned, was The Lyme Bay canoeing tragedy of March 22nd 1993. Four teenagers lost their lives when sea canoeing out of the St. Albans OEC. The Manager, Instructors, and Coastguard were all criticised in the follow-up by the judiciary, and other agencies.
Emanating from this came a voluntary Code of Practice from the 'Activity Centres Advisory Committee' (ACAC) - published in 1994, and 'The Activity Centres (Young Persons' Safety) Act 1995. The Health & Safety Commission was responsible for creating proposals for a licensing scheme resulting in a consultation document in 1995 to licence adventure activities for young people under 18. Regulations to Licence were put before Parliament in March 1996 and took effect the following month. The Adventure Activities Licensing Authority was given the contract to inspect activity providers, which came into practice in the autumn of 1996.
The Educational Visits
National Accident Register
There has been no national log kept of the many school and youth group visit accidents over the years. Since 2003 I have trawled through every County Council archive (where allowed), every Mountain and Fell Rescue Team archive - many thanks to each and every MRT for freely giving up time and allowing me access, and been in contact with County Constabularies and NHS Ambulance Trusts around the UK. The Register is still growing; thus what you read here is not exhaustive, and still needs more detail from the 70's and early 80's. However a start has been made.
For those of you who wish to criticise I ask that unless you have constructive suggestions to make - and that you are willing to contribute to the Register with evidence backed up by references, then please think twice before contacting me. Information via the blog is welcome, or via the Hunter email address.
The Register cannot be produced here in full; my aim is to eventually have a link to the whole list (71 pages at present). However the statistics are interesting - and some broad conclusions can already be made.
Table 1. Causes of Accidents: School & Youth Organisation Outdoor Pursuits Visits, Trips, Expeditions 1970 - Aug. 2004 © B.J.Howard EVNAR
| Cause | No. of Incidents | % of total | Rank order |
|
A |
23 |
14.3 |
2 |
|
B |
12 |
7.5 |
5 |
|
C |
3 |
1.87 |
8 |
|
D |
13 |
8.12 |
4 |
|
E |
12 |
7.5 |
5 |
|
F |
46 |
28.7 |
1 |
|
G1 |
5 |
3.1 |
7 |
|
G2 |
18 |
11.25 |
3 |
|
H |
18 |
11.25 |
3 |
|
I |
7 |
4.3 |
6 |
Key to Causes
A: Weather eg. wind speed / blizzard / cold = hypothermia
B: Timing ie. resulting in being overdue
C: Environmental eg. rockfall
D: Misadventure: eg. toboganning. this category inc. drowning.
E: Poor Adult Leadership
F: Terrain negotiation: eg. lost footing
G1: Known Medical Condition eg. asthma / epilepsy
G2: Created Medical Condition eg. hyperventilation
H: Navigation errors
Notes:
1. Total number of occurrences recorded with evidence and references: 160
2. Deaths per decade:
1970s: 13 deaths
1980s: 10 deaths
1990s: 9 deaths
2000-Aug 2004: 12 deaths
3. The statistics cover UK based organisations and UK led visits and expeditions. Thus some occurrences are abroad with UK staff.
4. Of all the occurrences where injuries occurred they have been divided into
Serious:eg.head, spine, multiples, major bleeding, and
major fractures:
8.1% of the total resulted in serious injuries
'Light': eg. sprains, minor fractures, minor bleeds.
20% of the total resulted in minor injuries
Additions to this snapshot of the EVNAR will appear on this web-site in the near future together with examples of questionable leader practice.
Barry Howard has been mountaineering and hillwalking since his teens in the 1960's, leading his first educational visit in 1973; he qualified as a teacher in 1975. In 30 years he has led over 175 residentials and expeditions and in excess of 2,500 day courses. In 2002 he was awarded the Silver Medallion of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust for Research in Safety on Adventure Training & Schools' Educational Visits. Research into safety has incorporated geography field studies with The Geographical Association since 1986, the Norwegian Red Cross, and currently includes being a Tutor in First Aid and Safety at Southend Adult Community College.
He holds ML (Summer), Winter ML (Training); QSI, and BELA Ext. Verifier, B.Ed. [Hons.] Chartered Geographer (CGeog [Econ]), and FRGS qualifications and status.
Barry Howard is First Aid qualified (HSE FAW) AED operator qualified, and a Remote Area / Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician instructing with Hunter Medics; he is an Associate of the British Paramedic Association, and a member of BASICS.
For a full biography go to www.hunteroutdoortraining.com or www.bjhexpeditions.zoomshare.com
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Educational Visits Co-ordinators [EVCs]
Roles within Schools.
(This section for school Leadership Teams)
The role of the EVC:
1. There has to be one person on the staff appointed as EVC. This could be the Headteacher or a teacher on the staff. The EVC must be appointed and formally recognised.¹
2. The EVC role cannot be undertaken by Committee.*
3. The EVC should be specifically competent eg to undertake assessments of a school's outdoor education and Duke of Edinburgh's Award programme.²
4. The EVC's evidence of competence may be through qualification and/or experience of practical leadership over many years of outdoor education.³
5. The EVC may assume the role of Technical Adviser.*
6. The EVC has to assess others capactity to lead on the basis of his/her experience.*
7. The school must make safety judgements 'soundly based on enlightened experience which takes time to accumulate, and the EVC in particular must have a high level of competency, [being] able to make judgements in the light of experience.*
[[ ¹ p.7 in 'Standards for LEAs Overseeing Educational Visits' ]]
[[ ² p.8 parag 7 in 'Standards...' ]]
[[ ³ p.8 parag 8 in 'Standards...' ]]
* Further notes verbatim from 'Standards...'