It’s a special category at the annual School Travel Awards which shines a spotlight on an exceptional school trip and provides an opportunity for schools to win £2,000 towards a future adventure.

The ‘My Best School Trip’ Award recognises outstanding educational visits, because great learning outside the classroom gives children a rich and rewarding experience, achieves a range of objectives and helps embed learning back in school.

It’s what this award is all about and it’s open to teachers and educational visits coordinators (EVCs) of Key Stage 1 to 4.

The 2024 finalists are…

There is a mix of day trips, residentials and overseas trips, and this year’s finalists are schools that have created visits and experiences that are brilliant, powerful and exciting. 

Read about them here.

Entries are sent in by schools from across the UK, which are then shortlisted and assessed by our judging panel who choose a set of finalists and an overall winner.

The winning school receives a prize of £2,000 to spend on an educational visit for their students. 

All finalists are invited to the annual School Travel Awards lunch and ceremony. This year’s event takes place on Friday 29th November, 2024 at the five-star Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.

Thank you to our 2024 judges who were: 

  • Peter Carne, OBE, Learning Outside the Classroom (LOtC) Manifesto Champion
  • Gill Harvey, CEO, School Travel Forum
  • Keeley Rodgers, editor, School Travel Organiser
  • Andrew Taylor, LOtC quality badge advisor, Council for Learning Outside the Classroom
  • Rob Yandell, publisher, School Travel Organiser

School trip

Students can get involved with entries because we ask for pupil reviews of the particular visit you’re submitting. 

Things to think about when entering your trip for the 2025 ‘My Best School Trip’ Award

If you’ve run a successful school trip, we’d love you to enter it into this special award next time.

When entering, we will ask you to..

  • Tell us why you decided to take the trip and how it was planned.
  • Explain how the trip linked to the relevant topic(s) and curriculum.
  • Tell us what consideration you gave to inclusivity and affordability.
  • Describe how the learning was embedded once back in school.
  • Share details about the learning objectives for the trip and how were they measured. 
  • Provide some pictures of students taking part in activities on the trip.

Open the form to leave your details and we’ll let you know when entries open again.

 

The 2023 winning school was…

Langdale CE Primary School in Ambleside, Cumbria, won the 2023 award for its KS1-2 Our Place in Space trip to Liverpool.

Headteacher, Rachel Underwood, told us: “To say we were shocked that we were chosen as the winners is an understatement and it was certainly a very proud moment for our school community.

“When completing the application for this award, I found myself smiling and thinking wow, we really did embrace so many dynamic learning opportunities throughout the day. This is something which could never have been planned for or replicated within the classroom environment.”

'My Best School Trip' Award winners 2023

Langdale CE Primary School in Cumbria won the 2023 ’My Best School Trip’ Award. Here they are collecting the award from partner Go Ape and presenter Katharine Merry.

If you have questions about this awards, or any others, and would like to get in touch, please telephone our editorial team on 01908 613323 or send us an email to awards@schooltravelorganiser.com and we will do our very best to help.

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