How often do you take your class on school trips?

Have you noticed any lasting educational improvements when you have?

According to new research, school trips to the zoo, geological sites and local castles allow children struggling with writing to make significant progress with the quality of their written work.

The results published by the Education Endowment Foundation show pupils taken on memorable day trips followed by sessions that asked them to recount the events of the outing made nine months more progress than would be expected over a year.

Improving Writing Quality was a project that twinned exciting trips and experiences with structured writing lessons in which pupils were encouraged to plan, evaluate and monitor their own work with a teacher.  

Rachel Adams, director of literacy and numeracy at Halifax High School in West Yorkshire, which took part in the scheme, said: "We were so impressed that we have rolled it out across key stage 3 and into key stage 4 for those pupils who are predicted to get a GCSE grade C or below.

"It has just been brilliant. The mark scheme is very clear to them – they get three marks if they do this or two marks if they do that – it really appeals to boys especially, it makes it into a competition – not against each other, but against themselves."

Ken Inwood, director of the Calderdale Excellence Partnership which ran the project, explained the scheme had been informed by a learning approach called Self-Regulated Strategy Development. A specialist trainer initially worked alongside teachers to develop the plan.

As somebody looking for an Darryl Mydat