School Trips to Stratford Upon Avon

Royal Shakespeare Company Production

Located on the bank of the River Avon in Shakespeare’s home town, the Royal Shakespeare Company welcomes school groups to experience world renowned productions every day.  Furthermore, as there is a requirement in the curriculum for students to study two Shakespeare plays, this is a perfect opportunity to introduce your group to various Shakespeare texts. 

RSC Tours

Go behind-the-scenes to discover more about the theatre-making process. Starting in the foyer, these guided tours explore the public and private areas of the theatre. Learn about the history of the RSC, the theatres and the recent transformation. 

RSC - The Play's The Thing Exhibition

Take a magical journey through 100 years of theatre-making in Stratford-upon-Avon with our new permanent exhibition "The Play's The Thing". Discover rarely-seen treasures from our museum and archive: exquisite costumes, amazing model-boxes and weird and wonderful props.

Get hands-on and celebrate the creativity behind the scenes; discover the inspiration behind some of our most acclaimed shows, play Hamlet alongside actor Ewart James Walters, using state-of-the-art gaming technology, try on virtual costumes from our collection and take a photo, dress up in the dressing room and take part in the Quick Change Challenge and many more.

RSC Tower

The 36-metre high tower offers an iconic landmark for the RSC theatres whilst providing fantastic views of Shakespeare’s home town. A lift will take you to the 32-metre high viewing platform. As you descend you will find an exhibition installed on the walls and in the alcoves.

RSC Workshops

Tailored to meet your learning objectives, these half or full day workshops provide students with either a first introduction to, or a deeper study of a chosen plays language, characters and themes. Each workshop is led by RSC Education Associate Practitioners all of whom have first-hand experience of RSC rehearsal room practice, working either as actors, directors or theatre education specialists. 

For upper primary groups, our workshops are designed to explore language, character and themes and include the development of written outcomes.

Shakespeare Properties Sessions

Put the spotlight on Shakespeare with an interactive talk that aids the discussion of language use, exploration of literary and historical context, and the discovery of characterisation and stagecraft. Choose from a range of plays for comparison and link your workshop to suit your students’ needs. 

Theatre Workshops

At the YHA Stratford, we can provide popular curriculum-linked workshops such as ‘An Introduction to Shakespeare’, ‘Circus and Clowning’, ‘Improvisation’, ‘Playwriting’, and ‘An Inspector Calls’. Course content can be tailored to meet the needs of your group.

Stratford Walks

Take an award-winning guided walk around the historic streets and explore Stratford, its history, attractions and fascinating relationship with Shakespeare. Hear informative and interesting stories of fires, flooding, the plague and mediaeval cures!

Stratford Ghost Walk

On an award winning ghost walk, your group will meander around the streets of Stratford and discover terrible tales and sinister stories of ghosts, witches, murder and misery.

Tudor World

Step back in time and experience a slice of what it was like to lead a Tudor life. Put your feet up in a four-poster bed, see what it would have been like to sit at an Elizabethan dining table and imagine ruling the land by taking your seat on a throne.

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 
• Online parents’ video which showcases the benefits of taking a school trip 

Risk assessment support including preview visit

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 geography resources and educational posters to brighten up your classroom!

Take a look at our downloadable posters here