🪵🍃 Excursion and Incursion. ✅

Why do we have excursions and incursions?

A guiding principle of the NQF is that children are successful, competent and capable learners. The NQF promotes the view of children as capable learners who actively construct their own understandings and contribute to others’ learning. It recognises children’s agency, capacity to initiate and lead learning, and their rights to participate in decisions that affect them and their learning.
Children’s learning is dynamic, complex and holistic, this means that cognitive, linguistic, physical, social, emotional, personal, spiritual and the creative aspects of learning are all interwoven and interrelated. Excursions and Incursions enable children to make connections between prior experiences and new learning, to then scaffold learning from one experience to another that directly supports building on children’s sense of identity, strengthening their self-regulation, physical and mental wellbeing (EYLF V2.0).

Taking the children on excursions to explore the community or natural environment is a great opportunity to present them with real-world experiences that create context for their learning. In the Reggio Emilia approach, it emphasises the importance of the ‘Third Educator’ — the idea that there’s always a lesson to be learned from within our surroundings. During excursions, the children are provided with opportunities in which connects their learning to the world around them, and see its practical relevance in their daily lives.

Who organises Excursions and Incursions?

Excursions:
The educator is to talk to the Educational Leader of what excursion they are wanting to organise with being able to justify the learning component.
The educational Leader will support the educator through this process.
The Educational leader or the Educator is to ensure the checklist and risk assessment is sent to the Nominated supervisor to revise, sign and approve. 
Incursion:
The educator is to talk to the Educational Leader of what incursion they are wanting to organise with being able to justify the learning component.
The educational Leader will support the educator through this process.
The Educational leader or the Educator is to ensure the risk assessment is sent to the Nominated supervisor to revise, sign and approve. 

What is an excursion?

Excursions is a way for you to get the children out into the community.
Steps to follow when you are going on an excursion, you need to complete:

1. Checklist document attached below 

2. Excursion risk assessment form that is created by ACECQA. document attached below 

2. Detailed permission form for families to read, acknowledge and sign. document attached below 

4. If there are any cost implications, ensure you discuss with your Leadership team all the details, for the Ed Leader to then get approval from the Head of Education to go ahead with payment.  

5. Please ensure you ask the location if they have their own risk assessment, please use as an additional risk assessment. 

Before leaving Campus NOTE: The room leader is to send on slack when you and the children are leaving the building with communicating with the Campus how many children and staff are leaving. you also need to sign the children out and back in once you return (this is also for families to know and for us to keep record incase of evacuation).

What is an Incursion?

An incursion is when you have an external (outside organisation) company to come into Woodlands to do an extended learning session with the room or whole service. 

Steps to follow when you have an incursion, you need to complete:

1. Ensure the company is credible and there are discussions a month before the incursion happens. This is to ensure all communication is clear and you feel confident and safe for this outside company to come inside the Campus.  

2. Get of the external company their risk assessment, and WWCC (check that it is credible on): https://www.service.vic.gov.au/services/working-with-children-check-status-checker/transaction#check  

3. Ed Leader, with the room wanting the incursion, is to go through the external companies risk assessment and see if you need to add any other safety measures. If so, then complete the incursion risk assessment. 

4. If there are any cost implications, ensure you discuss with your Leadership team all the details, for the Ed Leader to then get approval from the Head of Education to go ahead with payment.  

Extended visual guide:

https://stonly.com/sl/f2948900-2f23-462d-b3ce-d8c82989e280/Steps/ 

Forms to access: