FAQs

• Full day programme cost £440 per class* (maximum 30 pupils) for 2 hours fieldwork & 2 hours of indoor activities with a lunchroom
• Half day programme costs £265 per class* (max 30 pupils) for 2 hours fieldwork.  A lunchroom may be available before or after your session.  Please let us know if you would like a lunchroom when you make your booking.

*An additional fee may be applied to weekend bookings.

• River of Life outreach programme costs £400 (max 3 classes of 30 per day)
• Port of London outreach programme. Thanks to funding from the PLA we can provide this programme free to state schools in London, Kent and Essex (2-3 classes of 30 per day).
• Port of London outreach programme costs £400 for independent schools (2-3 classes of 30 per day)
• Boat programme costs £875 for 2 classes for the day

Please note the following before booking:

• If Thames Explorer Trust (TET) has to cancel your trip, you will receive a full refund. We will endeavor to contact you with as much notice as possible via the contact details you gave at the point of booking.
• If you need to cancel, you must ring and email us at info@thames-explorer.org.uk
• You will receive a full refund if you cancel 14 or more days before your trip.
• You will receive a 50% refund if you cancel less than 14 days before your trip. This includes cancellations due to illness, strikes, transport issues or bad weather. See the FAQ  “What if the weather is bad?”

Do not automatically assume that your trip is cancelled because of a weather forecast. Very few of our outings are cancelled due to bad weather and we go out in a mixture of rain and shine.

These are the main weather conditions where the Thames Explorer team might decide to cancel:

1. Snow and ice, making the ground treacherous
2. Heavy fog, severely restricting visibility of the group by our staff
3. Lightning
4. Amber weather warnings (wind, sun etc). Do not assume a cancellation because of a news article – forecasts often swing between amber and yellow warnings (see yellow warnings below). TET will assess the duration, location and timing of an amber warning.
5. Yellow weather warnings –  trips usually go ahead. For a yellow weather warning, we may need to use a different foreshore, for instance because step access might be safer

If it is necessary to cancel an event, we will ring your organisation. If your planned visit is on a Monday, we may contact you directly on the mobile number you gave when booking as the school//university office may be closed.

Extremely rarely we are forced to cancel foreshore visits at the point of entering the foreshore. Disappointing as this may be, your TET teacher will have good experience of foreshore safety (and of the limits of our insurance) so please respect their decision.

Our full day courses usually start at 10 am and finish at 2.30 pm. We can be flexible with timings if the tides allow – please let us know your preferred times when booking. If you have to arrive late and/or leave early due to travel arrangements, we can either shorten or omit activities.

A full day programme includes a 2 hour morning session and 2 hour afternoon session with a short break for lunch and and involves both indoor and outdoor activities; whether you will be outside in the morning or afternoon depends on the time of low tide on the day of your trip.

Sessions are designed to be flexible so that we can adapt them to your learning objectives and pupils’ needs. You will be asked to provide your learning objectives as part of the booking process in advance of your trip.

The Thames Explorer Trust provide programmes at the following sites:

• Kew Bridge TW8 0EN
• Chiswick Pier W4 2UG
• Fulham Palace SW6 6EA
• Southwark SE1 9TG
• Millennium Bridge EC4V 3QH
• Rotherhithe SE16 4AD
• Museum of London Docklands E14 4AL
• Greenwich Old Royal Naval College SE10 9NN
• Greenwich Trafalgar Rowing Centre SE10 9NP
• Hammersmith W6 9TA
• Hermitage Community Moorings E1W 1NG 

Please note not all programmes are run at all sites. View all available school trips.

Yes, we offer two outreach programmes which can be delivered at your school. Find out more about our outreach workshops.  We could also deliver an online workshop via Zoom or other conferencing software.

The booking process for schools, colleges and other education groups is as follows:

Step 1 

Choose your preferred site, programme, and month to visit.

Step 2 

Phone 020 8742 0057 or email info@thames-explorer.org.uk to check availability and to make a provisional booking.

Step 3

Once you have made a provisional booking, we will send an email with our terms and conditions and group details form attached. We request that you return the completed form(s) within 7 days as we cannot hold provisional bookings. If we do not receive your form, we send you a reminder before cancelling your visit.

Step 4

Once we have received your completed form and the venue and staff are arranged for your trip(s) we will send you a booking confirmation via email with an invoice, map, checklist and health and safety advice attached. Please note your trip has not been confirmed until you have received written confirmation from us.

Step 5

The invoice should be paid within 4 weeks of date of issue.

Step 6

Contact us to arrange a site pre-visit.

Download the booking form.

Download the cancellation form.

Each group leader needs to bring:

A copy of our confirmation form with details of meeting place and times of trip.

A first aid kit, anti-bacterial hand gel. Plastic gloves only needed for foreshore sessions and are not essential. However, we do recommend that anyone with open wounds, skin conditions and under 7 year olds wear gloves on the foreshore.

We recommend that you do a site pre-visit and write your own risk assessment in advance of your trip.  We can advise you on when and how to do this.

You must bring the correct child to adult ratio (see below) and all adults must provide supervision at all times. Please bring an extra adult in case of emergencies. Please do not count 1:1 support into your ratios or share adults between classes.

Each person needs to bring:

Packed lunch and plenty of drinking water (if doing a full day programme or half day with lunchroom)

Appropriate clothing for the weather – come dressed for rain and shine!

For foreshore sessions all participants should bring wellies (alternatively sturdy boots or old trainers) and spare shoes and socks to change into for the indoor session. A plastic bag to take muddy footwear home is essential! You will not be allowed on to foreshore with high heels, sandals, or footwear with holes i.e. crocs.

Please bring a bag for rubbish as we don’t provide rubbish bins at our sites to encourage you to reduce, reuse and recycle.

We supply clipboards, pencils, and worksheets for most programmes. If you do need to supply these yourself, we will notify you before your visit.

We aim to make our programmes inclusive to all and our indoor venues centres all have disabled access.

• You will be asked to provide us with details of pupils with SEND, EAL and medical conditions prior to your trip.
• Unfortunately, wheelchair access on to the foreshore can be tricky, especially at sites with step-only access.
• We are happy to provide alternative activities for children and young people who are unable to accompany their class on to the foreshore.
• Please contact us in advance of your trip to discuss options and to arrange a site pre-visit
• Please make sure that one-to-one support staff are not included in your adult-to-child ratios.
• We can also provide our River of Life outreach programme at your school for SEND classes
• At Chiswick our Rivers and Environmental Issues programme can be combined with ‘meet the RNLI life boat crew’ (see KS2 Rivers and Environmental Issues session 1c for details).
• Programmes at our other venues can also be adapted and we are happy to discuss this with you. Subject to funding being available, we can sometimes offer subsidised visits to special schools, please contact us for further details.

Maximum class size is 30 pupils. Depending on the tides and the programme we can accommodate 2 classes on the same day at Chiswick, Kew Bridge, Hammersmith, Greenwich, Fulham Palace and Southwark. At all other sites we can only accommodate 1 class per day.

In order for your trip to be educationally effective and safe, we require the following adult to child ratios:

For children under 8 years, a ratio of 1 adult to 6 children is essential.

For children over 8 years, we recommend a ratio is 1 adult to 6 children and a ratio of 1 adult to 10 children/young people is essential.

One-to-one support staff and Thames Explorer Trust staff should not be included in these ratios.

All attending adults must provide close supervision at all times, especially on the foreshore. Please bring an additional adult who is able to support the class in the event of an emergency.

Please ensure that all adult helpers are aware that the trip involves outdoor activities, working near open water, walking by roads and walking on a muddy, uneven foreshore. Everyone needs to wear suitable footwear and clothing appropriate for the weather.

Please note that the noise from the boat’s engine and general acoustics on both decks make it challenging for our teachers to be heard. Please avoid conversations, however quite you may think are being, with fellow adults when the Thames Explorer teacher is talking.

Please ensure that all adult helpers are specifically delegated to support pupils either on table groups, helping children to access materials and complete challenges, or on manning the open decks.

Should your trip for whatever reason be prevented from taking place, Thames Explorer will endeavour to provide an alternative activity on the day. If you chose to take this, no refund will be due