We don’t often have issues on our trips at Educating Adventures (EA). We spend a long time planning your trip with you to make sure we have ironed out every potential bump in the road. Incidents can and do happen, that’s why when Stockport Grammar had an issue on their trip recently, we thought it was important to share some of the lessons with everyone, so we had a sit-down with Mrs Fenton, who led the trip.
Trip Highlights & Standout Moments
Firstly, how had your trip been up until the incident?
“Christina (the EA Tour Manager) is amazing. We got on fabulously, and it's been her on the second, third, and fourth trip now, and she’s brilliant! The first day was at the Kennedy Space Center, that was great. The second day, visiting iFly and Wonderworks, the kids just loved.”
“It was funny because the kids all had different days that were their favourites, and there was probably about a fifth of them that said that that day was their favourite. They loved the iFly experience, and they just loved Wonderworks.”
“On our day at Universal Studios, we went around the groups at dinner time at the Hard Rock and just said, ‘What's been the best bit of the day?’ and they all said the VelociCoaster. So having the ticket to both parks was fantastic!”
“The astronaut training day was a real highlight. I don’t think you can do it if you aren’t part of a trip? They really loved all the activities involved. I went – and I think bravely - on the simulator but did manage to talk my pupil partner into the medium level!”
Having a varied itinerary with different highlights for different students will always help your trip be a success, with a few core visits central to the educational purpose of the trip.
Planning for Student Safety
You had some students being collected at the airport before you departed from the USA. How did that go?
“Really smoothly. I made up a form with a backup plan. It outlined what parents wanted to happen if they were not there and we couldn’t get hold of them, but actually, I've done it before, and the parents have always just been there as planned so that worked really well.”
This kind of preparation and contingency planning ahead of tricky parts of the trip will help avoid last-minute stress at busy airports. While at the airport, one of your students lost their passport. Do you want to run us through what happened?
“Oh, my word. So I collected all the passports ahead of the trip, gave them to the pupils in Manchester Airport, collecting them back in on the flight, getting them out again in Florida, collecting them back in again, and I stored them in the safe in my room.”
“The safes at the Rosen Inn. I mean, I love the Rosen Inn anyway, it’s such a great hotel and the safes are really big so I was able to get all the passports into my safe in sandwich bags with their boarding pass, and I handed them out as we entered the security area in Orlando airport, where you've got to show your passport, and they take a picture of you electronically, and it gets compared to the passport. Immediately after, you are then in a long queue for the X-Rays, and we all got split in different directions.”
When Things Don’t Go to Plan
“As we regrouped gradually after security, one of the other staff came over and said that a student's passport is missing, so security staff looked around the area and through various bits of the machine as much as they could, took the student’s case and scanned it again because they said that the passport would show up in the scan, and it wasn't there. We asked all the other kids to look to see if they had his passport, and none of them did.”
“The student said they had balanced their passport in their baseball cap upside down, which was sitting on their case, and doesn't know whether it was dropped before it went through the X-ray machine or whether it fell out in the X-ray machine.”
“I'm now wondering if, with four staff, in future to have one staff member with seven or eight pupils, as a group that doesn't split up in the security queue.”
“In the end, we got to the airline desk and we just said. ‘Look, I've got a colour photocopy of the passport; they showed their actual passport to get into the security area, but they haven’t got it now,’ But the airline just said that without a passport, they can't board the plane.”
Even with the best preparation, unexpected challenges can arise. What makes the difference is having clear systems and reliable support in place. In moments like these, simple steps such as searching the immediate area or checking with other students can sometimes solve the problem quickly.
The Support That Makes the Difference
“I then contacted my emergency contacts from my own school, and from your company; Sophie (EA Duty officer on the 24 Emergency number) was just brilliant, she couldn't have done more to help. Our school organises for you to have two emergency contacts on a trip, so I had the Head of the Middle School, who I contacted at the time, and the school's Head. They were bothamazing because when the passport was lost, and we realised it wasn't materialising, it was half past eight in Orlando, but that's half past one in the morning UK time. The Head of Middle School stayed up all night to be on the other end of a phone for us, and then the next day she brought the Head up to speed.”
“Along with my support from school (and the pupil was very helpful!) Sophie made me feel like I wasn’t on my own.”
“Sophie was amazing because obviously she's in a different time zone as well, and that meant a couple of times when I needed her, I was phoning and waking her up. She was just absolutely brilliant. Along with my support from school (and the pupil was very helpful!), Sophie made me feel like I wasn't on my own. Sophie was very knowledgeable. She knew what the steps were, and she was so friendly and switched on straight away, was able to give me whatever answers I needed or advice I needed. At the airport that night, we obviously got reunited with our cases, which was job number one, booked ourselves into the hotel at the airport, and then we went back to the place where the passport had been lost to check again. We went to the police at the airport, we went to lost property, and sort of eventually gave up and started again the next morning.”
Our 24/7 duty team is always available when we have trips out, no matter the time zone. We have this round-the-clock support so that teachers can focus on their students while we handle the logistics of the trip.
“After an early start and more checks around the airport I think we got to about half past nine the following morning and we thought, right, let's actually call it now, while we've got airport wi-fi, let's go onto the website to order an emergency passport and book back into the Rosen Inn. Then Christina came to collect us and take us back to the Rosen Inn.”
“The airport staff were incredibly helpful. The passport did actually turn up, but 24 hours later, and we'd already applied for the emergency passport by then. And as soon as you tick the box for the emergency passport, your own passport becomes invalid, so it was no use to us. The British Embassy was amazing, dropping the passport off for us at the airport in Orlando. Then as soon as we knew the time when we would be collecting it, Sophie organised flights for us within a few hours of when we're going to collect the passport.”
“Don’t stop running this trip — it’s such a great experience.”
“The Head, Mrs. Capewell, was fantastic, and she met the trip when they arrived at Manchester airport to support the other (tired!)staff and because I was the trip leader and I wasn't going to be at the airport. She made sure she was at the airport in case any parents had any questions or anything. Then she came again to meet the student and I when we arrived, which was a seven in the morning landing on a Thursday in the summer holidays!”
“It's funny because after it happened, I was thinking, I can't believe this has happened. How has this happened? Obviously, I'll think about steps to make sure that can't happen again, but the Head was the first to say, Don't stop running this trip; this is such a great trip. Actually, the support I had from Sophie and the support I had from school… I'm definitely running the trip again.”
This is a great reminder that one challenge doesn’t define atrip; your students will still return with lasting memories and valuable learning experiences.
Lessons Learned & Teacher Advice
From Mrs. Fenton’s experience and our years of planning international trips, here are our top recommendations for teachers.
1. Keep copies of all student information and don’t leave important travel documents with students. Remember to use your safe at the Hotel, and if one isn’t provided in the room, ask at the hotel reception.
2. Make sure contingencies are in place as part of your risk mitigation. If you need support in this, feel free to reach out to us.
3. Group students and teachers together when travelling, whether it’s by train or plane. Smaller groups overseen by a member of staff with regular headcounts means that no one gets lost and can be easily supervised.
4. Make sure you have a means of communication that will work in your destination country. It is useful to send a message to your emergency contact and the EA Duty officer to double-check everything is working.
5. Remember, you are not alone! The team here at EA, on the ground with you and your selected emergency contacts, are here to support you throughout your trip.
While no one wants to face a lost passport abroad, Mrs. Fenton’s story shows that with preparation, support, and clear processes, even big challenges can be overcome. Most importantly, her students still had an unforgettable trip — and she’s already planning the next one.
If you’d like advice on planning a safe, rewarding international school trip, get in touch with our team: we’re here to support you every step of the way.
