The Haut Koenigsburg medieval castle in Alsace is always impressive for school children
The Haut Koenigsburg medieval castle in Alsace is always impressive for school children
What about a school trip? Why organise an educational trip or tour? Our school syllabuses try to give the young a taste of how our ancestors lived, and draw their attention to the landmarks which have marked our progress towards modern civilisation. In most places, expert guides and curators are frequently on hand to help visitors relive it in a lively, interactive way. What more could a teacher ask?
Organising an educational school trip to a foreign country requires effort. A good deal of time must be spent on administrative tasks and it therefore needs to be prepared well in advance. Most teachers travel privately to countries like Ireland, France, the USA or the United Kingdom, sometimes several times a year. So why not take advantage of this to visit some of the sites, tourist routes, or possible accommodation, in advance ? Your eventual trip can only benefit from such preparation and you will avoid possible disappointment and unnecessary risks.
For long trips lasting over 2 or 3 days, it may well be impossible to involve all your other teacher colleagues in the project since they may be committed to other classes or activities, so why not adopt a multi-disciplinary approach? Many places listed on this website are of interest not only to language, history and geography teachers, but to literature, music and art teachers as well. By planning to share responsibility for the trip from the outset, you will have got the project off to a good start and may well find that once a trip has been organised in this way, it will remain a blueprint for the years to come.
When visiting one of the places mentioned on this site in the course of a private holiday, why not take the opportunity to look at the teacher’s pack and student worksheets available, or ask for them to be sent to you by post? This will make classroom preparation easier and allow you to incorporate it into the curriculum. In short, a preliminary visit, often free of charge to teachers, will contribute greatly to the preparation and success of your trip. Our website does not pretend to be exhaustive - far from it. Our aim is simply to introduce you to a number of sites where teachers, in the company of their pupils, can take a journey back through time.
Admittedly, exploring the paths we point out to you may sometimes require a little more effort than simply following the beaten track and the usual list of "inevitable" tourist attractions. But he who dares, wins!
WHO SHOULD PREPARE THE TRIP?
A school trip with educational and pedagogical objectives requires a good deal of work and preparation. It needs to be discussed and worked out in detail in consultation with colleagues. Classroom preparation must be organised around the chosen topics, practical arrangements must be made, and above all, the necessary financial support found.
If all this work were to rest on one pair of shoulders, it would naturally be enough to make all but the most stout-hearted quail. The solution lies, of course, in sharing both your enthusiasm and the workload. Your fellow teachers are naturally ideally suited to preparing the "pedagogical" part of the enterprise, but many parents would certainly be more than willing to dedicate some of their time and skills to organising fund-raising activities (see “How to raise money”). For after all, successful fund-raising will lighten the financial contribution they are asked to make.
