Chaperone Guidelines: Advice for Your School Group Tour

Chaperones are a vital asset to a school trip due to the many important roles that they serve. These roles include:

Inspiration: Your attitude sets the tone, and all students will take their enthusiasm cues from you. Inspire student travelers by expressing interest in your destination, listening to the tour leader, and asking engaging questions. Your positive attitude will make all the difference when their energy begins to flag. Choose to motivate, not deflate. 🙂

Guardian: Your top priority as a chaperone is student safety. Keep your designated group of students together while touring and conduct frequent headcounts. We recommend chaperones to space themselves in the front, middle and rear of group.

Disciplinarian: Maintaining discipline and control is the responsibility of the chaperon. One of the primary purposes of this trip is education. We ask the cooperation of the chaperones in keeping the students quiet when the tour leader is giving commentary or instructions.

Time Manager: We pack our trips with fun and engaging activities. It is critical that we stay on schedule to see it all! Chaperones greatly assist the trip by keeping the group together (including the slower walkers) and gathering the students at the designated meeting spot on time. Additionally, encouraging students to quickly find their seats on the bus is a great help.

Additional Tour Specific Recommendations:

• Please ask the students to refrain from use of the rest room on the coach except in emergencies.
• Be aware of their motor coach number and make sure your students are aware too! Several coaches from the same company may be in the city at the same time.
• Anytime the students are off the coach, it is important that they know how long the stop will last and where to meet the group.
• Students should never go anywhere on the tour by themselves. Make sure students have a designated travel partner.
• During meals we recommend that some chaperones eat first, some watch the students in-line, and others monitor those eating. Alternate roles as the first set of chaperons finish their meals.
• When your group arrives at the hotel, we recommend asking students to stay seated on the motor coach while the tour leader and group leader register and receive the keys. Chaperones and several students can assist the driver in unloading luggage during this time.
• Before giving out hotel keys and releasing the students to their rooms, station chaperones in the lobby and on the floor to help direct students and manage voice volume.
• Once students are in their rooms,  instruct them to inspect their rooms for damages.    If there is anything wrong, it should be reported to their chaperon and subsequently to the tour leader. This will prevent your students from being charged for something they did not do.
• Remind students that they must be considerate of other hotels guests. Students should refrain from loud talking in the hallways, slamming doors, and pounding on walls.
• On the morning of check out, check all rooms thoroughly for damages before dismissing the students to the motor coach. Check for broken beds, missing towels or other damages.  If anything is missing from a room after check out, all occupants will be held responsible.