The government is inviting key operators in the leisure industry to comment on draft supplementary guidance to schools on how to organise outdoor adventure trips.

The draft handbook, to be published later this year has been available to schools and local education authorities on the Department of Education's website www.dfes.gov.uk since last December and a pocket-sized handbook was made available to group leaders.

The guidance takes on board lessons learnt from school tragedies and is likely to attract renewed attention after the drowning of a 10-year old boy this month (May), who had accompanied a school outdoor pursuits weekend break with his mother.

'The Good Practice guide is an essential guide that all schools and local education authorities will want to work to,' said a DFES spokesperson. 'This is an important policy area and it is essential that we get feedback from key players before publishing final supplementary guidance before the end of the summer term.'