“Wow, that’s brave” is the most common reaction our Prep team received when sharing they were taking 100 Prep students on an excursion to the Museum, 20 minutes away. Whilst it may feel unimaginable to some, the authentic, real-world learning experiences and connections to self it provided was beyond anything we could replicate in the classroom. Excursions in early education are less prevalent compared to the upper years, but the resounding and enduring academic, social, emotional and cognitive learnings that result highlight the invaluable benefits of this experience and the importance of teachers providing the opportunity for their students to consolidate their curriculum in new and unfamiliar environments. The benefits, including acquisition of life skills, opportunities for personal and character growth, and consolidation and expansion of students' perceptions of both the world and their place within it, will be further explored in this article, in the hopes of inspiring you to take your early years class on an excursion. And whilst it may require some bravery, with planning, preparation and the right support in place, you may find that you have the most fun, while teaching your students some invaluable lessons and creating life-long memories along the way.

An excursion is considered the experience of students, supervising teachers and (potentially) volunteer parents leaving the confines of the school grounds to attend another setting for the purpose of consolidating and expanding curriculum concepts, worldly knowledge and relatability, and refining social skills. Consideration should be given to the age and interests of students, relevant curriculum links, and the safety and suitability of environments when planning early years excursions, as well as relevant legislative and organisational requirements, such as risk assessments, environmental adjustments, seeking parental permission, excursion checklists and medical compliance requirements. Given the extensive planning that often goes into organising an excursion from teachers in collaboration with the Inclusive Practice and Leadership Teams, excursions generally occur once within the school year. From experience, half a day is a good general rule to use as a guide when planning excursions in the early years. Half a day still allows for plenty of travel time, activities and a good opportunity to share a meal in an alternative setting. 

At this point, you may be wondering why our team would voluntarily put ourselves in what may sound like a stressful situation with extra paperwork requirements, for an early years excursion that only lasts half a day? The reason we willingly and happily meet the extra requirements and urge you to consider doing the same is for one main reason: excursions in the early years authentically teach the whole child. 

Picture this:

•  You’re a five year old Prep student who has found themselves going on your first excursion. You arrive at school and place your morning tea and water bottle in the designated tubs, your hat on your head and visit the bathroom. 

The learning experiences?  - Organisation skills, planning, self-help skills and flexibility.

•  Next, your teacher outlines what’s going to happen, where you are going, what you’re going to do and see there, and excursion expectations. They ask you to share with the person next to you what you’re most excited about. 

The learning experiences? Activation of prior learning, formation of connections between curriculum and real world concepts, developing an understanding of societal and social expectations, and oral language development.

•  You find yourself lining up to go on the bus, navigating the challenge of finding a partner to sit with. You go through your local environment, pointing out significant landmarks that are special to you and share with your friends all the things you do with your family at all these places you are seeing. You arrive at the excursion venue, and follow your teacher's instructions to get off the bus and line up to prepare to enter the venue. 

The learning experiences? Following multi-step instructions, social negotiations and resilience, influential discussions that shape their perception of themselves and their place in the world, and real-world experiences and life skills, such as road safety and the importance of, and how to use seat belts on a bus, traffic lights, remaining with supervising adults, and self-help skills.

•  Finally, you enter your excursion venue and participate in a variety of engaging, hands-on learning activities with peers, and unfamiliar adults within the community. Your brain is constantly generating cognitive links between what you’ve been learning in class and what you’re seeing in this real-world setting, whilst consolidating and extending on your understanding of the curriculum concepts. You break for morning tea in an unfamiliar setting, being exposed to new environments and potentially cultures depending on the excursion venue, and then prepare to get back on the bus to return to school.

The learning experiences? Consolidation of curriculum concepts, expansion of a student’s understanding of the world, social skills, oral language development, resilience, cultural diversity, tolerance and respect. 

Given the example, one could argue that the learning that occurs in such a short time has the potential to be influential in a student and their experience and perception of the world. Teaching and learning opportunities within early education excursions are endless, ranging from academic, cognitive, ethical, social, physical and real-world skills. A plethora of opportunities exist for students to transfer the skills they learn in class into a real world environment, in new environments. Exposure to these new environments provides the opportunity to learn core Catholic values, such as respect and tolerance, as students may experience a different way of life, other than their own. This exposure to new cultures and traditions provides a platform to develop into well-rounded individuals. 

When it comes to determining an excursion destination, there are many service learning programs, and venues that formally host students within the early years on offer. This list is by no means exhaustive, however I hope that it may spark your interest to investigate services in your local community area. As a suggestion, be mindful of excursions that spark curiosity within your students, to encourage a natural interest, engagement, high level of participation and love for a new found activity or topic. 

• Zoos and aquariums
• Wildlife Parks
• Museums
• Railway stations
• Botanical Gardens
• Natural landmarks, such as The Strand in Townsville
• Cultural Centres
• Churches
• Major stores, such as Woolworths or Bunnings
• Emergency service centres, such as an Ambulance, Fire or Police Station
• Opportunistic exhibitions

 These venues easily lend themselves to the following curriculum links across the Version 9 Australian Curriculum for Prep, Year 1 and Year 2:

• Science: the external features of plants, living things, science in action, seasonal changes, making predictions, posing questions, making
• HASS: special places + how to care for them, natural, managed + constructed features of the environment, the ways places change, the significance of people, places and buildings
• The Arts: describing thoughts and feelings about art works they encounter, describe where, why and/or how people across cultures, communities and/or other contexts experience the arts.
• Technology: identifying familiar products, services and environments
• Cross curricular priorities: Sustainability and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures

One of the great benefits of excursions in the early years is that the opportunity to extend both academic and real-world learning continues long after the excursion ends. For example, you could ask your students to orally report or write a retell outlining the excursion experiences to link with English. This may vary depending on your year level with Preps orally retelling their experience, Year 1’s creating a written information report on the venue they attended, and Year 2’s creating a brochure informing others about the excursion experience and what they can expect to see, do and learn there. 

Taking off my teacher hat, and looking at excursions as a parent for a moment, I can also see how excursions in the early years are integral to creating a well-rounded learning experience for all children, regardless of age and academic ability. As I’ve discussed above, there are many benefits as a result of excursions in the early years, and parents are well placed to support the benefits gained from such excursions. From a short conversation on the drive home after school on the day of the excursion, to a blow-by-blow run down of the day at dinner time, children are very capable of reflecting on their excursion and all of the learnings that took place; not only academic, but also the social and real-world knowledge too. Through this reflection, students are once again consolidating their knowledge, refining their oral language skills, expanding their vocabulary and synthesising all of the concepts they were exposed to throughout the day. In these moments, I would encourage parents to seize these golden opportunities to nurture or explain any conclusions the students have drawn, and use this as a platform to continue expanding any remaining lines of inquiry or interests. Parents may choose to then take children on an excursion (or as my children like to call it, “an adventure”), to further explore, once again expanding a student’s understanding of the world around them. For example, a student goes on an excursion to a reptile wildlife park. The student comes home, and during their excursion debriefs with their family, expresses an interest in the scales of reptiles, and poses the question “why do they have scales, but other animals don’t?” Instead of turning to Google in the first instance (as we all often do), you could consider this an invitation to go on an excursion to the local zoo and physically investigate what do other animals have covering their bodies, and what is the purpose. This is a fantastic opportunity to expand and support your child’s interests, whilst developing their academic and worldly knowledge too. 

In an ideal world, as parents we would all be taking our children on regular, planned excursions, but with three children of my own and a busy schedule, I understand that this isn’t always possible depending on individual family circumstances. So if you’re in a position where a home excursion isn’t possible, I want you to remember that at the end of the day, so much learning happens even in the small moments. It happens in the quiet reflective whispers at bedtime. It happens in the “look Mum, that’s an insect which means it has to have 6 legs” as you’re playing in the backyard. It happens in the booming instruction when your child is teaching their brothers and sisters what a specific vocabulary word means. You see it in the way your child’s eyes light up when they talk about something they saw and learnt about on their excursion that they didn’t know about before. These fleeting moments, when curiosity meets academics, is where the magic happens. It’s the convergence of three environments; school, home and the world that is truly invaluable. And there is no lesson plan, unit guide or special resource that will ever be able to recreate the authentic, deep learning opportunities that consequently present in these discussions, all stemming from excursions in the early years. 

I know it feels scary. I know it feels hard. I know it feels like a lot of little people, and never enough adults to manage them in an unfamiliar environment. But as the cliche saying goes, “I can’t promise you it will be easy, but I can promise you it will be worth it.” Excursions in the early years authentically teach the whole child, and the benefits are well-beyond anything you could ever hope for. Trust in yourself, trust in your team and take the leap, because some day in the future, you’re going to realise that these excursions are shaping the children in front of you in hundreds of small, yet incredibly important ways, that will linger on well beyond your excursion day. One day, they will look back and say “remember that time we went on an excursion and x,y,z happened?” But guess what; so will you.