School trips are increasingly being recognised as an important part of student development, wellbeing, and educational attainment.
Recent research from Hyundai’s Great British School Trip initiative found that educational visits can improve student engagement, boost memory retention, strengthen wellbeing, and support social development. The findings reinforce what many educators already see firsthand: learning outside the classroom can have a measurable impact on how students learn, connect, and grow.
At a time when schools are balancing academic pressure alongside student mental health and engagement concerns, experiential learning is becoming more important than ever.
Do School Trips Improve Student Wellbeing?
Yes. Research linked to Hyundai’s Great British School Trip campaign found that educational travel positively impacts student wellbeing, confidence, and emotional engagement with learning.
School trips create opportunities for students to experience learning in more active and collaborative ways. Being outside the classroom can help students feel more engaged, more confident in social settings, and more connected to both their peers and teachers.
Pupils reported feeling happier (+60%) and having better self-esteem (+40%), with 77% describing it as their “best school day ever”.
For many students, educational travel also provides a valuable break from routine academic pressure, helping improve motivation, resilience, and overall school engagement.
How Do School Trips Support Educational Attainment?
School trips support educational attainment by making learning more memorable, contextual, and emotionally engaging.
Experiential learning helps students connect theoretical concepts to real-world environments. Research consistently shows that students are more likely to retain information when learning involves direct experience, sensory engagement, and emotional connection.
“When children move beyond the classroom, they encounter novelty, shared experience, hands-on exploration, new role models and even moments of awe. These are exactly the kinds of experiences humans evolved to learn through.” (Dr Martha Newson, 2026)
Students who visit historical landmarks, conduct fieldwork, explore ecosystems, or engage directly with different cultures often develop a deeper understanding of classroom topics because they can physically connect learning to place and experience.
The Hyundai-backed research also highlighted improvements in focus and memory retention during educational visits, reinforcing the role experiential learning can play in supporting long-term academic outcomes.
Why Is Experiential Learning Important in Education?
Experiential learning is important because students often learn more effectively through participation, exploration, and real-world application.
Traditional classroom teaching remains essential, but educational experiences outside school environments can strengthen understanding in ways that textbooks alone cannot always achieve.
Educational travel encourages students to:
- apply classroom knowledge in real contexts
- develop critical thinking skills
- improve communication and collaboration
- build confidence and independence
- engage more actively with learning
Importantly, experiential learning also supports different learning styles. Students who may feel less engaged in conventional academic settings often respond positively to hands-on, immersive experiences.
This can improve both confidence and participation back in the classroom.
What Skills Do Students Gain from School Trips?
School trips help students develop both academic and personal skills.
Alongside curriculum learning, educational travel supports broader student development, including resilience, adaptability, empathy, teamwork, independence, and cultural awareness.
Students often develop these skills naturally through shared experiences, unfamiliar environments, and collaborative activities.
Educational tours can also strengthen student-teacher relationships and improve group cohesion, creating positive effects that continue long after the trip itself.
These outcomes are increasingly important as schools place greater emphasis on whole-student development alongside academic achievement.
Are School Trips Becoming Harder for Schools to Deliver?
While the educational benefits of school trips remain widely recognised, many schools are now facing increasing challenges in delivering them.
Budget pressures continue to affect both schools and families, making affordability one of the biggest barriers to participation. At the same time, teachers are managing growing workloads, tighter curriculum schedules, more complex risk management requirements, and increased expectations around safeguarding and student wellbeing.
For many schools, organising educational travel can feel operationally overwhelming despite the clear value it provides.
There are also wider concerns around attendance, student anxiety, social disconnection, and engagement in learning. In this environment, educational visits can sometimes be viewed as difficult to justify against academic pressures, even though research increasingly suggests they may help address some of those very issues.
Overcoming these challenges requires a more intentional approach to educational travel.
Schools are increasingly having to, look towards the following:
1. Combine academic value with well-being, engagement, and personal growth, which are often easier to advocate for within busy school environments.
2. Be Flexible. More schools are exploring shorter programmes, regional travel opportunities, interdisciplinary tours, and experiences designed around specific educational goals rather than traditional sightseeing models.
3. Carefully planning around accessibility and affordability. Staggered payment structures, early planning timelines, and thoughtfully designed itineraries can help make educational travel more achievable for a broader range of students.
Importantly, the conversation around school trips is also changing.
Educational travel is increasingly being viewed not as an optional extra, but as part of a wider strategy to improve engagement, strengthen relationships, support wellbeing, and bring learning to life in more meaningful ways.
As schools continue navigating complex educational challenges, learning beyond the classroom may become not less important, but more essential than ever.
The Lasting Value of Learning Beyond the Classroom
Educational travel creates learning experiences that students often remember for years.
Whether through geography fieldwork, cultural immersion, sustainability programmes, historical exploration, or interdisciplinary learning experiences, school trips help students engage with learning in ways that feel immediate, relevant, and meaningful.
Long after individual lessons are forgotten, students frequently remember the moments that challenged them, expanded their perspective, or helped them grow in confidence.
These experiences also help students begin connecting education to the wider world around them. Exposure to different industries, cultures, technologies, and communities can broaden aspirations andhelp young people better understand the opportunities and challenges shaping the future.
As the world of work continues to evolve, schools are increasingly recognising the importance of developing adaptable, curious, and resilient learners, students who are not only academically capable but also confident navigating unfamiliar environments, collaborating withothers, and thinking beyond the classroom.
That is one of the reasons school tripscontinue to matter.
They support not only what students learn, but who they become.
Reference
Newson, M. (2026) Great British School Trip| Hyundai UK Love it when we get even better results than predicted...Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/martha-newson_great-british-school-trip-hyundai-uk-activity-7461027236587012096-Gl3R?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAACRKBZkBYUoy55gQZ5i8-Jv9wdOMGEWNndg (Accessed:29 May 2026)
