It’s one thing knowing the curriculum material, but finding stories behind the history and creating bespoke support materials to enhance the trip can be time-consuming.
Why not hand over the responsibility to a passionate expert guide as part of a fully guided history tour?
What is a guided history tour?
On our fully guided history tours, one or more expert guides accompany your group throughout the tour to provide advice, guidance, and support. Our guided experiences will engage and inspire your students, all thanks to dedicated experts who are skilled at connecting with their audience to deliver maximum benefit to their learning.
Guided tours are different to a self-guided trip, which are primarily led by teachers. Sometimes self-guided tours include the use of a local guide or a tour manager, such as in our WST Barcelona trip, which can be helpful when navigating different countries.
It’s one thing knowing the curriculum material, but finding stories behind the history and creating bespoke support materials to enhance the trip can be time-consuming.
Why not hand over the responsibility to a passionate expert guide as part of a fully guided history tour?
What is a guided history tour?
On our fully guided history tours, one or more expert guides accompany your group throughout the tour to provide advice, guidance, and support. Our guided experiences will engage and inspire your students, all thanks to dedicated experts who are skilled at connecting with their audience to deliver maximum benefit to their learning.
Guided tours are different to a self-guided trip, which are primarily led by teachers. Sometimes self-guided tours include the use of a local guide or a tour manager, such as in our WST Barcelona trip, which can be helpful when navigating different countries.
The pros of booking a guided tour
When you book a fully guided tour, you sign up for a seamless end-to-end experience. From exploration of key historical sites, to engaging educational visits, and unique insights from a dedicated guide.
Here are some of the main benefits of guided tours:
- Enhanced educational experiences
- Stress-free planning and coordination
- Access to expert knowledge
- Safety and risk management
- Customisable itineraries to fit educational goals
- Opportunities for unique learning activities
- Support and guidance from an expert guide throughout your trip
Enhanced educational experiences
Educational guided tours offer students the opportunity to learn in different ways. Expert-led tours allow information to be absorbed through real-life observations and encourages critical thinking — which is not always possible in traditional classroom-learning.
Stress-free planning and coordination
Navigating a new location, learning routes, and preparing resources for every activity on your agenda is a lot to take on alongside your regular teaching responsibilities. With a fully guided tour, you can rest assured knowing your expert guide has the knowledge and ability to support planning and running the day.
Access to expert knowledge
Guided tours use educational guides who are dedicated to knowing their subject inside and out. They deliver far beyond surface level knowledge — often carrying out their own in-depth research and sharing personal experiences to offer a first-hand perspective.
Safety and risk management
Not only are our guides experts in their fields, many of them have backgrounds in police, military, and teaching. This experience makes them well-equipped to manage any issues that may happen throughout your tour.
The health and safety of you and your students is our top priority. Our rigorous safety management system includes safety checks and audits to mitigate any risk so you can enjoy your tour worry-free.
Customisable itineraries to fit educational goals
The activities in fully guided tours can be customised to ensure they are relevant to your study themes and communicate information that is directly relevant to exam materials, all while bringing past experiences to life.
Opportunities for unique learning activities
Expert guides fully commit to delivering an unforgettable experience for every student, rather than delivering a lecture. Guided tours use a range of resources including genuine items from different time periods, costumes, and reenactments to immerse students into a new learning environment.
Support and guidance from an expert guide throughout your trip
In addition to the guiding aspect of their role, where guides will lead your group around relevant visits or locations, deliver educational content, and engage your students. They will also provide additional support, such as liaising with drivers, accommodation, and restaurants, ensuring the safety of students, and ensuring that your trip runs as smoothly as possible.
Debunking the myths against guided tours
It’s understandable for teachers to be uncertain at first, about whether a fully guided tour is right for them, only to discover first-hand what a truly enriching experience they can be for the whole class. To help ease any uncertainty, let’s dispel some common misconceptions about guided tours:
Myth: Limited flexibility in the itinerary
Many guided tours offer a sample itinerary, but very few stick strictly to these. A good provider will offer flexibility to ensure you and your students get the most value and learning out of the day.
What makes Anglia Tours different?
Our expert guides will familiarise themselves with your goals and create a bespoke itinerary that aligns your current study themes — and even your specific exam board. We will also work with you to establish any needs that need to be considered throughout the day, such as accessibility, travel, and meal times.
Myth: Higher costs compared to self-organised trips
It’s true that non-guided options may appear cheaper than the fully guided equivalent, but this is because they don't provide the same level of support, knowledge, and assurance as fully guided tours. When you arrange everything yourself, you take on the responsibility of preparing the educational resources as well as the logistics of the day. What’s more, when taking a fully guided tour, expert guides can help you to fit more into your day, reducing the tour duration and the overall cost as a result.
What makes Anglia Tours different?
We work closely with you to develop a tailored itinerary that meets your needs and budget while delivering a high-value educational experience. We are always upfront about costs and will be transparent with you about what is and isn’t included.
Myth: Less opportunity for spontaneous exploration
As with any itinerary, plans can change if circumstances are different on the day of a tour. If the weather prevents outdoor activities from going ahead, this could be the perfect opportunity to take a closer look at points of interest inside. Guides will be able to offer students a more flexible approach to the day.
An expert guide will support you in changing your itinerary during the tour if needed. If traffic problems occur, for example, they’ll rearrange your schedule. If a student mentions on a guided history tour that they have an ancestor buried in the area, the expert tour guide can help the student to find them.
What makes Anglia Tours different?
Our guides are highly experienced professionals who know exactly how to engage students. They will be able to tell when something is not working and adapt on the spot to make the most of your tour. This may include tailored activities to fit your curricular objectives, or accommodating for visiting the grave of a past pupil from generations ago, or pupil’s family member, for a moment of remembrance. Our guides will adjust aspects of the trip accordingly to fit you and your students needs.
Myth: Potential mismatch with educational objectives
One size does not fit all when it comes to guided tours. If you opt for a pre-set programme, it’s possible this won’t align with your educational goals.
What makes Anglia Tours different?
Before defining your tour, we will meet with you to discuss your educational objectives in detail to agree on a programme that meets your needs. We can even arrange a pre-tour presentation for parents and teachers to get an idea of the experience we’ll be sharing with your students.
Myth: Dependent on the guide’s expertise
Educational guides are very passionate about their subject — sometimes spending years on research to understand everything there is to know. They pride themselves on being experts, and will work with you to make sure they have all the necessary knowledge to share with your students.
What makes Anglia Tours different?
We pride ourselves on selecting expert guides who have a true passion for their subject. They go above and beyond to bring history to life for young people, and inspire students to think deeply about experiences of those that came before them.
Our guides can even carry out personal research on relatives who served, finding out information about their units or roles to share these untold stories with your students in the locations where it happened. If you would like your expert guide to carry out personal research, simply discuss this with us before your tour.
How to get the most out of your expert guides
A guided tour without an expert is just a fun day out. Only a knowledgeable, enthusiastic expert can make the experience impactful and deliver the most educational benefits to your students. At Anglia Tours, we pride ourselves on our expert and highly experienced guides, each selected not only for the depth of their historical knowledge but more importantly for their ability to engage and inspire your students. Here are some tips on how to get the greatest benefit from an expert guide:
1. Identify your educational goals
Before starting your search, you need to define your educational goals. Whether this is to help your GCSE students with exam prep, or inspire a passion for history in KS3, have a clear objective in mind. Take this goal with you in your search and share it with your prospective providers to see who can help you meet it.
2. Work with an experienced, reputable tour provider
Your chosen provider should have demonstrable experience guiding similar school groups. Look for independent reviews and ask colleagues about providers they had a good experience with. With over 25 years of experience delivering quality educational guided tours to schools, and more than a hundred years of experience in travel across the team, Anglia Tours is well equipped to support your tour goals from inception to conclusion.
3. Consider expertise
Look for a provider who uses expert guides with genuine passion and demonstrable expertise, rather than those using seasonal or part-time guides, with non-specialist or basic levels of knowledge. Ask for information about the background and experiences of their guides to determine if they are true experts or not.
Also, consider the guide’s experience engaging with younger audiences and school groups in particular. You'll want to use a provider that will inspire and encourage your students, as well as provide accurate educational content.
4. Review safety and risk management policies
Take the time to carefully review safety certificates and accreditations of providers to ensure they value the safety of you and your students. A safety-conscious provider will be willing to give you this information before booking to show their genuine commitment to taking care of their customers.
Learn more about risk management.
5. Check for customisation options
It’s important that your tour provides valuable learning experiences to your students, as well as an enjoyable day out. Make sure your guided tour can be customised to align with your current focus to keep it relevant.
6. Evaluate the costs versus the value offered
As with any service, you pay for what you get. Your guided tour should provide you with good value for money. If the cost is higher, make sure the the provider has the experience, quality, and expertise to deliver value for money. This also includes considerations such as whether the guide will accompany your group throughout the trip and navigate between sites. Similarly, will the guide be there to support you if something goes wrong on tour? This is important to think about at an early stage when planning your tour.
7. Ask about support and resources
The educational experience should extend beyond a single day. Speak to providers about resource materials they can offer before your trip to help prepare students, as well as resources for during the tour to take away which can be used in post-trip classes. Expert guides should also be able to offer you support on the day, whether it be managing difficult behaviour or offering advice on the best route to take home to avoid traffic.
Book your guided history tour with Anglia Tours
Ready to be transported back in time? Explore Anglia Tours’ guided history tours for schools, with expert guides covering a range of topics in the UK and Europe.
Get in touch with one of our planning experts to arrange your tour today.