2025-26 EVOLVE Advice Snapshot
A new academic year of educational visits has begun and the EVOLVE Advice team is ready to support you with advice, training and support.
Over the last year we’ve introduced new resources and opportunities to support you and your educational visits.
We’ve got big plans for you this year, but before we reveal those, let’s look back at the exciting developments from the past year.
Your advice and support service - a snapshot of 2025-26
Across all our services our goal is to support our schools to confidently deliver safe and memorable educational visits. We’re committed to providing:
Fast, in context, competent advice on all aspects of educational visits.
High-quality training to equip you with the skills and knowledge you need.
Useful resources developed for, and with, EVCs to help you day-to-day.
We now work with over 4,500 schools, Local Authorities, Groups and Trusts. During the 2025/26 academic year, we have welcomed 148 new schools, alongside six new Trusts.
We are also continuing to expand internationally, with a new school joining us from India, we now have 37 International schools across 8 countries.
View and filter our schools community map to see our impact across the globe.
Want to know what’s coming next? Read below to find out what we have planned for you this year.
Recognition of our team
Our team continues to support over 4,500 schools and settings across the UK and overseas. We’re determined that our clients will continue to receive the high-quality advice, training and support you expect from EVOLVE Advice.
Providing our support starts with investing in our team
We prioritise the wellbeing and professional development of our team. Since our last September we have been recognised 4 times by UK Best Workplaces, Great Place to Work Certification (2025), UK Best Workplaces for Development (2026), UK Best Workplaces for Wellbeing (2026) and UK Best Workplaces for Women (2026).
In 2025-26 we grew our team to further support our clients and their educational visits. We were joined by a training experience lead (Emma), marketing and communications executive (Ellen), office administrator (Helen), and two new advisers, (Emma and Katy).
We’re also proud to announce that our Director of Operations & Advice Andy has achieved his CIMOSH status and is now Chartered Member of IOSH.
Supporting the LOtC Quality Badge programme with the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom – a key mark of quality and safety management.
More training for safer visits
This year we have introduced more course dates for more flexibility with our training,
We revised and relaunched our Principles of Visit Leadership e-learning course. Updated for 2026 this IOL-accredited course covers the core aspects of the Visit Leader role and is intended for staff leading and supporting educational visits. We also updated our Blended Visit Leader training for 2026, designed to equip staff with the key requirements to become a competent Visit Leader.
We expanded our first aid training, all our first aid courses include paediatric and outdoor first aid skills, specifically designed for school and visit contexts.
We pride ourselves on raising and maintaining standards in educational visits training. Feedback from our training in 2025-2026 showed that 99.7% of over 2,000 learners would recommend our training.
More Tools for Schools for your teams
There are now even more free resources available to support schools and educational visits teams, including our FREE First Aid Posters.
Our Funding Finder is regularly updated with the latest funding and grant opportunities resource on our website that helps you find grants and other funding opportunities with advice on making the case for funding your visits.
Loyalty Locker
We launched our Loyalty Locker, created to give something back to our schools we support. The Loyalty Locker provides access to special offers and negotiated discounts from trusted brands, trip providers and education suppliers.
In January we funded 20 CLOtC Memberships for schools as part of its ongoing commitment to supporting the wider schools and educational visits communities.
Our free newsletter, published every two weeks during the academic year, continues to provide the latest news, resources, advice and opportunities for schools Alongside our, three free editions of The EVC Magazine.
We launched our new Allergy Safety Toolkit, a free resource to help schools with implementing the new Allergy Safety guidance.
National Educational Visits Conference 2026
In June this year we held our Educational Visits Conference, the theme of the conference was 6 Million Reasons EACH CHILD, EVERY VISIT.
6 million is the number of children and young people who participated in educational visits organised by schools supported by EVOLVE Advice in 2025.
We believe that every child should have access to these opportunities, and ‘ 6 Million Reasons EACH CHILD, EVERY VISIT.’ reminds us that each decision we make, each document, difficult conversation, plan B or reasonable adjustment is a fundamental part of providing safe and memorable visits for all children and young people.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for the National Educational Visits Conference 2026, the day was an important learning and development day.
99% of attendees rated the overall impression of the day 4 or 5 out of 5
“Getting to speak to others allowed me to see that actually many of us EVCs are finding similar challenges and barriers and gives us a chance to find ways to move forward and tackle these barriers.”
“Brilliant Day”
“Have recommended to many, looking forward to the next one already”
Feedback from 52 attendees June 2026
EVC of the year award 2025
We introduced our EVC of the year 2025 award to shine a spotlight on those unsung heroes representing schools across the globe. Celebrating the dedication, creativity, and leadership of EVCs who go above and beyond to open up the world for young people.
Marie Towns from St Edmund’s College and Prep School in Hertfordshire was named EVC of the Year 2025, chosen from an impressive field of entrants from the UK and overseas.
Marie Towns
Marie says: “I am truly delighted and honoured to have received the EVC of the Year Award, and incredibly grateful for the nominations. Since my very first trip to the Science Museum in 2000, each visit has reinforced my strong belief in the value of learning outside the classroom. I feel so lucky to do a job that allows me not only to lead these experiences but also to train and support new teachers in delivering them safely and confidently.
“I still remember my first EVC training with Jake Wiid, who emphasised the importance of balancing safety with challenge, encouraging us to step beyond our comfort zones while ensuring students are supported and secure. That has stayed with me throughout my career.
“Educational visits open doors. They inspire, challenge and create lasting memories. I remain passionate about continuing to provide students with experiences that take their learning beyond the school gates and into the wider world.”
Read more about Marie and the EVC of the year award in The EVC Magazine.
The nominations for the 2026 EVC of the year award will open in November.
What’s coming next?
We can’t wait to see you in the new term, and we’ve got more exciting things in store for you, here’s a sneak peak…
A series of free webinars led by EVOLVE Advice advisers and guests (starting 18 September).
More free toolkits, checklists and resources to support educational visits progression and planning.
Whattapps channel – hear about things as soon as they happen
New training for managing allergy on educational visits
Wondering how to stay updated whenever we introduce new resources or services? Subscribe to EVOLVE Advice Educational Visits Essentials for regular emails.
We can’t wait to share new developments with you. If you’re not already subscribed to get news and updates straight to your inbox, sign up below for our regular e-newsletter and The EVC Magazine.