Your primary role is the delivery of the evening activities programme. At Language in Action, we offer a variety of social activities that give students a chance to bond and enjoy themselves. Some examples are: Welcome Night, Disco Night, Karaoke night, last night party, fashion show, and games night.

Each activity will require varying levels of planning. You are encouraged to come up with ideas for those evenings (particularly games nights and party nights), and to propose fun activities and challenges that focus on socialising. 

Should you need any materials or equipment to deliver the social activity, speak to your campus coordinator. The university or residence team may also be able to provide equipment, and your coordinator will be able to provide a budget to buy resources to help you deliver the activity.

It is important to remember that, in many centres, we won’t be the only language school present on site, so there may be other groups of students with whom common areas are shared. It is fundamental to establish a professional and friendly relationship with representatives of other groups so to ensure an easy and effortless collaboration for both parts. 

The off-campus evening excursions are called By Night excursions. We take the students to fun or interesting places to experience the city in a different way, and these could include shopping trips, city walks or night club experiences.

For campus leaders, there is not a big amount of planning to do before a By Night excursion. Each one will be planned out by your coordinator, with tickets booked (digital or paper), set arrival and departure times, and an itinerary already mapped out on an Excursion Sheet. These will be given to you in advance via WhatsApp, as well as discussed in the weekly team meetings, so every question or doubt can be addressed. It is important that you familiarise yourself with the route you will take on each excursion, and all other available plans, the day before the excursion takes place, ensuring that you have all the information you need to deliver the programme well. 

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As a campus leader you may also be required to lead groups on full day excursions over the weekend. These excursions typically run from 9:00am to 5:30pm and see the students taking full day walking tours of their host city or other nearby city. Wherever possible, the tours you are asked to lead will include a dedicated external tour guide, so your main role will be supervision. On the odd occasion you are asked to deliver a tour yourself, you will get all the documents and help you need. All information is provided on an Excursion Sheet.

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You can see a sample Excursion Sheet here

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Your main role is to ensure the smooth-running of the activity 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 excursion, 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 excursions 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”, 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 By Night excursions you will need travel cards. 

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 any time after lunch. 

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. 

For Manchester centres, students should have weekly bus passes. 

Should there be a problem during an excursion, it is your responsibility to immediately call your coordinator to make them aware of the problem, and 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 activity 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.