The Solstice School of English

The absence of ministay students this year means that I have the time to embark on a 1,500 mile charity walk to St Peter's Rome in in aid of the 'Raise the Roof' appeal for Saint Peter's Winterbourne Stoke.

Jonathan's Raise the Roof charity walk to Rome Help Jonathan Dutton raise money to support Friends of St Peter’s Church Winterbourne Stoke

Sadly no students at the moment but we are making the most of our enforced leisure to raise money to help repair the roof of our village church in Winterbourne Stoke and will be hosting a fundraising event on Saturday 24th July, details on the attached article from Wiltshire Life. Please do get in contact ([email protected]) if you would like to attend.

Tickets are £10 which includes a glass of wine and a garden tour of The Old Rectory, Winterbourne Stoke.

Wiltshire Life - St Peter's Church Winterbourne Stoke appeal The Norman church, mentioned in the Domesday Book, has set up an appeal “Raising the Roof” and will be embarking on a series of fund-raising events over the next 18 months. The money raised will help pay for renovations and improvements (including the installation of heating, so that the village...

The UK English language sector faces decimation if the UK Government proceeds with its plans to require all EU visitors (irrespective of age) to hold a Passport or visa before they will be allowed entry to the UK after 1 October 2021. These measures would have a massively negative impact on our own language business (The Solstice School of English).

Attached below is a letter that the French school trips and linguistic stay organisers have sent to Boris Johnson, urging him to reconsider the proposed changes in order to avoid significant economic damage to both countries.

Letter to the UK Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA
Paris, April 16th 2021

Dear Prime Minister,
We are writing to you today on behalf of a long-established profession, that of school trip organisers, to
bring your attention to the consequences of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU on our industry and on young
people travelling to and from your country.
France and the UK were until last year the leading partners on the European continent in terms of school
exchanges, due to their proximity and ease of access, which has always made both territories and cultures
attractive to each other.

In France alone, we are sending around 10,000 school groups a year to the UK, representing over 500,000
French young people who, each year, have the chance to discover and be inspired by your country as English
is the first language studied in French schools. These figures do not even include the language-study trips
taking place during the summer break and school holidays representing an extra 50,000 travellers.

We recently had the opportunity to discuss this with our German colleagues, whose number of school groups
is around 7,000 per year. They are equally concerned, as are all other European operators sending school
groups to the UK, by the challenge created by the need of each traveler to hold a valid individual passport
from October 2021 onwards.

We wanted to bring to your attention the financial details and the economics of the market.

When a student goes on a school trip to the UK, the price generally breaks down as follows:
- 40% is linked to chartered transport from France, the coach operator.
- 10% goes to the ferry or railway companies, the main ones being P&O Ferries, DFDS, Brittany
Ferries for ferry carriers Eurostar and the Eurotunnel for rail carriers.
- 50% is spent in the UK on accommodation, tours, attractions, food and various expenses.
French operators alone estimate that their direct input into the UK economy is £ 100,000,000 over the
course of a year. Needless to say this revenue is also unquestionably generating significant indirect profits
and benefits for the entire country. It is also important to bear in mind that this small figure relates to France
alone and does not include students travelling from Germany, Spain, Italy, The Netherlands, etc.

2 School trips usually represent the main source of income for the following sectors in the UK, especially during
the low tourism season from February to June.
- Accommodation is the most important item, particularly for host families, generating an essential
income for thousands of British families, which they will now need even more to recover from the
economic crisis resulting from Covid. British receiving organisations and operators will be severely
impacted. Youth hostels and hotels whose core business is welcoming the "young public”, and whose
economic activity depends on the accommodation of school groups, in particular during weekdays.
- Activities are the second expense item for a school trip. They include entrance tickets to museums,
cultural sites, amusement parks, theatre tickets, as well as language and sports activities. For some
companies, the foreign school group business represents an essential part of their turnover, in
particular tour guides, or language schools and teachers. Needless to say they too will suffer severe
impacts.
- The loss of ancillary expenses including group meals in restaurants and various personal purchases
(souvenirs, items in supermarkets etc.) will also impact the local economy. Perhaps the most relevant
example would be the city of Canterbury. How would the tourist economy in Canterbury fare without
European tourists, especially school groups ?

One should also bear in mind that, these areas of spendings and investments are spread across the whole
country supporting, the economic development in geographic areas away from London, and creating
economic / business opportunities in areas such as Devon, Kent and the Midlands. School children travel all
over the country, contributing to the regional economies.

In addition, day trips around the Kent region have been very popular with schools in European regions near
Calais, since the UK has long time been a very affordable destination with simple customs procedures.

1- Changes resulting from the UK’s departure from the EU
The new rules planned to take effect from October 2021 will clearly complicate access to the UK for French
and European students due to:
a) The new requirement to present an individual passport. It may seem like a small detail, but in the
case of school groups it increases the travel budget for parents by 10% to 20% on average depending
on the age of the students and represent a substantial sum for the families of young travellers whose
budget is generally constrained.

Bear in mind that a school trip is often the first opportunity for a young person to go abroad, and
sometimes the only occasion in his/her life. As such, school trips have a social purpose and when the
UK is the first destination visited, one can imagine how much students will be attached to it later.
The new requirement of a passport to all visitors will also result in significant additional
administrative procedures and preparation well in advance which will undoubtedly discourage not
only the parents but also the teachers organizing the trip.

b) The end of the collective passport (list of travellers). This will prevent students of non-EU nationality
from travelling with their class because they will have to apply for a visa (further cost and procedures
in addition to the personal passport). Moreover, as in many European countries, the classes need to
travel with all the pupils who constitute the group or they do not travel at all. If one of the students
is unable to travel on account of a a passport/visa problem, the entire project can be called into
question, or its destination changed.

2- Short and long term consequences
As a result, schools and families of student travellers have already notified us of a drop in interest in the UK
as a destination if the new rules were to come into effect, to the benefit of other intra EU destinations such
as Ireland or Malta from October 2021.

3 - Therefore, we, specialists in the sector, foresee a reduction in the number of school trips to the UK of up to
50% after the new entry requirements come into effect.
In addition to the serious economic impact for the UK finances, the British host families and the professional
sector on both sides of the Channel, British and European alike, we are also very concerned about the
negative impact that such a decline in cultural and language exchanges will have on a young audience in the
process of developing personal and professional skills that will be crucial for the future of our societies.

3- What we ask of the British government
We therefore ask that the UK government re-examine the issue regarding the conditions of access to the UK
for under-18 EU people travelling on a school group or a linguistic stay of less than 15 days to :
- Keep the “list of travellers” in place for all school groups, in line with the process that the British
government has decided on for British groups going to the EU (https://www.gov.uk/collectivegroup-passports).
- Allow the use of an ID Card only, and therefore cancel the need to present a passport.

All the companies we represent have always had very good business relationships with the UK and want
these to continue. Most of us are passionate about our industry because we lived the UK experience when
we ourselves were young school students. We want to continue to “keep the door open” for our young
students to experience and enjoy the UK life, culture and history.

After this terrible Covid period, we want to be part of the recovery and help get the UK tourism sector back
up and running very quickly. We are all ready for the restart and would like to work hand in hand with your
government for the sake of the UK economy as well as our industry and the future of our young people all
over Europe.

Yours Sincerely,

The French school trips and linguistic stays organisers

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52594023 #

UK 'to bring in 14-day air passenger quarantine' An airline industry body says it has been told coronavirus quarantining will start from the end of May.

Unfortunately due to the ongoing Cov-19 lockdown measures and the 14 day quarantine restrictions on incoming travellers that will be introduced from the end of May, it isn't feasible for us to go ahead with a Summer School programme this year.
On a more optimistic note, we remain hopeful that ministays will resume at the end of September and we have also rescheduled many of this year's cancelled ministays to 2021.

Final photos from today's Salisbury International Pancake Race!

All publicity is good publicity!

Sadly we didn't win the golden frying pan in today's Salisbury International Pancake Race - we were eliminated in the semi finals by a speedster in lederhosen from JoJo Maman Bebe!

We're planning to take part in this year's Salisbury International Pancake Race on Shrove Tuesday (25th Feb) at 11am. It should be flippin good fun!

Street art tours of Bristol have been amongst the most popular of our excursions. We will have to try and include Banksy's latest take on Valentine's Day on our next trips to Bristol!

Learning the difference between Devon and Cornish cream teas!