THE number of school trips in York has risen, despite union advice to teachers not to take part in them.

City of York Council figures show that last year (January 2003 to December 2003) the number of residential or activity visits by schools was 123, while so far this year (from January) there have been 150.

The country's second biggest teaching union, the National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), has urged its members not to organise outings because the responsibility for ensuring pupils' safety is too great.

NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates reiterated the union's position of "strongly advising members not to participate in educational visits" to a House of Commons select committee this month.

The advice followed a number of high-profile cases across the country where school trips have ended in tragedy and legal action has been taken against staff.

Councillor Carol Runciman, the executive member for education on City of York Council, said there was now a lot of advice available from the authority on taking school trips.

She said: "This could be part of the reason why teachers are perhaps feeling more confident about leading trips, because now there are step-by-step guides about the things that need to be checked and the risk assessments that need to be done."

Every school now has an educational visits co-ordinator (EVC) who is responsible for carrying out safety checks for school visits.

John Thompson, the head teacher at Lowfield School, in Acomb, said he had great sympathy with members of staff who had concerns about leading school trips but, at the same time, trips were an essential part of the curriculum.

Mr Thompson said: "At the moment we consider each visit on its merits, and it is for members of staff to decide whether or not educational visits are essential to curriculum delivery.

"We work with approved centres, but we also have visits to art galleries, theatres and museums."

Manor School head teacher Brian Crosby said: "We believe school trips to be highly valuable in the outdoor education of students and also we continue to encourage and support students going outside the classroom.

"However, we have to take a great deal of care to ensure we meet all the health and safety guidelines as we live in a society that's very litigious and, therefore, schools have always got to be preparing themselves for the remote possibility that something could go wrong."

Barrie Ferguson, the secretary of York NASUWT, said the advice to teachers was to go with what the head teacher wanted, but to be aware of the potential problems that could arise on trips.

Updated: 09:26 Wednesday, November 10, 2004