Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

School trips and student support

SEN & ASN Outdoor Education. The Department for Education, the number of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) increased to 1.49 million pupils in 2022, representing 16.5% of all pupils. They split SEN needs into: social, mental and emotional health, communication and interaction, cognition and learning, and sensory or physical. The Department for Work and Pensions identified 9% of children in the UK as having a disability in 2022.

Tailored Programmes for mainstream and specialist schools

Particular school trip destinations have tailor-made programmes, which have been specially devised to meet the learning needs of children with SEN or Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH). SEN, Additional Support Needs (ASN), or groups with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD) covers such a wide ranging spectrum of disabilities - everyone is different and therefore struggle in different areas. Consequently, these tailored programmes aim to be valuable to each individual child's personal development. Learning outside the classroom is an excellent way for children with SEN to enhance their social skills, learn visually, gain confidence, concentrate easier, and improve intellectually. Not only can they improve in their lessons, but they can also learn some essential life skills.

Each school trip or workshop provider is able to indicate which types of SEND they can tailor their experience for, helping schools decide which experiences are likely to be suitable for their individual group of children. Visit our article about planning a SEND school trip to get some more advice and tips.

Choosing a venue is a crucial decision for children with SEN, as the children's surroundings and environment is paramount to their personal development. Moreover, the children's safety is a principal concern, so therefore the venue needs to accommodate to the children's specific needs. For instance, some SEN school trip destinations offer complete privacy in order for the children to fully relax.

SEN qualified and experienced staff

School trip destinations often have SEN qualified and experienced staff so that the children are properly supervised, cared for and included in activities. Consequently, you can be confident that each individual child's necessary demands are being met. When you make known any additional needs of your group, staff can explain how they can encourage, support, and motivate each and every child.

Fully accessible facilities

School groups planning inclusive experiences suitable for children with disabilities, can find details of provision within each venue's details. Plenty of school trip locations have wheelchair accessibility, or provide fully accessible toilet and shower facilities. Most can cater for children with visual impairments, hearing impairments or multi-sensory impairments or moderate, severe or profound and multiple learning difficulties. Children with physical disabilities should be actively supported and get the same experience as any other child on a school trip.

Find a school trip or workshop for the following SEN topics: Autistic Spectrum, Changing Place, Deafness, Disabled Toilet Access, Dyslexia Dyscalculia and Dyspraxia, Emotional and Behavioural Disorders, Fully Wheelchair Accessible, General Learning Difficulties, Partially Wheelchair Accessible, Physical and Mobility, Raising Aspirations, Social Skills, Visual Impairment, and more.

Popular school trip January 2026 !

Calvert Devon

School Trip South West
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Subjects: Bushcraft, Physical Education, Team Building, Watersports, SEN

Calvert Devon is an accessible activity centre in North Devon for students with learning, physical, behavioural, sensory or multiple complex disabilities. We accommodate all classroom types with a specialism in SEN and disabled students.