School trips are always vey rewarding but getting them off the ground in the first place can be a challenge for teachers. Music teacher Robert Fairley, is taking a group of students from St. Aidan’s High School in Scotland on a school trip to New York.
Here he shares with us some tips he learnt along the way.
As a music department, we have been organising music tours for 30 years, travelling with the school band and performing in Holland, Germany and Italy. We have mainly travelled by coach, but on our last trip to Lake Garda, we flew. Our trips normally cost from £450-£625.”
There were two of us in the department and we had heard about other schools taking music groups to New York and we thought New York would be a great opportunity for pupils to see a place they might never see with their family. So we decided to get a price, before we put it to the pupils, knowing that it would be expensive.
“We realised early on that most of the groups that had organised trips to New York were choirs so to avoid additional costs, we decided it was not going to be a band performing trip this time.
“The best advice I can give before going ahead with getting a price, is speak to someone who has organised a trip to New York, take a note of their itinerary and then you have a starting point. So that’s what we did and how invaluable that was.”
“We chose Club Europe as our head of department knew someone who had used them in the past, and they came highly recommended. We also got a quote from another tour operator and Club Europe’s quote was cheaper.
“Firstly we made a CD which was funded by a local business man and the recording was done free of charge as two of the children on the trip’s father has a recording studio. We ordered 500 CD’s and are we selling them at £5 each.
“We have also organised a race night for mid November, a xmas concert in December, a celidh in February and another concert in June next year with a possible bingo night thrown in for good measure.”
“The main challenge once you have sorted out the best price is getting the kids on board. We got a price based on 40 pupils and 6 staff (having 6 staff is an extra cost). We opened it up to music pupils only and we only had 24 pupils sign up.
“We then opened it up to friends of the people who had signed up and hey presto, we had the numbers within days!
“The other difficulty was the show. We had to watch our budget, and shows like Aladdin and Wicked, were going to blow our budget, so we chose a cheaper option, School of Rock.”
“Brexit had a major impact on our trip. Firstly-the dollar dropped!! Then we could no longer fly from Edinburgh which was a 35-minute drive from the school. So we then had to fly from Manchester and because of the early flight, we had to leave the day before we were scheduled to leave.
“As a result of all of the above, the cost went up, which is a major blow, as having got all the pupils to sign up, you can’t then go back and tell them the price has increased.
“However, the pupils are delighted, as they think they are getting an extra days holiday, and our flight arrives a few hours earlier in New York and they think it is the same price. Our fundraising will sort the extra cost.
“Throughout all of this (Club Europe Account Manager) Robert Fox has been incredible. He has put up with my constant changing of hotels, shows, itinerary and has been able to give us a fantastic package throughout all the difficulties for an extra £18 per child and with incredible patience.”
For more on Robert’s New York trip call Rob now on Freephone 0800 496 4996. Or click on the links to read more on our school travel tour to New York or all our school travel tours.
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