“Our nearest towns are 30-40 miles away,” explains Simon Smith, principal at East Whitby Primary Academy, in North Yorkshire. “And we’re talking Middlesbrough and Scarborough: we’re a considerable distance from places with a full range of cultural attractions.”

Matt Middlemore has similar problems at the other end of the country. He’s headteacher of Tregolls School, a primary in Cornwall. He says the costs of trying to take his students to museums and other cultural attractions can be huge because of the distances involved to access those resources. For schools with a smaller number of pupils in a similar location to his school, those costs can actually prevent trips from happening. “Some have fewer than 50 pupils, sometimes just five in a year group. A big trip just isn’t financially viable,” notes Middlemore.

Of course, trips to big cities and the wealth of cultural attractions they tend to offer are not a prerequisite of a good education. However, most agree that these trips do have an impact on attainment and cultural understanding. And if pupils in those cities can access them, why should students in rural schools be denied?

But who’s responsible for making sure access to cultural and other attractions is possible? The schools, the government, the attractions themselves? It is a more complicated question than it may at first appear.

Hotbeds of cultural activity

That trips to hotbeds of cultural activity are beneficial is undeniable, according to Smith. While there is usually at least one local attraction near every rural or small town school, it will often be somewhere the students will have visited many times already. Also, taking children out of their usual environment is a key driver for any school trip.

“Some of our families haven’t been outside Whitby. Our children don’t have access to museums, to theatres, to cinema,” says Smith.

He believes this cultural isolation has an impact on their education. “For example, reading books and watching plays and films helps you make connections and develop a broad base of knowledge. It helps children write and read better, and understand what they read.

“If you look at the SATs last year, a certain level of cultural literacy was required. There was a piece about evolution [the reading paper about dodos] and it used quite complex language. I’ve got a friend who works in a London school and they regularly visit the Natural History Museum. Now, we’ve taught evolution, but if we could’ve taken our kids to see fossils and remains in a museum, and have those discussions in a real context, that would’ve really helped with understanding of that text. That’s more challenging for us.”

Middlemore agrees that trips are essential. When he joined his school in 2012, it was in special measures but his team turned it around to be outstanding. He believes starting a programme of bold, culture-packed trips has helped. “It serves as a carrot. We say the pupils can only go if they’re making the expected progress,” he notes.

Michael Merrick, a teacher at St Ninian Catholic Federation in Carlisle, Cumbria, adds that appreciation of culture is enriching: “Education is as much about the soul as the intellect, and individual flourishing is often inspired, and sustained, by the kind of experiences and perspectives opened up by this sort of access.”

Christina Zanelli-Tyler, headteacher at West Cliff Primary School, says that like Smith’s school in Whitby, trips are key to getting beyond what can often be the limiting views of some families. “Some parents are fearful if we are going to a city, as it’s out of their comfort zone,” she says. She has found that documenting trips in “real time” on Facebook helps to allay concerns.

“We come from a small, mono-cultural town where children are exposed to very few outside influences. It’s important socially and academically to see a wider world…it raises aspirations,” she adds.

A visit to a city may open kids’ eyes to new job options, agrees Smith. “If you look at the history of a lot of our families, their dad worked in fishing, so they work in fishing. It’s that kind of set path,” he notes.

Cultural experience is just as important to secondary students, says Katie White, a teacher at Kingsbridge Community College in Devon (the nearest big town is an hour away). “Our children can tend to find big cities very scary,” she says. “So a visit prepares them for being adults and perhaps going to university, for example.”

This is not about denigrating where the children live, these teachers are keen to stress. “It’s about saying ‘This is Whitby, and this is what’s out there’. Then the children decide. It’s not about saying this is better or this is worse,” explains Smith. “Personally I couldn’t live in a city. But it’s about options.”

Who is making sure trips happen for all?

So considering these trips are so important, whose job is it to make sure that they happen for all children, regardless of where they live?

One of the biggest issues is cost, but it’s important to note that many of the attractions that schools visit are free. However, getting to London from Cornwall, for example, to take advantage of those free museums, can be as much as £100 per pupil, says Middlemore.

Even going to the nearest big towns of Plymouth or Exeter, where theatrical companies might appear at the local theatre as part of a tour, will come at a considerable cost.

Schools have tended to take on responsibility for finding the cash themselves. Middlemore says fundraising has been crucial.

“For example, we split pupils into teams and gave them £15 each. They then had to grow that money. One team used it to buy car-washing equipment and raised £200 washing cars,” he says.

He adds that there are also a number of bodies that offer grants to disadvantaged children, such as Wooden Spoon (woodenspoon.org.uk), the National Lottery (lotterygoodcauses.org.uk) and Tesco Bags of Help (groundwork.org.uk).

And you can always ask around in the local community, he says. One local shopkeeper provided drinks and snacks for his students on a school coach trip, which would have cost around £100.

Some schools also have a policy of using some of their pupil premium to cover trips for disadvantaged children. “We believe our pupil premium should partly be used for trips because they’re really important cultural experiences that support learning,” says Smith.

Where some of the cost does have to be passed to parents, planning is crucial.

A rural location and a deprived catchment can make planning trips incredibly difficult, but headteachers in these circumstances say that giving parents a year or more notice and allowing payment in instalments can mean that trips are made viable.

But should it all be down to the schools to make these trips work? Major attractions offer little by way of discounts or funding to help isolated schools, according to Middlemore. “Why would they? Do they have to? No. They’re not bothered if a school from Cornwall doesn’t come,” he says.

Smith would also appreciate it if attractions did more to help with costs, but he is sympathetic about the reasons why they don’t. “I would love it if they could,” he says. “But given their [own] funding [constraints] I don’t think it’s their issue.”

“I’m sure major attractions would say they try, but I’ll limit myself to saying they should try harder,” adds Merrick, “Although one must be realistic about the challenges involved.”

However, certain organisations do work to connect with isolated schools - the Houses of Parliament, for example. “To support schools, we offer a travel subsidy dependent on where the group is visiting from, which covers up to 75 per cent of their costs,” notes David Clark, head of education and engagement at the Houses of Parliament.

Manchester Art Gallery’s head of learning, Ronan Brindley, adds that her organisation aims to help schools as much as it can. “As a council-run gallery, Manchester Art Gallery’s first responsibility is towards Manchester’s schools and their pupils,” she says. “[But] as with other sizeable galleries throughout the UK, we respond to interest from all schools and are always willing to discuss with schools as to how to make visits more beneficial and affordable.”

Take the experience to the school

Other organisations point out that they do as much as they can to take the experience to the school, rather than the school having to travel to the experience.

The National Museum Cardiff aims to offer such opportunities. “Last year the museum sent one of its exhibitions to two venues in North Wales,” notes Eleri Wyn Evans, learning manager at the National Museum Cardiff. “We also support schools that are not able to visit through making lots of our collection available digitally.”

The British Film Institute (BFI) is another organisation that works hard on outreach. “We’re very conscious of making our assets accessible outside London,” notes Paul Gerhardt, BFI director of education. “We’ve had two years of support from the Wellcome Trust to create ‘immersive cinema’ events in out-of-the-way locations: we’ve been to Woodhall Spa, Nailsworth, Treorchy, Milford Haven, Mold, Inverness and Midhurst.”

The BFI also supports Into Film, which offers state-funded UK schools the chance to set up a free after-school film club, with access to thousands of films. “There’s also the annual three-week Into Film Festival, which plays in hundreds of cinemas around the UK every November,” notes Gerhardt.

The National Theatre (NT) is on the case, too. “We feel we have a responsibility to support schools, including those in geographically isolated areas,” says Jane Ball from the learning department of the National Theatre.

“Over the next two years, three productions (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Jane Eyre, and War Horse) will be touring the country.

“In addition, many of our productions are streamed live into local cinemas around the country via NT Live.” The NT also offers On Demand In Schools, a scheme that provides recordings of plays along with learning resources.

Smith has first-hand experience of museums offering outreach and says it can be effective. “We’ve had some museums bring things into school,” he notes. “We had an astronomy experience come from the Life Science Centre [in Newcastle]. It was a blow-up dome that kids went into and their staff came and taught the kids about stars. It cost a lot less than arranging a trip, and rather than 30 children accessing it, the whole school could.”

White says that live screening has been similarly beneficial for her students. “The live screening of theatre and museum exhibitions to local cinemas has been transformative,” she says.

Her students have enjoyed productions from the NT, Shakespeare’s Globe, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Ballet and the British Museum. However, she has had to do a lot of the leg work for some of these experiences and she feels there still isn’t enough of them on offer. “I still don’t think major attractions do enough to help isolated schools but it has been a good start,” she says.

The trouble with outreach, of course, is that the important benefits spoken of earlier about the act of going somewhere new, of experiencing different environments, is missed out on. There seems to be agreement among teachers and attractions that outreach projects and digital resources are never the same as the “real thing”.

A glimpse of country life

Of course, it could be argued that schools in major cities face just as many challenges heading in the other direction in relation to giving their students a glimpse of country life. “A city school can’t do everything rural in one day either - beaches, woods, mountains, lakes,” says Smith. “They would probably go for a week somewhere. But I still think it’s a challenge. Our kids have a really good understanding of waves and tides, for example, and I don’t think that depth of understanding comes in a week. I just think we’ve got different opportunities.”

So perhaps more needs to be done to attract school trips by country parks and outward bound centres, too? But Merrick says the costs involved in a rural trip are on a much smaller scale. “A hostel in Workington is simply cheaper than a hotel in London,” he points out.

And there is arguably more choice for city schools seeking rural pursuits, too. While the major attractions are concentrated in a few big cities, opportunities for rural experiences are multiple. But if opening children’s eyes to new cultural opportunities and new environments is as crucial as teachers claim, then there is a necessity for everyone to try to make the process easier, whether they are trekking to cities or in the opposite direction.

On the rural school side, teachers are doing their best to get kids to the city with very limited budgets, but they need more help. Attractions need to continue on their current path of opening up opportunities and push on further, while the government needs to become involved, too: cost is a major barrier and funding for schools and the arts is in an increasingly desperate state. If we want well-rounded British citizens, as the government claims, investment is needed.

In the meantime, the dedication of teaching staff is really the only thing that ensures children in rural schools get the same opportunities as their city counterparts. Middlemore, for example, refuses to be cowed by the challenges of running a trip as a rural school.

“We don’t bat an eyelid anymore [when planning school trips]. We’re already thinking, ‘Shall we do Rome next year?’ says Middlemore, “Bodmin doesn’t come into it anymore, I’m afraid. We can go to Bodmin any day!”

Jessica Powell is a freelance journalist