English

“It is literature which for me opened the mysterious and decisive doors of imagination and understanding. To see the way others see. To think the way others think. And above all, to feel.”
Salman Rushdie

At Schools Into Europe we passionately believe in the power and importance of literature and know what a gift the joy of reading can be to a young mind. That is why we are proud to offer a variety of school trips designed to show students the real-world context of the texts they study in the classroom, and to provide insights into the lives and motivations of the authors who created them (sorry, Barthes!). Please see below for a sample of our most popular destinations, or contact us to discuss your specific requirements at greater length.

London has been at the heart of Britain’s cultural and literary world for centuries and is a splendid destination for an English-themed school tour. One-time home of innumerable authors, poets and playwrights London is completely awash with literary history, and its literary associations range from Geoffrey Chaucer, buried in Westminster Abbey, all the way to T.S. Eliot and his surreal allusions to the city in The Waste Land. Meanwhile, with some of the country’s most influential theatres, from the stark modernity of the National Theatre to the early modern charm of Shakespeare’s reconstructed Globe, the capital is also the perfect place to show your pupils productions of plays studied in school, and has an incomparable variety of plays and performances throughout the year. The British Library is well worth a visit for avid readers and aspiring literary critics alike, while Harry Potter fans will adore seeing Platform 9¾ and Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter Studio Tour.  Why not visit our dedicated London page for more information, or contact us today.

Nowhere is the physical and psychological trauma endured by those who fought in the First World War more apparent than in the rich corpus of literature which those soldiers left for posterity. Rightly considered to be amongst the most evocative and emotive pieces of verse ever written, the extensive variety of the work by such poets as Wilfred Owen and John McCrae connects the reader with the intense barbarity of war and experiments with subject and form to present a sensory account of a type of warfare thereto unseen. Our literature tours of the battlefields can focus on any particular poets or subjects that you choose, and we will tailor-make your tour to be relevant to your exact scheme of work. Why not visit our Battlefields page for more information or contact us for a tailor-made package?

As befits the birthplace of the language, the United Kingdom is full of sights of literary interest, and whichever author, movement or medium you are studying, it will be our pleasure to custom-build a tour which is right for you. From William Wordsworth’s Lake District, where one can wander lonely as a cloud, to the important nothings of Jane Austen’s cottage in Chawton and the fishingboatbobbing sea of Dylan Thomas’ Laugharne, Britain has a wealth of visits suitable for every age and interest. Please click here to visit our United Kingdom page for more information.