Beyond the Gates is EVOLVE Advice’s written guidance on all aspects of learning beyond the classroom, including educational visits, outdoor learning, field studies, adventurous activities and local area visits.

Beyond the Gates is fully aligned with current health and safety legislation; statutory guidance on educational visits, safeguarding, allergy etc; wider regulation/guidance and OEAP National Guidance.

Beyond the Gates is written by EVOLVE Advice for our clients. It is designed to complement existing guidance and legislation and to support planning.

EVOLVE Advice clients are encouraged to use our Educational Visits Policy Statement, adapted as appropriate to your setting, and to adopt the accompanying guidance in Beyond the Gates.

Beyond the Gates should be shared with senior leaders, EVCs and Visit Leaders, and used by everyone involved in educational visits in your setting when planning, approving and overseeing visits.

Beyond the Gates provides clear, definitive advice – in an easy to navigate format – for EVOLVE Advice clients.

As Educational Visits Advisers, we have always provided written advice and guidance to our schools. Beyond the Gates formalises this guidance and enables schools and employers to be clear on their expectations. Staff can access the always-up-to-date online version of Beyond the Gates at any time.

Our clients (Employers such as Local Authorities, Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs), and independent School Groups, and individuals Establishments - schools colleges and youth services) are encouraged to adopt our Policy Statement and Beyond the Gates guidance as the basis of their Educational Visits Policy.

Beyond the Gates replaces, and builds on, earlier EVOLVE Advice guidance for clients, including: ‘Guidance for Off-Site Visits and Related Activities with National Guidance & EVOLVE’.

Beyond the Gates Educational Visits Guidance helps Visit Leaders, Educational Visits Coordinators and Heads to take clear, informed decisions about how to manage their educational visits.

Staff leading and overseeing learning beyond the classroom should use the guidance when planning and approving visits, conducting risk assessments and monitoring/evaluating activity.

The guidance explains roles and responsibilities for all staff and volunteers involved in educational visits. It sets out the requirements for safety and safeguarding and how to remain compliant with current legislation and guidance.

Beyond the Gates is fully aligned with current health and safety legislation; statutory guidance on educational visits, safeguarding, allergy etc; wider regulation/guidance and OEAP National Guidance.

Beyond the Gates signposts to current external guidance and useful resources such as High Quality Outdoor Learning (Institute for Outdoor Learning) and the Physical Education, School Sport, and Physical Activity framework (PESSPA, Association for Physical Education)

The online version of Beyond the Gates is updated as guidance changes to remain always up to date.

Beyond the Gates is written by EVOLVE Advice Educational Visits Advisers and goes through a rigorous process before publication or updates.

Beyond the Gates is written by EVOLVE Advice for our clients.

We work with Employers i.e. Local Authorities, Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs), and Independent School Groups; and individual Establishments i.e. schools, alternative provision settings, colleges and youth services.

Beyond the Gates is applicable to educational settings in England and Wales. The online version can be translated into Welsh using the language switcher button.

An international school version of Beyond the Gates is also available for our international clients.

EVOLVE Advice clients are encouraged to adopt our Policy Statement and Beyond the Gates guidance as the basis of their Educational Visits Policy. Establishments and Employers may also choose to add specific requirements to their own policies.

The guidance should be shared with senior leaders, EVCs and Visit Leaders, and used by everyone involved in educational visits in your setting when planning, approving and overseeing visits.

Beyond the Gates is written by EVOLVE Advice for our clients. It is designed to complement existing guidance and legislation and to support planning.

If you are not a client of EVOLVE Advice, you are welcome to use Beyond the Gates with your employer’s agreement and on the understanding that your employer takes responsibility for its use in your setting. 

Always check with your Educational Visits Adviser first.

EVOLVE Advice clients are encouraged to use our policy statement, adapted as appropriate to your setting, and to adopt the accompanying guidance in this document, Beyond the Gates.

Yes. There is an international school version of Beyond the Gates, which recognises that UK legislation and statutory guidance does not apply in your settings.

The guidance in Beyond the Gates remains appropriate for use in international school settings and EVOLVE Advice encourages its international school clients to adopt the guidance as part of their Educational Visits Policies.

The online international version of Beyond the Gates can be translated into Spanish, Italian, Greek and German via a ‘translate’ button on the page.

Beyond the Gates Educational Visits Guidance is available online and as a downloadable PDF document.

The online version is updated throughout the year when new guidance is published or revisions are made to existing guidance.

The document version is published annually and is available to download from the EVOLVE Advice website.

EVOLVE Advice clients can access Beyond the Gates Educational Visits Guidance from your EVOLVE site. You’ll find it in the Key Resources section on your EVOLVE site homepage.

You can download a copy of Beyond the Gates from the Beyond the Gates Guidance site (using the button above)

The online version is available online via a button from the EVOLVE Advice website (above). You can buy a printed copy from our online shop, here.

Beyond the Gates is available to EVOLVE Advice clients via your EVOLVE site, without the need to provide additional details.

We want to understand who is using Beyond the Gates and the areas of guidance that people are interested in. which is why we ask for your details to access the resource, and we use analytics to see which resources are being visited.