Why Culture Trumps Paperwork in School Risk Management

Risk Management Goes Beyond The Checklist

Attitudes towards risk vary dramatically. Some people love extreme sports; others are terrified to change the channel on the TV. While these are the extremes, when assessing and managing risk is part of your daily work especially in schools you cannot afford to be at either end of that spectrum.

We need to avoid the "extremes" impacting effective school excursion risk management. You don't want staff so risk-averse they never leave the classroom. But the far greater danger is the staff member who says, "Don't worry about it, it’ll be fine!".

These people are dangerous. They fail to see risk due to a lack of experience and understanding, often disregarding everyone else's opinions.

Case Study: The Shoalhaven "Cowboys"

I witnessed this firsthand recently while running a canoe expedition in the Shoalhaven Gorge, a remote, rugged wilderness area accessible only by lake or helicopter. There is little margin for error here.

As we prepared, a school group paddled in. Most students weren't wearing life jackets, and the staff seemed woefully ill-prepared. I engaged one teacher who admitted they had "never been here before" and had just "hired some boats" to find a campsite.

It got worse.

Communication Failure: One teacher was running around trying to get a mobile signal (the nearest reception was 16km away). When I suggested a satellite phone a standard tool for remote area risk assessments he replied, "We don't have one of those. We didn't know there wasn't any reception.".

Planning Failure: They had only decided to bring the students out the week prior. They had "recce'd" a completely different area but moved the trip because someone "saw a snake" there.

I realised I was talking to people who were a liability, the kind who cost taxpayers thousands in evacuations because they take no responsibility.

But the kicker came later. After we paddled three hours upstream to our campsite, a student threw paper onto an old fire pit. It burst into flames immediately. The previous group—those same teachers—had left the site six hours earlier without extinguishing their fire.

The Failure of Process vs. Culture

Did that school have a risk assessment? Probably. Was it worth the paper it was written on? Absolutely not.

This is a failure of organizational culture. To manage risk effectively, you need more than a form; you need a culture of risk management.

It's not about being risk-averse. It's about proactively working as a team to identify real risks.



It requires experienced oversight. You cannot leave high-risk planning to a classroom teacher promoted beyond their experience or an in-house lawyer who has never left the office.

School excursion software for risk assessments, permission notes, medicals and camp forms are vital tools, but they must be backed by leadership that promotes honest discussions about hazards, incidents, and near-misses. It is only through this culture of awareness supported by the right systems that we can run safe, effective, and life-changing programs.