Residential and Overseas Trip Risk Assessment
Starter risk assessments for a residential or an overseas visit, with night-time supervision, medicines over several days, food allergies, homesickness and travel advice already covered. Choose "Overseas visit" in the template list for trips abroad.
Starting points – Check every row against your school's policy and the venue's own risk assessment, and add what is specific to your group.
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This supports, but does not replace, your school's or employer's policy. The visit leader, EVC or head teacher must check and approve it.
What's different about a residential?
A residential has everything a day trip has, plus the night. Your assessment needs to show how pupils are supervised when they're asleep, how medicines are given over several days, how food allergies are handled at every meal, and how you'll manage if one pupil has to go home while the rest stay. Residentials almost always need written parental consent and approval from your head (and sometimes governors or the local authority), so start early.
Before
- Ask the EVC: residentials often need approval months ahead
- Choose a centre and ask for its risk assessments and any licences
- Hold a parents' meeting: kit list, medicines, contact with home, rules
- Collect consent and up-to-date medical information through the school office
- Plan rooms, a night duty rota and who leads pastoral care
- Agree how medicines are handed over, stored, given and recorded
- Check insurance with the school office
On the day
- Walk the fire exits on the first evening
- Head counts at every meal and activity
- Duty member of staff keeps the room list and phone
- Visit leader decides on changes to the plan
Afterwards
- Record any incidents; return unused medicines to parents
- Debrief staff and update the plan
Overseas visits
Pick "Overseas visit" in the template list. As well as the residential hazards, check the FCDO foreign travel advice when you book and again just before you travel, make sure passports and any visas are sorted early, and confirm the tour operator's 24-hour emergency line and the school's own emergency contact back home. DfE advice expects a higher level of risk assessment for visits abroad.
Staffing and ratios
Plan enough adults for the night as well as the day, with a mix that matches the group (for example, male and female staff for a mixed group). Build in a contingency: if one adult goes to hospital with a pupil, can the rest of the group still be supervised safely? Your school's policy and the centre will have guidance on numbers.
What to hand your EVC or head for sign-off
- This risk assessment (printed, PDF or Word).
- The itinerary with times, the venue's address and the transport booking.
- Staff and adult list with the ratio, and who is the visit leader and deputy.
- A copy of the letter home (and consent form, if this visit needs one).
- How medical needs are covered: the number of pupils with healthcare plans and who carries the medicines (no names on the form itself).
- The venue's or provider's own risk assessment, and its licence if the activity needs one.
Keep pupils' details out of it
Write "Pupil A" or initials, and say where the confidential plan is kept ("held by the visit leader"). Names, medical details and contact numbers belong in the school's own system, not in a risk assessment that gets printed, emailed and left on a coach seat. Everything you type here stays in this browser.
Sources and further reading
- DfE: Health and safety on educational visits
- HSE: School trips and outdoor learning activities – tackling the health and safety myths
- OEAP National Guidance (oeapng.info)
- DfE: Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions
- FCDO foreign travel advice
We link to these so you can read the original guidance; we haven't copied it. Check for updates, and follow your school's or local authority's own policy where it says more.
Questions teachers ask
Do residential trips need written consent?
Yes, schools normally ask for written consent for residential visits, along with up-to-date medical and dietary information collected through the school office.
Who gives medicines on a residential trip?
An agreed member of staff, following the pupil's healthcare plan and the school's medicines policy. Medicines should come in their original packaging with instructions, and each dose should be recorded.
What extra checks are needed for a trip abroad?
FCDO travel advice when booking and before departure, passports and visas, insurance and healthcare cover, the tour operator's safety arrangements, and an emergency contact in the UK available day and night.