School Trips to Cornwall

Primary School Trips

A safe yet inspirational destination for your pupils, Cornwall offers an abundance of natural attractions, excursions and history to keep primary school pupils entertained and engaged.

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Geography

Cornwall provides geography pupils with the ideal learning environment to investigate coasts and tourism, and of course, a visit to the amazing Eden Project.

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Art & Design

Cornwall has been attracting and home to world-class artists for centuries. Stunning and sleepy fishing villages provide an inspirational setting for any student.

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The Eden Project

The UK’s famous Eden Project is the world’s largest indoor rainforest, making it an exceptional trip for budding scientists and geographers alike. The trip perfectly complements classroom lessons on biology, climates, and nature. The complex is home to thousands of plant species, with a focus on environmental conservation, education, and sustainability. The result is the world’s most diverse, scent-filled, and jaw-dropping classroom your students could ever experience!

Blue Reef Aquarium

The Blue Reef Aquarium in Newquay contains 40 naturally-themed habitats, providing study groups the opportunity to witness sealife from across the globe. 
The aquarium offers a unique chance for students to learn about life in the ocean and on the reefs, whilst walking underneath and alongside some of the main players; expect up close and personal viewings of various types of sharks, turtles, tropical fish and caimans.

Tate St. Ives

Explore Cornwall’s connection with modern art on a visit to Tate St Ives and the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden. Groups will also have the chance to take part in workshop or guided tour for a more engaging learning experience.

Jurassic Coast

The Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site, stretches from Exmouth in East Devon to Studland Bay in Dorset. The coast is a step back in time, with coastal erosion exposing an almost continuous sequence of rock formation covering the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods. In the millions of years of its history, the entire area has undergone change after change, from desert to tropical sea to marshland. Evidence of prehistoric life is abundant; fossils of various creatures are preserved in the truly ancient rocks.

Land's End

Land's End is mainland Britain’s most south-westerly point. From the 200-foot high granite cliffs that rise out of the Atlantic Ocean, you can gaze across to the Longships Lighthouse, the Isles of Scilly twenty-eight miles away and beyond that, North America.

Cornish Seal Sanctuary

The sanctuary is a conservation effort focused on the rehabilitation of rescued seals. Your group will meet the seals and learn about their rehabilitation path, from rescue to release. The visit includes an opportunity to get hands-on at the rock pool and learn more the sanctuary’s team of experts.

Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden

This is a perfect trip for budding art and design students, with Visiting the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden offers a remarkable insight into the work and outlook of one of Britain’s most important twentieth century artists. Sculptures in bronze, stone and wood are on display in the museum and garden, along with paintings, drawings and archive material.

Penlee House Museum

The Penlee House Museum is a historic art gallery, which makes it a good contrast to the Tate St Ives, which instead focuses on modern art. The museum contains art dating from 1800 to 1920. The museum’s Education Officer can run tours & workshops depending on your groups' requirements.

Tour planning service

With NST, you’ll get your own dedicated, knowledgeable Tour Co-ordinator who’ll work with you from start to finish. You’ll benefit from their unrivalled destination knowledge, and their experience gained from working with many other groups too. They’ll tailor-make your itinerary from scratch and take care of everything for you:

• Pulling together an itinerary that runs smoothly
• Planning the right balance of visits every day with realistic timings
• Pre-arranging and pre-booking your visits, entrance tickets, passes and meals

You’ll receive your final itinerary a full 4-weeks before you travel too.

Free school trip promotion pack

We’ll support you and provide everything you need to advertise your school trip around school and to parents. Our free school trip promotion pack consists of:

• Parents’ letter & permission slip template for you to complete A3 posters to promote your trip around school
• PowerPoint presentation templates which you can tailor to your own needs
• Parents’ leaflets covering how NST manage safety, financial protection and details of our travel insurance
• Online parents’ video which showcases the benefits of taking a school trip

For selected destinations, we’ll provide a trip launch web page using video footage and imagery. This web page is provided by a weblink and can be shared with pupils and parents in many ways.

Risk assessment support including preview visits

Risk assessment plays a vitally important part in the planning and organisation on any school tour.

Our risk assessment guide aims to help you understand more about your obligations and how you can more effectively manage group safety on your next educational visit and provide you with risk assessments for your trip. 

Planning first school trip

Organising your first school trip can appear to be a daunting process.

If you're planning your first school trip, our guide will help to take you through each step of the planning process, answering frequently asked questions and providing tips and support along the way.

Our helpful guide covers the following:

• Choosing your destination
• Gaining approval from your Local Authority and/or your Head
• Promoting your tour in school
• Confirming your booking
• Tailor-make your tour
• Completing your risk assessments (including a sample risk assessment)
• Quick reference timeline
• Pre-tour checklist

View our essential guide to a successful school trip here.

Get live updates on your group's tour location

Locate My Trip uses GPS technology and is the easy, convenient way for your school to follow your location whilst on tour. Specifically designed to provide reassurance to both parents and teachers, NST will know where your group are 24/7. If your schedule needs to change, we’ll put plans in place to keep your tour on track. 

With Locate My Trip your group can also share photos and videos with the school and parents, via a secure link, to keep them updated on your experience whilst you’re away.

Watch our short Locate My Trip video here.

Your online school trip organiser - My Tour Manager

Save time and stay on track with your school trip admin with our online orgnaniser - designed to help busy teachers like you.

With My Tour Manager, you'll be able to download FREE resources and access trip paperwork online and in one place. Your personalised checklist details what you need to do and by when, plus you'll receive fortnightly reminders too.

What's more, you can take all your trip documents on the go whilst on your tour with our app, My Tour Manager-On-the-Go.

Find out more and watch out short My Tour Manager video here.

Free classroom resources

We've created a range of free geography resources and educational posters to brighten up your classroom!

Take a look at our downloadable posters here.