School trips to Opal Coast, Northern France

Experience authentic French culture with school trips to the Opal Coast. Located near the Channel ports, this accessible region offers fantastic opportunities for pupils to explore and immerse themselves in French traditions and lifestyles.

Explore our range of cultural school trips to Northern France 

An Opal Coast school trip is an ideal choice thanks to the wide range of food-based experiences available for groups. From visiting goat farms and boulangeries to exploring sweet factories and cider farms, pupils can immerse themselves in traditional French cuisine. For those staying at NST’s Château d’Ebblinghem, there are additional opportunities for cheese and snail tasting, as well as engaging hands-on cooking activities. 

Learn more about our food technology school trips to Northern France

A school trip to the Opal Coast is perfect for groups looking to improve language skills while enjoying a variety of educational and cultural experiences. Enhance your trip further by including our French Language Enrichment Experience, designed to provide students with immersive opportunities to practice and develop their French in a fun and engaging way.

Find out more about our French language trips to Northern France

With three popular Christmas markets nearby, one festively decorated, 19th-century manor house accommodation, a Christmas quiz and a five-course traditional Christmas dinner to be enjoyed with friends, we know-ho-ho your students will just love this magical Christmas school trip experience.

Discover our French Christmas Experience at NST's Château d'Ebblinghem Northern France 

Geography

Just a short hop across the English Channel, the dramatic white cliffs and golden beaches of the Opal Coast region of Northern France provide the perfect backdrop for outdoor teaching on a geography school trip to remember.

Explore our variety of geography school trips to Northern France

History - WWII

Covering the period from the outbreak of war until liberation, your Opal Coast school trip will concentrate on the events of 1940 and 1944, giving your pupils a fascinating insight into the impact of the war. 

Discover our history school trips to Northern France

Music

Combined with an array of memorable visits, a concert tour to northern France offers groups the opportunity to bond and fully concentrate on their rehearsals and performance.

Learn more about our music school trips to Northern France

Primary

Provide your group with a real taste of life in France. The Opal Coast is easily accessible and close to channel ports, whilst offering fantastic visits which will introduce your pupils to a new culture.

View our primary school trips to Northern France

French Language Enrichment Experience at NST’s Château d’Ebblinghem

Our French Language Enrichment Experience has been designed to develop conversational and comprehension skills through a range of exciting target language-focused excursions and activities with an emphasis on enrichment experiences.
Throughout your tour, pupils will have daily interactions with French speakers to help build their confidence when communicating in a variety of social situations. No matter what your group’s age or ability, your experience can be pitched at exactly the right level to enrich their learning and enable your pupils to engage with the target language. 

With the support of your own French-speaking Groupie at NST’s Château d’Ebblinghem, your pupils will be encouraged to use their language skills at all times, for example, during morning language briefings, mealtimes and evening activities.

Your Groupie will liaise with you on arrival to confirm your group’s language requirements, to support differentiated learning styles and to ensure that your trip is meeting your needs. Then put your learning into practice by interacting with native French speakers on a series of local visits!

Find out more about our French Language Enrichment Experience.

Language Workshops at Lille & Boulogne Universities

Lessons at the universities of Lille and Boulogne can be tailored to the ability of your group as well as your choice of topic. Your group will be split into classes of up to 15 pupils to ensure the maximum individual participation of each pupil, who will then go on to use their enhanced abilities and confidence in speaking the language for the remainder of the visit. These lessons are available year-round from Monday through to Saturday (excluding August).

Nausicaá Sea Centre

This fascinating sea centre promotes learning through interactive exhibits. Their range of educational workshops is now available for all age groups in French or English, covering marine-based topics such as climate change, plankton or marine life. Groups can also choose from one of the following experiences as part of their visit: 'Shores and People' and the brand new 'High Seas' experience. Coastal boat trips are also available from Nausicaá too.

Local Boulangerie Visit

There are a number of boulangeries in the region where your pupils will watch and listen to the baker describe, in French, the process of making traditional French bread and croissants, before getting the chance to produce and eat their own. 

Local Goat Farm

Gain an insight into French farming and cheese making. There are also opportunities for cheese tasting and, at certain times of the year, to help milk the goats. 

P&J Chocolates

This shop in Calais makes delicious chocolates daily, and also offers demonstrations and workshops on the chocolate-making process and its history.

Becasuc Sweet Factory

Take a tour of the sweet factory located in Boulogne-sur-Mer, where pupils will learn from the French commentary, demonstrations and be able to taste the delicious sweets produced. 

Les Escargotières

Get a real taste of France! At a working snail farm, your group will learn how one of France’s most famous foods is reared. Then sit back and see which of your pupils will be first to sample one for themselves. 

La Coupole

This fascinating museum was once the Nazi’s planned V2 rocket base. It now showcases the story of Hitler’s secret weapon and also of French life during WWII.

The bomb damaged remains of this V2 assembly and launching site house a museum covering the themes of the 1940s occupation of Northern France, the German secret weapons, the Cold War and the conquest of space.

Two popular performance venues for music groups: 

Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate, Ypres

Choirs and bands can perform two hymns alongside the British and Belgian national anthems at this daily ceremony commemorating the fallen of WWI. Participating in this ceremony is an incredibly moving experience for groups who are often able to lay a wreath on request.

St Bavo’s Cathedral, Ghent

Sacred choirs and orchestras are welcome to perform in this beautiful cathedral. Use of the organ can be arranged in advance.

Tour planning service

With NST, you’ll get your own dedicated, knowledgeable Tour Co-ordinator who’ll work with you from start to finish. You’ll benefit from their unrivalled destination knowledge, and their experience gained from working with many other groups too. They’ll tailor-make your itinerary from scratch and take care of everything for you:

• Pulling together an itinerary that runs smoothly
• Planning the right balance of visits every day with realistic timings
• Pre-arranging and pre-booking your visits, entrance tickets, passes and meals

You’ll receive your final itinerary a full 4-weeks before you travel too.

FREE school trip promotion pack

We’ll support you and provide everything you need to advertise your school trip around school and to parents. Our free school trip promotion pack consists of:

• Parents’ letter & permission slip template for you to complete
• A3 posters to promote your trip around school
• PowerPoint presentation templates which you can tailor to your own needs
• Parents’ leaflets covering how NST manage safety, financial protection and details of our travel insurance
• Online parents’ video which showcases the benefits of taking a school trip

For selected destinations, we’ll provide a trip launch web page using video footage and imagery. This web page is provided by a weblink and can be shared with pupils and parents in many ways.

Risk assessment support including preview visits

Risk assessment plays a vitally important part in the planning and organisation on any school tour.

Our risk assessment guide aims to help you understand more about your obligations and how you can more effectively manage group safety on your next educational visit and provide you with risk assessments for your trip.

Planning first school trip

Organising your first school trip can appear to be a daunting process.  If you're planning your first school trip, our guide will help to take you through each step of the planning process, answering frequently asked questions and providing tips and support along the way.  Our helpful guide covers the following: 

• Choosing your destination 
• Gaining approval from your Local Authority and/or your Head 
• Promoting your tour in school 
• Confirming your booking
• Tailor-make your tour
• Completing your risk assessments (including a sample risk assessment) 
• Quick reference timeline 
• Pre-tour checklist 

View our essential guide to a successful school trip here

Get live updates on your group's tour location

Locate My Trip uses GPS technology and is the easy, convenient way for your school to follow your location whilst on tour. Specifically designed to provide reassurance to both parents and teachers, NST will know where your group are 24/7. If your schedule needs to change, we’ll put plans in place to keep your tour on track. 

With Locate My Trip your group can also share photos and videos with the school and parents, via a secure link, to keep them updated on your experience whilst you’re away.

Watch our short Locate My Trip video here.

Your online school trip organiser - My Tour Manager

Save time and stay on track with your school trip admin with our online orgnaniser - designed to help busy teachers like you. 

With My Tour Manager, you'll be able to download FREE resources and access trip paperwork online and in one place. Your personalised checklist details what you need to do and by when, plus you'll receive fortnightly reminders too. 

What's more, you can take all your trip documents on the go whilst on your tour with our app, My Tour Manager-On-the-Go. 

Find out more and watch out short My Tour Manager video here

Free classroom resources

We've created a range of free resources and educational posters to brighten up your classroom! 

Take a look at our downloadable posters here

Brexit & your school trip

How will Brexit affect my school trip?

Following the end of the transition period there are several changes that will affect groups travelling with us to the EU.

For more information on these changes, visit our dedicated Brexit page here.

If you're travelling with NST and have any specific questions. please contact your Educational Travel Advisor.