Your School Bus Field Trip Checklist!

Booking a field trip and need a school bus? When booking a trip for your class there are many things that you have to consider and take care of. While a field trip is often the highlight of a student’s year, the weight on the shoulders of the teachers organizing them can be pretty significant. Not only is student safety a priority, ensuring they have a fun and educational experience is a top thought as well.

At Switzer-Carty, we make booking your field trip transportation easy! From our easy online quote request form to helpful blog tips and destination ideas, count on us for a fast, budget-friendly quote to take you anywhere in and around the GTA and Ontario!

Though your mind may be swimming with all the things you have to get done in order to pull off an awesome excursion for your class, we’ve broken things down and put it all into a simple checklist for you to follow.

1. Decide where you’re going and when

The biggest decision when planning your field trip is deciding where to take your students and when. Think about what kind of experience you want them to have and start there. Consider whether you want the field trip to tie into a certain subject or to just be a fun trip for the group. From there you can research field trip destinations available in your area.

2. Figure out cost

Now that you have a destination in mind you can figure out the cost of bringing your class. You’ll want to factor in the cost at the destination, if there are any optional programing expenses you’d like to include, whether you will be providing any snacks, and the cost of your school bus transportation to get there and back.

3. Get permission and line up volunteers

With the destination, dates and cost figured out you can now send home permission slips to each family. You’ll want to use this opportunity to include a call out for parent volunteers if you need any, as well. Set a date to have the permission slips handed back to you so that you can do a finally tally of how many people you’ll have attending your field trip.

4. Book the destination and bus

With the numbers lined up you are able to confirm your booking with the destination and get your bus booked for the day. When it comes to booking your school bus you can often use a website to get a quote and complete the booking process. This is where you’ll be able to choose the appropriate bus size for your group.

5. Prepare attendance sheets and divide up the class

As your field trip day draws near, you’ll be ready to create a plan to ensure the safety of all students. When you know how many parent volunteers will be joining your class you can divide up your students into small groups that will be led by an adult attendee.

6. Go over the rules with your class

A couple days before your field trip and again just before you leave, have a conversation with your students about any safety measures they need to know of, the rules of conduct throughout the day and what’s expected of them as they ride the bus. You’ll also have the opportunity to discuss whether they need to be ready to leave shortly after arriving to school for the day, or if they will arrive as normal and get ready later on.

7. Send a reminder home with your students

The day before the field trip, send a note home with your students reminding them of anything they need to remember for the next day.

8. Get ready for pick up

Be sure to gather your students to the pickup location early to ensure that everyone is ready when the bus arrives.

9. Have your paperwork in order

You may need to show your bus driver or the field trip destination confirmation of your booking, so having your paperwork organized and ready will help make that easy.

10. Have fun!

Now that the day is here and all the planning is finally coming to fruition, it’s time to have fun! After all, you students will likely remember these field trip days for years, so help them make the most of it!