For each tour you will be provided with Tour Notes from which you should build and develop your guided tour.  You should study the tour notes in advance of your tour day, allowing time to research and adjust the tour notes as appropriate. Perhaps you know the area well, or have some useful connections to things the students might find interesting or fun. 

You will also need to prepare travel cards (London) and any tickets you may need for pre-booked attractions and venues. Bookings should be ready for you, and are prepared by the Tour Coordinator. All paid attractions require tickets, and many of the free attractions such as museums also have booking requirements. 

You are unlikely to be the only tour guide assigned to a particular excursion, so you should share your ideas and knowledge with the other tour guides, or ask them for help or advice in delivering a particular tour if you need it. 

You should also confirm your plans with your Tour Coordinator before the day of your tour, and check over the finalised details. 

The night before, and again on the morning of the tour, you should check for travel and weather disruption, and speak to your coodinator if you have any concerns.

The most important thing to remember about your tour delivery is that it should be education and entertaining. You should breathe life into your tour notes through enthusiastic delivery, culturally relevant conncetions, jokes, and plenty of energy. You are leading a group of teenagers around places they will have often never even heard of before, so it is up to you to build that excitement. 

The same is true for travelling to and from your destination, so it is always a good idea to have some quick games, quizzes or conversation starters for the journey. Sometimes you could be on a train for an hour, or at a tube station for 10 minutes, either way, you should engage with your students to keep energy and excitement high. 

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For walking tours in the city, the tour notes will contain walking routes, appropriate places to stop, and educational notes on the stops along the route. They will cover the entire route. 

For tours to galleries or museums, your tour notes will typically cover three to four exhibits on the ground floor, after which the students should be given free time to further explore the venue.  

You can see a sample Tour Note here

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Your main role is to ensure the smooth-running of the tour and to make sure the students have a fun and memorable experience. For many of them, this will be their first time in a foreign county or even away from home, so you should always represent a support system, especially during long tiring days, or days when something doesn’t quite go right (e.g. delays, cancellations, bad weather). You should always maintain a positive, happy approach, and establish a friendly, welcoming relationship based on trust. 

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You must remain in contact with your manager on the WhatsApp group chat throughout the tour, communicating any problems that may occur, as well as their successful departure and return. Knowing which groups are in the school, and which groups are on tour is an important part of fire safety. 

Messages should be short and concise, e.g. “Travelling Fox on way to Leicester Square”, “Travelling Fox are back on campus”, and should not turn into a conversation about how fun the trip was. It is important to keep the management group as clear as possible so that information can be passed quickly and easily in an emergency.

*Travelling Fox is the name of one groups you may work with

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For any problems regarding an Excursion Sheet or an activity, you should always refer to your campus coordinator for more details or clarification.

For London centres, Underground tickets are pre-purchased. These are physical paper tickets and require a stamped date on each ticket before use. 

The travel cards will be available from the office.

You should collect as many travel cards as you need for your group, the group leaders and yourself, and you should hold on to all the tickets for the duration of the tour. 

Many of the centres run what is known as a Travel Card Swap, this means that after your morning tour, you should return your tickets to the office so they can be used for the afternoon tours. There may be groups in your centre who have paid for travel card use all day, you will be notified by your coordinator which groups these are, and the tickets for these groups can be handed to their group leader. 

If you are asked to stamp new tickets, please be aware that Language in Action pay per stamped ticket, and as such, any errors in stamping, or lost tickets can cause unnecessary costs for the company. It is important to ensure that you understand the requirement to be accurate and precise with the stamps. 

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For Manchester centres, students should have weekly bus passes. The students are responsible for keeping their own bus passes, but you should always stress the importance of not losing it. 

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For full day excursions outside of the city, you will frequently take trains to your destination. Train tickets will typically be booked in advance by your Tour Coordinator, however there are some tours on which tickets are booked at the train station on the day of the tour. In these instances you will be provided a method of payment and a list of the tickets you should book. 

Train tickets are often off-peak same-day return tickets, meaning there is no set time to catch the return train. For these tickets you should plan ahead to make sure you catch a train with enough time to return to campus for dinner service in the canteen. 

Should there be a problem during a tour, it is your responsibility to immediately call your coordinator to make them aware of the problem so they can assess the situation and take the appropriate action.

Each problem will be assessed by management, however there are some key things to remember:

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The safety and welfare of the students is paramount. If you feel there is an immediate risk to this, you must act promptly. Situations that require swift action could be: losing one or more students, any type of injury, and external dangers such as ambiguous or threatening strangers approaching the group. This might mean moving the group to a safe place, arranging food or shelter, activating the Emergency Procedure protocol, calling the police, or asking additional team members to be sent out to assist. Always call your coordinator if you feel students’ safety or welfare are at risk. 

NOTE: See our Emergency Procedure and Risk Assessment documentation for details about potential dangers and protocols.

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The student experience should not suffer. Problems with travel, bookings, activities, or problems within the group can all have a negative effect on the student experience. If the tour cannot go ahead for any reason, arrangements will be made for the students to do something else. Contact your coordinator, as some activities can easily be moved around, whilst others cannot be rearranged, and other options may need to be assessed. 

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Travelling across the city can often cause problems due to slow or overcrowded public transport, cancellations, or strikes. Delays are often unavoidable; however, they are usually not cause for concern. If any of these problems do become cause for concern, you may need to contact your manager to make them aware of it. For example, if students are delayed returning to the school for mealtime or if an outbound journey is delayed and puts the group at risk of losing their booking. 

You should also reiterate possible delays and contingencies to group leaders, reassuring them that a solution will be found, and politely remind them that delays and disruptions, especially during busy summers in central London, are things out of our control.