Hi Margmir,
I have done many London trips with language schools to London over the last five years. If you wanted to do it the safe way, then I could recommend a very reliable language school based in Brighton who could help you. They have been doing London trips for the last 23 years.
Alternatively, if you wanted to arrange something yourself, then it really isn �t that hard. Here are some bullet points below of some things which you might want to consider:
- How many students do you plan to take? Make sure you have enough group leaders to cover the number, perhaps one leader to every 10-15 students.
- Try to choose leaders who have been to London before
- Have a planned itinerary i.e. Arrive in London at 9.30am, go to Hyde Park, then a photo trip to Buckingham Palace (these things are free). Lunch in Green Park. Photo trip to the Tower of London River Boat cruise after lunch (you can get excellent group discounts and the entrance is next to the tower), shopping at Harrod �s, 6pm return home.
- An itinerary like this will reduce costs for you, but the group would have covered lots of London and had a great time
- To get around, you will to use the underground. Plan which stations you need to use BEFORE you travel. Make every leader aware of this and give them a copy of the information to keep in their bag
- Make sure all the students have the mobile numbers of the group leaders and that the leaders have the numbers of all the students
- Make an emergency meeting point i.e Victoria Train Station which ALL leaders and students know. A delegated leader should be chosen to perform this task before-hand, so all the students know who they are looking for and feel relaxed that everything is ok
- Make sure you give a safety talk while on the coach our flight on the way. Although the students might find it boring, state the obvious i.e cars coming from the other way, keep up with the group when walking from A to B, don �t go into pubs during free time, etc. Everyone knows where they stand and you �ve covered your back!
Thats about it. Its actually really easy to do, but if you do feel a bit daunted by it, then send me an email and I can put you in direct phone/email contact with the professionals.
Hope this helps,
Stuart Allen (from Brighton, teaching in central China)
ESLplans.com
