Driffield School and Sixth Form has a strong commitment to the values of learning beyond the school day and beyond the classroom through carefully planned and managed educational visits.
This is part of the school’s commitment to providing a broad and balanced curriculum that offers spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development which prepares young people for the opportunities and experiences of adult life.
Visits and off-site activities support, enrich and extend the curriculum in many subject areas; encourage co-operation, team work and the application of problem-solving skills, and develop independence and self-confidence. Residential opportunities, physical challenge and adventure can play a particular part in the development of personal and social qualities for all young people.
Educational visits co-ordinator Elaine Collinson said: “Each year staff organise a wide range of educational trips and visits both in the UK and abroad. The PE department arranges many away sports fixtures, including a netball tour to Spain, and most departments in school offer trips to support their area of the curriculum.
“There are also opportunities for students to join visits designed to provide wider opportunities such as the annual skiing trip, reward visits organised by the House teams and World Challenge.
“In addition, there are many visits each year to Spiers Bank House, the school’s outdoor field centre.
“Situated in the North York Moors National Park, a short distance from Pickering, the centre stands in three acres of land and is an attractive, warm, stone-built property consisting of a main building, a cookhouse and a bunk house. Being out of range of television and mobile phone signals, the centre offers a peaceful and undisturbed working environment which contributes towards the personal and social development of students and where teachers can further develop the special relationship they have with their students.
“In 2014/15 staff organised 108 educational visits organised and we are on course to deliver a similar number in this school year.”