The safety position you can hand to your principal.

Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority guidance sets a minimum age of 14 for white-water rafting, on all sections of the river. We hold to that as a firm rule — not a guideline we bend for a student who is nearly there, or for a signed parental consent form. Students under 14 are not excluded from the trip. They run a full day built from rainforest trekking, zip lining, supervised shallow water and team challenges instead.

The Kelani at Kitulgala runs grade 2-3 rapids, the standard introductory level used across Sri Lanka. Every student wears a helmet and buoyancy aid. Every raft is guided. The whole group is briefed together before anyone enters the water, and students move in fixed pods with headcounts called at every transition. We hold to the 14+ minimum age without exception. If conditions make the river unsuitable, we switch to the land programme instead of running it regardless.

Yes, with planning rather than assumption. Every participant wears a buoyancy aid, and the safety briefing has a dedicated section on exactly what to do if you end up in the water. Tell us how many non-swimmers are in your group at the quoting stage, so we can plan pods and supervision around it. A genuinely good dry-land alternative exists for any student who would rather not enter the water at all. Nobody is talked into it.

There is no single statutory ratio for school excursions in Sri Lanka. Most schools work to their own internal policy, or to international guidance. That typically indicates around one adult per ten students for a day trip, and a tighter ratio for water-based activity. Our guides supervise the activities. Your teachers supervise your students. Tell us your school's own ratio when you enquire, and we size the student pods and guide team to match it.

It depends on your school, and often on whether it is a government, national or international school. Rather than guess, send us your school's own external-provider checklist. We answer it item by item, in writing, before you commit to a date. If something on it is genuinely outside what we can provide, we tell you plainly, rather than leaving that ambiguous until it matters.

Canyoning does not have one published national age figure the way rafting does. The real limit is equipment specification and site conditions — the harness sizes we have, and the actual route your group will use. We confirm the age and size limits against your specific group in writing at the quoting stage, not on the day. Tell us the ages in your year group when you enquire, and we confirm what is workable before you plan around it.

We answer, honestly and in writing, any specific question your school's approval process puts to us — how we run activities, supervise students, handle an emergency on the ground. Many schools use those written answers to build their own risk assessment. Send us your school's checklist. We go through it item by item, rather than offer a generic document that may not match what your committee actually needs.

They stop. Nobody argues them out of it. Every student is told during the briefing exactly how to signal that they want to stop. There is always an exit route, and always somewhere comfortable to wait, with a guide or a member of staff. A student who is allowed to stop without a fuss often asks to rejoin a little later, once the moment has passed.

Every student is assigned a numbered helmet at kit-up. It stays theirs for the day. Students move in fixed pods with one named guide throughout. Headcounts are called aloud at every transition — off the bus, after kit-up, before water entry, on exit, before lunch and before departure. Your own staff can hear the count and check it against their own list. Supervision is not something we ask you to take on trust.

Late disclosure is the most common cause of a student having a difficult day. That is exactly why we ask for conditions, medication, allergies, recent injuries and swimming confidence before the trip, not on the morning. If something is disclosed on the day itself, our guides adjust that student's activity plan on the spot. The better outcome is always for us to know in advance and plan around it properly.

No. We work to the SLTDA guidance of 14 years, on all sections of the river, as a firm minimum. We do not make exceptions for a student who is close to the age, or for a parent's written consent. A student who turns 14 before the trip date can join the river programme. A student who has not yet turned 14 on the day runs the age-appropriate land and water programme instead.