Advisory Teacher for OE and EVC
The Advisory Teacher for Educational Visits is Jan Harding. She is based at the Cricket Road Centre in Oxford.
You can contact her on educational.visits@oxfordshire.gov.uk
What does the Advisory Teacher do?
The Advisory Teacher has two main responsibilities:
- to provide advice, support and training for Educational Visit Co-ordinators (EVCs) and other group leaders who are planning and undertaking visits with children and young people.
- to manage the process by which the County Council fulfils its duty to monitor and authorise the health & safety aspects of school visits.
Advice and training
EVCs must undertake nationally agreed training and this has to be renewed every 3 years. In Oxfordshire this training is delivered by the Advisory Teacher and other members of the Outdoor Learning Service through OQSA, and details of dates of the next courses can be found on the Raising Achievement Service website.
In addition to the formal training the Advisory Teacher is contactable to answer any questions or advise on any issues connected with planning and undertaking visits and other activities outside the classroom.
Monitoring and Authorisation
Educational Visits are divided into categories depending on the level of risk involved. Category A would be a local visit such as to a park or theatre. Category B would be further away and might involve an overnight stay. Category C is any visit abroad, to a site near water, or involving adventurous activities.
In Oxfordshire Headteachers have the delegated authority to authorise the visits for categories A& B. For category C, because of the higher level of risk involved, the visit must be authorised by the Director of Children Young People & Families.
All the paperwork required can be found in Out & About 3.
In order to keep the level of paperwork to a minimum we have introduced an electronic system for authorising visits which can be used at all levels. The Advisory Teacher administers this system and provides training for schools as they transfer over from the paper based system.
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