Guidance from the Department for Education has been released to help schools take advantage of the new border clearance scheme at Dover for school trips.
The government guidance, which has seven steps, is designed to help reduce processing time at the French border by submitting passenger information in advance for school groups travelling from Dover to Calais with P&O Ferries or Irish Ferries.
Under the guidance, trip organisers should collect information, including the nationality and type of document, for every individual travelling on the school trip, including the driver and any other adults, and add it to a spreadsheet provided by the ferry operator. These spreadsheets should be saved for each coach.
EVCs or those responsible for organising the trip should provide ferry operators with this information and evidence that the group is from a certified school in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland in advance. Ferry operators will then send the information to the French border authorities.
On the day of travel, schools should display a label in each coach windscreen which clearly shows the first seven letters of the school name and the number of passengers per coach. The passengers on board each coach should correspond to the spreadsheets provided to the ferry operator in advance.
In addition to faster processing, children who are visa nationals in the UK can travel visa-free when travelling to France as part of any school trip. Visa nationals are non-UK nationals living in the UK who would ordinarily need a visa to enter the EU.
Update welcomed
The School Travel Forum has welcomed the updated guidance released by the Department for Education, identifying that it has been designed to streamline the border crossing process and to ensure smooth travel experiences for educational groups, reducing wait times at busy border crossings while maintaining necessary security protocols.
Gill Harvey, School Travel Forum CEO, said: “We’re pleased to see this very clear guidance published by the Department for Education, it will be hugely helpful for teachers and school groups as we approach the peak time for school trips.
“It is a very simple process and will mean school groups will not face lengthy waits when crossing from Dover to Calais.”
This new guidance follows the launch of a faster clearance scheme for school groups which is being piloted at the Port of Dover to create a smoother process for pupils heading to Europe.
The pilot scheme began on 3rd April and allows school groups travelling with P&O Ferries and Irish Ferries to complete passenger information 72 hours prior to their scheduled departure.
Full details of the guidance from the Department for Education can be found at www.gov.uk/guidance/dover-to-calais-school-trips.
