School Trips are part of the solution to Inclusion challenges

School Trips are part of the solution to inclusion challenges

W.B Yeats noted that “Education is not the filling of a pot, but the lighting of a fire.” That said, my dad used to quip that there’s three great reasons to be a teacher: June, July and August - so it’s frustrating when the news is full of depressing stories: the impact of Exclusions, the creaking SEN provision and child absences. These are all important issues for which there are no ready solutions, so we thought we’d write a more uplifting post about how school trips are part of the solution to these inclusion challenges!

Stage a School Trip to France!

School Trips to France have been on the decline, but we’re getting better reviews than ever! We are fully inclusive and used to working with a broad range of children with different experiences and challenges. Brexit means that our staff team is made up of enthusiastic French Group Leaders which means YOU get a truly authentic, French experience when you visit. Gail Godwin purportedly said that “Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths pure theatre,” so why not let us help plan your trip and then provide the stage and cast?

Teachers are good at what they do!

If good teachers are the ones who can challenge young minds without losing their own (!), then teachers in England are typically great with their students! You make a real difference! If school trips are part of the solution to those inclusion challenges, UK teachers are good at it. Don’t believe us? Here’s what two of our current Group leaders think about working with UK school teachers:

“Although British society is very class-ridden, I find the hierarchy less tangible within English schools, which allowsteachers and children to have deeper conversations and laughters. I still remember an excursion to Saint-Suzanne, and when I came back with half of the group from a small walk around the village, the other half was talking and laughing with their teachers all seated in deckchairs. British teachers are far closer to their pupils than French teachers, and they are also far more concerned with their pupils. And it is not a matter of personality but rather the system which wants it like that!” – Nora, student teacher and Château Beaumont Group Leader since 2022

“Being a group leader at Chateau Beaumont is one of the most enriching experiences of my life. You are responsible for a group of 30 to 60 English kids who want to have the best time of their life in France. We do lots of excursions like Mont-Saint-Michel, Saint-Malo, Château de Fougères, Goats farm, Cider Museum, and typical French markets. These excursions are really important because it’s during them that we connect with children, talk to them. One thing that I enjoy about being a tour guide is also talking with the teachers about how teaching works in England. Wishing to become an English teacher, I always find it very interesting to see how my future profession works in another country.” – Adèle, student teacher and Château Beaumont Group Leader since 2021

And if you don’t believe them, Michael Morpurgo once said: “It is the Teacher that makes the Difference, Not the Classroom.”

School Trips are part of many things - Be Bold!

Schools need to grab the interest of young people in ways they never had to before. We believe schools are in direct competition with exciting and attention-grabbing, social-media sound-bites that fill children with never-before-seen levels of knowledge, often from unreliable sources. Schools can't easily compete with this. Who needs school if you can learn anything on the internet? Yet a technology-driven, knowledge-rich, online environment struggles to provide two things: real experiences and a route to wisdom. But schools can still seize and own this space!

Most teachers’ know this intuitively because their best moments are often when they do something innovative, new and inspirational. Such moments often have an immediate impact because they are experiential. Pupils gain wisdom they can apply broadly, not just knowledge for an exam. They don't just know it, they understand and feel it. The success of systems and methodologies in the classroom has often been at the expense of experiencing new things that increase wisdom.

Obviously we need a routine approach to subjects such as reading and maths, but balancing this with opportunities for pupils to experience new things and challenge their assumptions – to be surprised, startled and awed - so they become wiser, must form part of any meaningful curriculum. What better way to provide real experiences, and challenge cheaply-gained knowledge, than a school trip, and why not a trip to France!?

Joyce Meyer said, “Teachers can change lives with the right mix of chalk and challenges.” Basically, school trips are part of more than just the French language - they're part of building experience and wisdom that can't be gleaned from a mobile phone.

OFSTED

Dropping single-word judgements is a great step forward but, as said in our previous blog, the changes can't stop there! They have an opportunity to serve children and teachers. We believe that inspections should be done WITH schools, not TO them.

Combatting the Cost of Covid

J.D. Salinger once said, “You can’t stop a teacher when they want to do something. They just do it.” Anecdotally, all schools visiting us since 2021 have highlighted the issues faced by their children due to the Covid lockdowns. They've also said how school trips have played a key role in building back those social skills, resilience and self-confidence.

We’re proud to be part of that journey and hope we can extend it to even more schools in 2025 and beyond. We know the cost-of-living crisis weighs heavily, but a school trip to France is worth every penny.

We wish all teachers the very best for the academic year ahead!