Rhyddings Business and Enterprise School, located in Oswaldtwistle, is a mixed, child-centric school. They decided to take their Year 10s on a trip to London to “broaden their horizons, enrich their experience of life and relate the work they do at school to the big world, and throw in a bit of social learning as well.” What followed was an amazing, stimulating and exciting trip to the UK’s capital that did exactly that. The rest is explained by the trip leader.
I’d have loved to have taken the kids abroad for the adventure, but there was something significant about that year – the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the Olympics; London has never looked prettier. The entire world was watching! This appealed to my sense of occasion, context, history and memories; I hoped it would create a profound bond between them (and us as teachers) and that they would have the time of their lives, as well as remember it forever.
I was weighing up how to put such a trip together when Nici from WST called. I explained how things are with us financially and asked if she could put something together that the families of students could cope with. WST worked with us in devising a schedule where we could pay in instalments.
Just before our trip ran, the Geography department ran its field trip to Amsterdam for a few days. Visits like this always fall in the time after Year 11 leave because no one likes abandoning their GCSE groups in such a vital year. Booking a trip during the holidays means they don’t miss out on learning, in fact, they experience even more.
We travelled by coach to London, which could have been an exhausting experience. However, it was made easy thanks to our coach driver.
Phil, the driver, advised us and made suggestions for the smoothest running of our schedule. He liked the kids and they liked him, which is always important on a school trip! The students were really happy to clean and look after their coach because they were “helping Phil”. They even made up a song for him on the way home, “Hey there, Delilah” became “Hey there, Phil the driver.” Sweet.
Before our trip, we introduced our students to Banksy’s work, and showed them YouTube videos of the graffiti street tours. We called it “art isn’t always in a gallery”. We told the students we would explore a range of fine art genres to whet their appetite. After this, we let the pupils tell us what the next part of the journey would be, which was exploring that sometimes art is in a gallery. Then we presented a range of images currently in the Saatchi Gallery and Tate Britain.
We didn’t tell the students that they might explore these pieces of art in real life a week later; we wanted them to suddenly recognise things and have “light-bulb” moments, which they did - impressing the guides on the street art tour. It had the desired effect in the galleries too! These moments ranked amongst the highlights of the trip for me – connecting the dots meant that we were achieving the aims we set.
During the gallery visits, our students talked, questioned and explored various techniques, such as Derain’s colourful Cézanne and Nash’s Totes Meer. The whole school initiative was to develop ‘questioning’, which would help us to become an Outstanding school; this trip enabled us to grow this and encourage the students to think for themselves.
For one of the nights, we visited Planet Hollywood. Our school appeared on the TV screens in the restaurant, accompanied by a welcome scroll. When the students saw this, they cheered and sang along to One Direction’s ‘What Makes You Beautiful’. This went on to be classed as the song of the trip. Overall, what we saw on the trip was excellent - although some would have loved to see more Banksy! Now back to school…
The students kept asking me to take them back – another, longer trip – their bond is so sound and strong. Their increased knowledge is truly enriched by what we did in partnership with WST. Our work has been so enhanced in school by this visit. They were still talking about it two months later.
After our trip, we bought the students some London canvases in a summer sale and wrapped them up. On the last day of term, we gave each one a laminated image montage of everyone and their adventures to the capital.
We ate cake, drank pop, watched a presentation of our pictures from the trip which featured ‘their song’ and told our tales of what we did.
The students opened their pictures up and spent some time writing messages to each other on the backs of them (like our school leavers often do) and we invited the head teacher to join us.
We wanted them to remember it forever.
It’s essential that schools and their school trip providers work as a team. WST understand this and were completely in tune with my objectives and the profile of my school. I may have been the trip leader, but this venture allowed ME to feel as if it was a trip for me and my team, too.
The trip ran efficiently because it had been well organised by WST with liaison throughout the lead-up, and they were there for us at the end of the phone if we needed them. If anything concerned me, I only had to call and Rachel would help me to find a solution quickly.
I am so grateful that I chose a company who fully supported my vision for our kids. I really couldn’t have asked for more from them. And finally, the trip was the BEST experience of learning outside the classroom I have led in many years.
If you’re interested in planning the best educational tour for your pupils, speak to a member of our friendly travel team who will be happy to help.