Welcome to the Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge website
The Learning Outside the Classroom (LOtC) Quality Badge provides for the first time a national accreditation combining the essential elements of provision – learning and safety – into one easily recognisable and trusted Quality Badge for all types of Learning Outside the Classroom provider organisations.
Widespread consultation with those involved with children and young people’s services revealed the need for a common scheme which could provide an assurance as to the quality of the educational experiences on offer.
Who is the Quality Badge for?
It is for all organisations and venues that provide learning outside the classroom experiences for children and young people aged 0-19, where they are:
- Offering good quality teaching and learning experiences; and
- Safe (i.e. managing risk effectively).
The LOtC Quality Badge is intended to assist schools in identifying external LOtC providers who deliver good quality teaching and learning experiences and manage risk effectively. Schools themselves are not eligible for the Quality Badge unless they act as LOtC providers to other schools or to the wider community.
What are the benefits of the Quality Badge?
For users, the Quality Badge provides an assurance that a provider:
- Offers ‘what it says on the tin’;
- Takes account of the needs of users;
- Has an emphasis on ‘learning/skills outcomes’; and
- Operates in a healthy and safe environment
Local authorities, other employers, the education workforce and parents will be able to recognise and have confidence in the Quality Badge scheme.
For providers, the Quality Badge will:
- Accredit the quality of educational provision;
- Provide a marketing opportunity;
- Better enable ‘fast tracking’ for client approval;
- Improve consistency in educational provision; and
- Provide a useful development tool.
The Department for Children, Schools and Families has worked in partnership with the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom to develop the LOtC Quality Badge. For more information about the Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto and the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom, please visit www.lotc.org.uk.
Note: The LOtC Quality Badge scheme was launched on 2 October 2008 and the first Quality Badges will be awarded from February 2009. If a provider is not yet listed in the Quality Badge searchable database, this does not necessarily mean they are not offering a quality experience; they may be working towards meeting the quality indicators and being awarded a Quality Badge.
