Board responsibilities for Education Outside of the Classroom (EOTC)
Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC) is a critical and essential part of a student’s educational journey that takes place anywhere from the school grounds to countries abroad and can be linked to all learning areas of the National Curriculum.
EOTC often involves increased hazards and risks which need to be mitigated to ensure the safe return and wellbeing, health and safety of all staff and students.
The board has overall responsibility (through the principal) and accountability for ensuring everyone’s safety and wellbeing during any school activity, on or off the school site. This accountability cannot be delegated to anyone else, including external providers.
Boards must have robust school-wide policies and procedures that underpin sound risk management practices and functioning to ensure wellbeing, health and safety are paramount.
Quality EOTC is underpinned by planning, competent staff, consistent implementation, and review of systems to ensure current good practice.
Keep reading to learn more.
What is EOTC?
EOTC is a generic term used to describe curriculum-based learning and teaching that extends the four walls of the classroom and extracurricular activities that occur outside of school hours.
EOTC could include a museum or marae visit, sports team practices, games and trips, recreational activities, cultural activities, an outdoor education camp, a field trip to the rocky shore, or a visit to practise another language.
EOTC can take place on the school grounds, local community, or in regions further afield, including overseas.
The Ministry of Education’s EOTC Guidelines state:
“Learning and safety are paramount in EOTC. While EOTC provides opportunities for positive learning outcomes in education, there is the potential for incidents if programmes are not well planned, competently staffed and effectively managed.”
You can download a copy of the EOTC Guidelines from the Education Outdoors New Zealandopen_in_new website.
Legislated requirements – Health and Safety
Under the Education and Training Act, 2020 (Section 127), schools have a legal responsibility and duty of care to ensure they provide an emotionally and physically safe place for all staff and students, while catering for their individual needs.
The board’s responsibilities as PCBU (Person Conducting Business or Undertaking) as outlined in the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015open_in_new includes any school activities that take place on or away from the school grounds.
All board members are officers of the PCBU and have a duty to carry out due diligence. The board's goal is to establish a health and safety-conscious culture and environment no matter the location of the activity.
The board’s responsibility is to ensure:
- The right policies, processes, and systems, including regular review, are in place.
- That they receive regular updates and reports to evidence that the requirements are being met.
- That the school is resourced appropriately to achieve these.
The principal is delegated the daily responsibility of implementing board policy and direction.
Schools must have records of their decision-making processes to show how they fulfil their legal and professional obligations and how they follow current good practice in all aspects of EOTC. These records should be available on request.
What is the board’s role in relation to EOTC?
In the context of EOTC events, the board (through the principal) must ensure that policies and procedures are developed, implemented, reported and reviewed to ensure that:
- Hazards and the level of risks associated are identified, assessed and managed to prevent serious harm during EOTC events.
- All necessary equipment has been tested and is safe to use during the event.
- Staff are familiar with and understand the systems and processes required to manage the event or activity safely.
- Students are appropriately supervised by competent staff with the appropriate level of expertise.
- Emergency procedures are planned and followed.
- The intended learning is achieved.
Note: Appropriate supervision for EOTC is hard to prescribe because it will vary according to the age and needs of the students, the nature of the activity, the location, and the competence of the students and staff involved. Competence is central to creating an effective supervision structure and putting that plan in place for any EOTC activity.
What does regular reporting on EOTC look like?
Reporting can fall into two categories.
First, reporting on the EOTC occurring, including the number and type of EOTC events, analysis of learning outcomes, reviews of any incidents and the actions taken, identification of risks (real and potential) and proposed improvements (if applicable).
Second, reporting on the EOTC safety management system to ensure it is robust and meets current good practice, using the framework of questions listed below.
If the board cannot satisfy itself that things are being done in a way that meets the school’s legal obligations, including the board’s policy framework, then the board is responsible for taking steps to ensure that the necessary improvements are made (accountability).
Questions board members could ask the principal
Education Outdoors NZ has worked with us to create some questions boards should ask their principal as part of regular review processes:
Each of these questions can generate several other questions and useful board discussions to help boards understand their school's EOTC systems.
In answering these questions, the board should also be provided with evidence to be assured of a well-functioning EOTC system in their school.
The principal could consider the ideas listed in the Evidence column as well as the relevant sections in the school’s EOTC policy, procedures and/or Safety Management Plan (or equivalent documents).
What does the board need to sign off on?
The determination of what comes to the board will be made by the board in your Health and Safety policies and outlined in delegations. Usually, the greater the level of risk with an activity, the more senior the staff member(s) delegated to approve it and the greater level of EOTC-related competence required.
For most EOTC events, approval will be delegated to the principal. The principal will not always be the most appropriate person as they may not have the technical knowledge.
Your EOTC approval system must be designed to ensure that there is discussion between the people who have the technical knowledge of that activity and the person who is approving the activity.
We would advise the board should always sign off on any activities that require students going on overseas travel.
What information would the board expect to see for a trip requiring board sign-off?
If the board has determined to approve certain categories of EOTC, they should expect to see the planning documentation required by the school’s EOTC procedures.
This should be complete and include (but is not limited to):
- Clear links to learning (where the activity is curriculum related).
- Evidence of robust process for hazard and risk identification, assessment and management.
- Alternative activities if the event is subject to environmental factors such as weather.
- A supervision structure that can respond to emergencies.
- Evidence of the competence of the proposed staffing.
- External provider agreements (if any providers are involved).
- Emergency procedures and evidence that a briefing of all participants involved on what the emergency procedures are has been held.
- Logistical details, such as transportation.
- Assurance that all contractors, parents, and volunteers have been screened for their suitability to work with students and where the Children’s Act 2014 applies, children’s workers safety checked.
What to do when notified of an incident on an EOTC activity?
EOTC activities can take place in environments that are challenging and unpredictable. Add to this the unpredictability of human reaction, and occasionally incidents happen despite effective planning and consideration of the risks involved. However, being fully prepared for possible events can ensure the severity of the incident or outcomes is reduced and contained.
Steps the board can take:
- Make sure to support the principal in enacting the school’s Traumatic Incident Response Plan.
- Ensure that the principal is seeking support through the MOE.
- Work with the media as per the Communication plan.
- Ensure all required WorkSafe reporting is completed.
- Receive any incident review, and support required/approved improvement actions.
What is a notifiable event?
As with any situation in any workplace under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, you must notify WorkSafe when certain notifiable events occur, including:
- A death.
- A notifiable injury or illness (i.e. head, eye, spinal injuries; amputations or degloving; loss of bodily function or serious lacerations; exposure to chemicals or infectious substances resulting in the person requiring medical treatment).
- A notifiable incident (i.e. an implosion, explosion or fire; electric shock; an unplanned fall or release from height; collapse or partial collapse of a structure; a collision between two vessels, a vessel capsizes or inrush of water into a vessel).
Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, the board, often through the principal, are required to:
- Notify WorkSafe as soon as possible when a notifiable event occurs.
- Preserve the site of the incident until a WorkSafe inspector arrives, or you are otherwise directed by the regulator or the Police.
- Keep records of all notifiable events.
Liabilities
Providing board members are undertaking due diligence in their role and taking all reasonable steps to ensure a healthy and safe workplace for all, they are not individually liable (Section 151 Education and Training Act 2020open_in_new). Any liability would remain with the board, the legal entity.
Principals, as the officer delegated the overall responsibility for ensuring policies are carried out safely, could be personally liable for a failure to ensure an emotionally and physically safe environment for all.
Individual employees can also be found liable should they be found to have failed to meet or breached the health and safety requirements.
If the board contracts an external provider to support staff with any EOTC activity, the board retains their overall accountability and responsibility to ensure everyone is safe.
Therefore, it is the board’s responsibility (through the principal) to check that the EOTC Health and Safety management systems and processes provided by the provider are adequate and in place.
Templates, resources, and references
Click on the link(s) below to access the templates, resources, and references related to this topic.
These may download or open in a separate browser depending on your device.
Ministry of Education
- Health and safety responsibilities for schoolsopen_in_new
- Bringing the Curriculum Alive – EOTC Guidelines 2025open_in_new
Education Outdoors NZ
- Education Outdoors NZopen_in_new
- EOTC Through the Board Lensopen_in_new
- EOTC Safety Managementopen_in_new