School trip, excursion or camp.

Mandatory extra educational activities

Schools decide which extra educational activities they add to their curriculum. Your child must join activities that are part of the curriculum. You can find these in the school guide.

Not joining

If you do not want your child to join an extra educational activity, you can ask the school governing body for exemption. If your child gets this exemption, they must join a replacement activity.

Supervision on excursions, school trips, or camps

There are no general rules for supervision on school trips or camps. If you worry about this, you can share your concerns with your child’s teacher, the school principal, and the parents in the school participation council. The school decides what is proper supervision for an excursion. This depends on the situation. A busy and confusing amusement park needs more supervision than a museum. Older children can more easily go alone than younger ones. The school may have its policy written down or it may differ per activity. You can ask the school about this.

Parent contribution is voluntary, not mandatory

An extra activity like a school trip, excursion, or camp is usually paid for by the voluntary parent contribution. If a parent cannot or does not want to pay, the school may not exclude the child. The activity is part of the curriculum, so participation cannot depend on a financial contribution from the parents. This means children cannot be excluded from school activities. Every child must join. If the total amount of the voluntary parent contribution is not enough to organize the activity, the school can add money or cancel the whole activity.

Foreign trip

Many students go on a school trip abroad. This is very fun but can also be scary. To prevent unwanted situations, it is important during planning, organizing, and carrying out the school trip to focus on safety and take measures to make the trip as safe as possible. Stichting School en Veiligheid has summarized this in an information sheet. This sheet covers planning the trip, assessing risks, making choices, giving information and communication about risks, making agreements, and dealing with incidents.