Relocating across the country or around the world can be an exciting time for any family, but the ongoing success of that transition frequently depends on the support and welcome from the new community. At the International School of London our reputation is founded on the motivation of our students, the skills of our faculty and the support of our parent community. We have forty years of successful implementation of the International Baccalaureate, we inspire our students to develop their intellect, creativity and character by recognising that each and every one of them is unique. Here are some tips to help ease the transition:
- Think through the entire process
A good transition will require time and preparation, and your children will need to be involved through a good part of it. You can decide when to tell them, but don't keep it a secret from them. Kids may not understand what is happening, but they will sense that something is happening.
- Let your children be a part of the transition
Involve them in decisions, so they can begin with their mental transition. If possible, take them to visit their new home and school, so they can see what is waiting for them.
- Make sure the transition does not interrupt their favourite activities
Children need to know that their interests can relocate with them. Identify potential places where they can continue their favourite activity, be it ballet, swimming, or football.
- Research potential schools
For children, schools are much more than places to learn. They are the portals into their new life. Their new school will become the centre of their social world and help shape their identity. Your children's school can be instrumental in a successful transition, and identifying one which understands the importance of soft landings can make all the difference.
- Transition assistance
Transition and relocation programmes are essential, and some schools have mastered them, creating a space where parents and children quickly feel integrated within their new community.
- Start school on the same day as everyone else
If possible, let your children start school on the same day as everyone else. That's usually when new students enter the school, so your children will feel part of the normal rhythm of the school. If that's not possible, enquire about how the school will help your child adjust with the transition.
- Listen to your child
Some children are eager to meet new friends and begin exploring their new environment, whilst others need more time to feel comfortable. Listen to your children’s needs and concerns and let them set the pace.
Join us for a tour of the school or at the IB Diploma College Open Evening on Thursday 23rd November (6pm – 8pm)
Few would deny that a privately guided, chauffeur-driven tour of the town is a splendid way to go, but don’t worry if your budget doesn’t stretch quite that far. You’ll be delighted to hear there are plenty of great tour options at the free or cheap end of the spectrum.
City Guides host dozens of free or inexpensive walks around London’s historic areas. All start from the City Information Centre near St Paul’s Cathedral. Popular ones include Charles Dickens Walks, London’s Burning, Roman London and Monuments to Murder.
City Garden Walks lead low cost, environmentally-friendly tours of colourful gardens, ancient burial grounds, secret green spots and other downtown horticultural delights, while Walk London run free guided weekends thrice a year. Look out for their Autumn Ambles in late September and Winter Wanders in early 2018.
Footprints of London specialise in culture- connected walks; upcoming choices include Rumpole and the Legal Life, Constable’s Hampstead, Soho and all that Jazz and Tracing the Tudors: the Real London of Wolf Hall. Throughout October the company runs an innovative Literary Footprints Festival.
London’s top museums offer free gallery tours and self-guiding trails along with free entry. Highly recommended are daily tours at the award-winning Victoria & Albert Museum, opening your eyes to some of the treasures on display at this, the world’s greatest museum of art and design. Choose from a dazzling variety covering Theatre & Performance, Medieval & Renaissance, LGBTQ, African Heritage or Britain 1500- 1900. Many old churches run inexpensive, fascinating crypt-to-belfry tours. Try the one at lovely St Brides, with its many royal, literary and longstanding US connections like Benjamin Franklin and North Carolina’s first colonists.
The East End Street and Graffiti Tour is one of the most popular daily tours offered by Free Walks by Foot. Led by a local street artist, it’s packed with visits to some of the capital’s most eclectic, shocking, beautiful and imaginative street art, from massive murals that take up entire buildings to tiny hidden treasures you’d miss if you didn’t have someone to tell you where to look. The tour is bookable and free to take, with an unpressured “pay what you think it’s worth” collection at journey’s end.
Last but not least, for the mere price of a single bus ticket you can enjoy a bird’s eye view of the best of London atop an iconic red double decker bus. We recommend Heritage
Route 15 for a whistlestop tour of the city’s most famous sights including Trafalgar Square, the Tower of London, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Royal Courts of Justice.
Blue Badge Guide and native Londoner Erica Moss has been leading bespoke tours for a mainly American clientele for nearly four years. Following a first career in journalism, Erica decided to undergo the rigorous training required to gain the London Blue Badge, considered the Gold Standard of tour guiding.
Since qualifying, Erica has created a repertoire of over 40 different tours. Each tour she gives is then refined for a particular client’s wishes and desires, with the aim of making it fun and interesting in a way they will always remember. One day she might be guiding three generations of the same family through medieval London, the Jewish East End or British rock and pop history, the next she could be leading a honeymooning couple on a chauffeur-driven foray to Windsor Castle, Oxford or Stonehenge.
As Erica tells us, “I think of myself as the London Genie: the client rubs the lamp and I am the genie that comes out of the bottle. I especially love it when clients share their own knowledge and experience or come up with new and interesting questions during a tour.” She considers it a genuine pleasure to spend time with Americans and share with them because “their openness and directness makes me more direct and open myself”.
What might clients expect on one of her tours? “Lots of walking, fun, views and sights that are not obvious-- off the beaten track stuff. I like to aim for the ‘Oh Wow’ factor. Why does she do it? “I really love sharing. London is a world city and my city; it’s brilliant and I like showing it off. It’s always personal. While a client is with me I’m their new best friend and I’m going to look after them”.
Current fees for a Blue Badge Guide start at around £158 per half day and £255 per full day.
London has long been a top location for filming movies, TV, fashion and advertising, so you won’t be surprise to learn that tours with a media theme are a hugely popular choice.
In fact, there’s a tour for every shade of film fan, from Sherlock Holmes, Call the Midwife and Doctor Who location strolls to James Bond, Alfred Hitchcock and Gangster Movie jaunts. Outside London, you’ll find luxury guided trips to Poldark’s Cornwall, Downton Abbey Country and Inspector Morse and Lewis’ Oxford.
We were invited to join current Trip Advisor favourite, the Harry Potter Tour for Muggles.
The Muggles Tour is ideal for Potter movie and book devotees of any age, the proudly self- titled ‘Potterheads’. If that’s you, you’re sure to find loads to see and much to love on this 21⁄2 hour ramble, filled with fascinating facts and Harry, Ron and Hermione legends as you ‘potter’ the magical underbelly of London at a comfortable pace. Included is a short ride on the London Underground although not, we’re sad to say, on a Knight Bus or a Gringotts
Wizarding Bank mine car.
Adoring fans will cherish viewing the site
of the Leaky Cauldron (Borough Market), alleyways which inspired magical Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley (off Charing Cross Road), bridges under which characters flew on broomsticks (Blackfriars, Southwark)
or the Death Eaters attacked (Millennium Bridge), and the spot where Mr Weasley struggled with his Oystercard (Westminster Underground Station). This tour is also a great way to see some of London’s most famous landmarks with Potter connections such as Big Ben, 10 Downing Street and many more.
We thoroughly enjoyed our tour in the company of charming, knowledgeable and vividly-dressed guide Ellie Lovegood, (cousin of Luna) and an international group of Muggles which included Americans Matthew from Washington DC, teen Chloe and Grandma Carmella from Southern California and Allyson, Scott and son Zach from Oregon.
All Tour for Muggles’ guides are genuine fans. When not wizarding, serious Potterhead Ellie is a budding actress and playwright, who confessed she got the guiding job by writing a long ‘nerdy’ letter effusing why she wanted it.
Dedicated followers longing for more will want to progress without delay to the Warner Brothers Studio Tour just north of London, with behind-the-scenes tours of movie sets, costumes and props from the seven films. For the ultimate treat, £99 will get you a place on the Studio’s Breakfast at Hogwarts, a deluxe dining reception complete with Cheeri-owls, Pixie Puffs, a visit to original sets like the Great Hall, the Forbidden Forest and Diagon Alley and a complimentary sample of Butterbeer.
Article by Judith Schrut. Email Judith at judith0777@gmail.com Wands at the Ready! Diagon Alley, Harry Potter Tour for Muggles, photo by Geoffrey Davies
Tally Ho Cycle Tours offer a unique way to explore London’s timeworn streets and to celebrate Britishness in a fun and quirky style. Riding a hand-built classic Pashley bicycle, a bike style you’ll recognise if you’re a fan of BBC’s Call the Midwife (think wicker baskets, comfy leather saddles and ‘ding dong’ bells), you’ll follow an energetic local guide along quiet streets and dedicated cycle lanes to see the city and get up front and personal with both iconic sights and hidden gems. As you connect the dots between each fascinating location, your guide will regale you with delightful facts and curious tales, as well as ensure you get the best photo opportunities. There’s even a stop along the way at a characterful pub for a refreshing pint of real ale with your group.
Tally Ho’s founder Jack Harris confesses it was a “mix of madness and desperation” which led him to set up the company in 2011. The desire to be his own boss and move away from office-bound jobs meshed perfectly with London’s cycling revolution and two of Jack’s favourite passions, exploring by bike and visiting old pubs. “I realised there were probably many people who, like me, enjoy a good day out full of discovery topped off with a chat over a craft beer or two,” he told us.
So, Jack invested in a few vintage bicycles and started leading tours. Six years and hundreds of glowing Trip Advisor reviews later, Jack’s Tally Ho has a fleet of over 60 gorgeous Pashleys and a devoted team of guides who share his passions.
Three tour styles are available, with something for all ages or cycling abilities. The London Landmarks and Old City tours will immerse you in the capital’s grit, grime and glory while the Gin and Markets Ride lets you discover London through the story of gin from the 18th century to the present day and sample open air food markets full of tasty delights.
The Landmarks Tour is ideal if you are new to London and is also most suitable for families since it covers the shortest distance. You’ll take in famous landmarks like Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and Big Ben, stop off at an award-winning pub and visit a legal graffiti zone with a chance to have a go yourself, spray paint supplied.
We loved every minute of our Old City Tour, led by the gloriously moustachioed ‘Whiskey Mick’ and his able accomplice, Harry. This tour is perfect for those wanting to look deeper into London’s diverse history and experience the hustle and bustle of the city with its contrasting architecture, cultures and time lines. It’s an invigorating trip through 12 miles and 2000 years of London’s past and present, illustrated with loads of Mick-style weird and wonderful facts and memorable stories. Did you know Waterloo Bridge is also known as the Ladies Bridge, entirely built by women during World War II? That the inside-out design of Lloyds of London is an example of ‘bowellist’ architecture? And although there are plenty of streets, squares and alleys in the City of London, there are no roads? Mick even gave
us a lesson in Cockney Rhyming Slang as we paused beneath the bells of Bow Church and alongside a statue of colonial founding father, Captain John Smith, who is buried nearby.
We pedalled cycle lanes, canals, docklands and Victorian back streets, zipped along cycle ‘Superhighways’ and wheeled our way between ultramodern skyscrapers, with nicknames like the Gherkin, the Cheesegrater, the Scalpel and the Walkie Talkie. We viewed chunks of Roman wall, atmospheric Leadenhall Market, 11th century churches, Cable Street’s anti- fascist mural, the Queen’s boat, Gloriana at St Katherine’s Dock and plenty of other sights that the natives on our tour had never seen, stopping at the city’s oldest riverside pub for a pint and a peep at the hangman’s noose out back, where smugglers and pirates met their grizzly end.
Tally Ho’s tours start and end at The Walrus Pub, SE1 and cost from £25 including bike hire. Private tours can also be arranged on request. Unforgettable and highly recommended.
Join us for a tour of the school or at the IB Diploma College Open Evening on Thursday 23rd November (6pm – 8pm)
Few would deny that a privately guided, chauffeur-driven tour of the town is a splendid way to go, but don’t worry if your budget doesn’t stretch quite that far. You’ll be delighted to hear there are plenty of great tour options at the free or cheap end of the spectrum.
Blue Badge Guide and native Londoner Erica Moss has been leading bespoke tours for a mainly American clientele for nearly four years. Following a first career in journalism, Erica decided to undergo the rigorous training required to gain the London Blue Badge, considered the Gold Standard of tour guiding.
London has long been a top location for filming movies, TV, fashion and advertising, so you won’t be surprise to learn that tours with a media theme are a hugely popular choice.
Tally Ho Cycle Tours offer a unique way to explore London’s timeworn streets and to celebrate Britishness in a fun and quirky style. Riding a hand-built classic Pashley bicycle, a bike style you’ll recognise if you’re a fan of BBC’s Call the Midwife (think wicker baskets, comfy leather saddles and ‘ding dong’ bells), you’ll follow an energetic local guide along quiet streets and dedicated cycle lanes to see the city and get up front and personal with both iconic sights and hidden gems. As you connect the dots between each fascinating location, your guide will regale you with delightful facts and curious tales, as well as ensure you get the best photo opportunities. There’s even a stop along the way at a characterful pub for a refreshing pint of real ale with your group.
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