1.       All parents to complete the Cognito Form before the start of each term with details of travel arrangements for the term. 

• This is the only action that parents need to take.

• ECG arranges all travel and homestay based on the information provided on the Cognito Form.

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2.       Record all student flight information and homestay requests on a centralised spreadsheet. 

• This means that we have an overview of when, how and where everyone is travelling.  This is especially important for when we monitor transport and flights on travel days.

• Even if parents are making their own arrangements, we still need to hold accommodation and flight information on our system to comply with Tier 4 visa regulations.

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3.       Carefully plan host families

• We match students with host families – we consider allergies, if they are taking exams etc

• We carefully match students if there is more than one student in a homestay

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4.       Plan social activities

• Where students ask to meet friends, we conduct thorough safeguarding checks.  We need the name, and phone number of the friends’ parents or guardian so we can call them to verify the plans.

• Arrange and book group activities

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5.       Book our host families and notify them of any special events, social activities or requests

• Host families guarantee to provide accommodation

• Host families agree to help with transport and facilitate any requests

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6.       Where possible we group students together so that they can share transport costs

• Transport in the UK is expensive.  We try to save parents’ money where possible.

• Where possible we will use transport arranged by school. 

• If students are travelling on their own, or at a time that is not suitable for the school transport, we use one of our preferred drivers

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7.       Contact schools and book the school transport

• We have direct links with the school travel co-ordinators

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8.       Contact and book our preferred drivers

• We always use the same drivers so our students get to know them.  All our drivers are extremely kind and helpful.  When students are travelling to the airport on their own, drivers will park the car and accompany the student to “Check In” to ensure everything is OK.

• When students are confident, they can go to check in on their own.  This saves parking charges.

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9.       We prepare a Travel Form containing all the travel information and phone numbers needed

• We recommend that students always have a copy of this form when traveling. If students get stopped at immigration, they can show the form to the officers who will then call us for verification.

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10.    We notify students, schools and parents of the arrangements about 2 weeks prior to departure

• All the boarding schools need this information at least 2 weeks before the breaks.

• We ask parents to check the details and notify us if any changes are needed.

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11.     Changes to booked plans by students or parents

• We understand that late changes may be sometimes be necessary due to unforeseen circumstances and we will assist with new arrangements free of charge.

• If a student or parent requests an alternative arrangement for social reasons,  we will check the new arrangements and issue the new plans to students, parents and schools.  Changes made after the travel plan has been issued will incur a charge of £25 to cover the extra work involved.

• Our kind host families reserve time to care for our students.  If host families have been booked to care for your child, they must be paid.  For cancellations made within 10 days of the planned stay, host families are paid 50% for each day cancelled, or 100% for cancellations made within 4 days of the planned stay.  These charges are necessary to cover the costs of food and preparations made by the host family.

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12.     On travel days we remain in contact with our preferred drivers, monitor flights and are available to help in the event of any travel disruptions.