Nelson Mandela once said ‘If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.’
Undoubtedly, learning that foreign language of the heart is best done in situ, with all the culture that goes with it. That’s why language tours for senior students are the best way to help them learn, not just for their exams, but to encourage life-long learning too.
School tours are also a great way to build relationships with your students: you get to be more friendly and relaxed so they get to see another side of you. Once home, if a student wants to give up on something, you can say: ‘well, you managed the trip abroad, didn’t you?’
Planning senior class trips abroad can be daunting, and the sheer amount of planning will often feel like a trek up Mount Kilimanjaro. However, give yourself plenty of time to plan and your worries will fade away as the departure looms. You may be already used to planning local day trips, but planning a week-long trip abroad takes much longer, so starting up to 15 months in advance isn’t a bad idea.
Choosing where to go is the first step. Ideally, you’ll want to pick somewhere you’ve been before: your familiarity with the place will help you with the details and will back you up should you need to change plans at a moment’s notice. It will also mean that you’re more relaxed and able to enjoy a trip you’ve worked so hard to organize!
Once you’ve picked your dream destination, you can start thinking about specifics. If you want an ultra-customized tour, you’ll need to organize all the nitty gritty yourself: activities, accommodation, travel, etc. You should, of course, take into consideration your students’ interests to help determine the types of activities you want to do. Undertaking all the organization yourself will make for a cheaper trip if you’re on an extremely tight budget. However, booking through a professional tour operator will makes things a lot easier on you. Most also offer a selection of activities so that you can tailor your trip to a certain degree.
It’s important to get parents and kids involved at an early stage. Most of the time, the mere whisper of the word ‘trip abroad’ is enough to get your students on board, but don’t even think of mentioning it before you have a nice, shiny handout to send home with them for their parents!
A little further along the line, you might want to think about planning a meeting with everyone involved to address any questions, assuage any concerns and really sell benefits of the trip. Becky, who organized her first tour abroad last year said: “Some parents were tricky to motivate. They were worried about the expense and didn’t really see the benefits. But I made myself really available to them which really helped.”
Another group of people that you definitely want on your side is your team of support staff. These might be other teachers, teaching assistants, admin staff or even parents themselves. They will all be relying on you for clear, consistent leadership, so it’s your job to ensure that everyone knows exactly what they need to do. You also need to make sure that you drum up their enthusiasm for the trip and encourage them to find out about the destination for themselves.
Yes, school tours are stressful at times, and yes, they do take a lot of work. The rewards, however, match what you put into the trip. This article is by no means intended to be an exhaustive guide on how to manage a school trip: you will need to seek advice from other teachers and staff at your school who will no doubt have a wealth of experience between them. Of course, several minds are better than one to plan a successful tour. Just like your lessons, a well-thought out trip that goes well and kids really enjoy their learning is what being a teacher is all about.