In May 2017, the rugby players and footballers of the Marches School boarded a plane for the sports tour of a lifetime to Canada ! Here Group Leader Gareth Jones explains why he chose to run this tour, what they got up to and the impact on his students.
“Running a sports tour is important for so many reasons. From my perspective it’s so important to take students outside of the classroom within the UK.
But organising a sports tour on a different continent is totally different again in terms of developing their social interaction, their communication, their teamwork, their resilience and independence. When we return, I always look forward to hearing the feedback from parents as to how the students have changed and matured as a result of attending the sports tour.
Our previous tour with Halsbury was in 2012. We went to Florida and I decided as tour leader to utilise the company once again based on their organisation, communication and the opportunities that they offer for students.
So, we chose Canada for many different reasons for this sports tour. Not only does it provide the students with the opportunity to play sport on a different continent in a friendly environment, but it allows them so many cultural experiences.
From a sporting perspective we’ve had fixtures against Canadian schools and clubs in both rugby and soccer .
For the students, certainly competing on a different continent and learning about the cultural differences between the two is a big experience for them with lots of different learning curves.
The planning of a sports tour difficult in terms of organisation and logistics but Halsbury Travel as a company have eased the process significantly and I’ll certainly be looking to use the company again in the future.
There are so many lasting memories that we’ll take from this sports tour. Playing competitive sport on a different continent is an unbelievable opportunity.”
If you’d like to arrange a similar experience for your team, please don’t hesitate to contact us for further information, or to request a tailor-made quote .