School Trips - Venturing Out
Given our emphasis on experiential learning and our school motto “Experience Teaches”, students engage in a number of school trips while at York. In planning trips to enhance learning, teachers work with our Principals as well as our Experiential Educator to assess and mitigate risk, maintain contingency plans, and keep parents well-informed so that you can support your child’s involvement.
All parents and students will be informed of important trip details in advance. When planning and leading excursions, our faculty use The York School’s Venturing Out Policy where trips leaving the school are divided into four levels:
Level I Excursions
Level I Excursions are those which take students to familiar settings within the local area for daytime activities which expose students to risks typically encountered in everyday living or while at school and which involve local transportation either by walking, subway, city bus, school bus, or taxi. These include day trips to a museum, theatre, local park, sports facility, or music venue.
Consent for all such trips is given at the beginning of the school year. In advance of every Level I trip, a Level I Excursion Information Form that outlines important details of the trip will be shared via email.
Level II Excursions
Level II Excursions are either overnight excursions for students that take place in North American city centres with low risk activities, (such as those mentioned in the Level I section), or day excursions for all grades that involve activities with a higher level of risk. Overnight excursions may also involve air transportation. Examples of Level II trips include an athletic tournament trip to Vancouver, Model UN Trip to New York City, PHE treetop trekking day trip, Junior School skating afternoon, a climbing wall trip in the city, or an amusement park trip. Specific written consent for every Level II Trip is required. Additional documentation accompanies Level II Trips such as updated guardian contact information, notarized consent forms, additional trip rules and/or code of conduct for students.
Level III Excursions
Level III Excursions are overnight excursions that involve activities that involve a higher level of risk and typically take place in a more remote area, an unfamiliar setting, and/or possibly less immediate access to emergency services. Examples would include our overnight camp trips, Grade 9 Challenge Week trip to St John’s Newfoundland, Grade 10 Challenge Week trip to New Orleans, and outdoor backcountry camping, hiking, snowshoeing or canoe trips. Specific written consent for every Level III Trip is required. Additional documentation accompanies Level III Trips such as updated guardian contact information, notarized consent forms, additional trip rules and/or code of conduct for students. Level III Trips require a higher level of information shared through a parent information night and/or parent information digital presentation shared with parents in advance.
Level IV Excursions
Level IV Excursions take place at an international (outside North America) level where there may be reduced access to communication and emergency services. Examples of Level IV Excursions include extended international travel (eg. Senior School music trips to Havana and Austria), service and cultural excursions (eg. Our GPX trip to India). Specific written consent for every Level IV Trip is required including additional documentation such as updated guardian contact information, notarized consent forms, additional trip rules and/or code of conduct for students. Level IV Trips require a higher level of information shared through at least one parent information night and/or parent information digital presentation shared with parents in advance.
Please note: We encourage parents to contact the trip leaders or our Experiential Educator with any concerns regarding their child’s involvement in a trip at an early stage. Please keep in mind that we rely upon the medical information that parents provided at the beginning of the year and that any changes in that information must be made known to the administration.