If you're a teacher or chaperone in terms of travel with school groups, you may already have a wealth of experience about how to maintain discipline on such a trip. If you're heading off to foreign climes with a group of excited young people, no matter how much fun is being had you'll always need to keep in mind the standard of acceptable behaviour.

Here are a few thoughts.

Purpose

The opportunity to travel with school groups is, for so many students, the culmination of a dream coming true. It could very well be their first foray abroad and travelling with their friends just makes it all the more exciting. Be sensitive to this excitement, which can sometime manifest in over-exuberance from young people. Always nurture an environment of learning, safety and fun and students will respond in kind and gain valuable insight into a foreign culture and be able to participate in life-enhancing experiences.

Activity

It's well recognised that young people with time on their hands can become quickly bored and then boisterous. It's therefore imperative that when they travel with school groups they are kept occupied and entertained for as high a percentage of their time as is possible. Some spare personal time is essential but overly long gaps in itineraries can create behaviour challenges.

Experienced tour leaders

Leading a group of young people on a trip requires a range of skills even if they're not all required on every trip. That's why it's critically important that suitably trained and experienced leaders accompany such trips at every stage.

Create sub-itineraries

Travel with school groups to a given location or country may have very diverse itineraries. For example, on a trip to Italy some children may be interested in the history and culture whereas others will be far more inclined to join in the sporting and perhaps rambling-type activities. Of course, exposure to a range of experiences is important but on the other hand, insisting participants spend hours traipsing around galleries and museums if they're fundamentally not interested is pointless. Where possible, segmenting trips into specific interest explorations makes great sense for the group as a whole.

Exercise

Adults, even those highly experienced in education, sometimes forget just how much excess energy young people can have when they travel with school groups! So, try to make sure that itineraries involve activities that can burn off this excess while having fun in he process. Even students that don't like sports will benefit from walking a few kilometres between sites instead of riding in coaches or taking public transport everywhere.