Planning for school groups

There are many things to consider when planning for school groups.

What are the specific grade levels and numbers of student you can handle?

  • Will your festival include “school days” that are targeted to school audiences on specific days?  If so, be sure to check the school calendars of the districts you plan to target.  Talk to school officials to see if there are major conflicts for your proposed dates caused by testing or other concerns.
  • Are your activities targeted to a specific grade level or levels (such as 4-6)? This is recommended as it makes planning, marketing, and management easier.  It also makes it much easier to highlight academic connections and provide pre and post-festival activities.  The advice from two community festivals is to never have older kids at the festival at the same time with younger kids, although you might invite grades 4-6 and use high school students as docents or guides.
  • What services will you provide?  Will docents meet the buses and give an overview of the set-up?  Will you provide guides or self-guiding maps?  (Keep in mind that if you don’t provide some type of structure, many teachers will allow their students to wander at will, which can cause congestion and also mean that students miss some of the activities.)
  • How many classes can you handle at one time?  (The advice is to be conservative the first time you try a school day.)
  • Are you offering a full day experience or just a few hours?  Do you want all the classes arriving at once or do you want to stagger them?  (Don’t forget to allow travel time when planning schedules.  Typically buses need to be back to their schools 30 minutes before school is over.)
  • How will you handle the traffic flow?  Do you have clearly marked routes and large signage?
  • How will you schedule performances, demonstrations, and hands-on activities to avoid congestion?
  • Where will the students have lunch?  Most schools will bring picnics and will need a designated area with grass and/or tables.
  • Do you have vendors who can sell water, drinks, snacks and alternative lunches?  Many students prefer to buy lunch even though the school provides a picnic.  One way a festival can make extra money is by catering to this need.  (Some festivals also market low price souvenirs like t-shirts to cover expenses.)
  • Will you have first aid services on the premises?
  • What accommodations will you make for students with special needs?  This will be similar to your overall accessibility issues, but should be included in your school day plans as well.  Often the schools can provide aides, resource teachers, and sign interpreters.
  • Also consider what you require as the student-adult ratio.  Many festivals require a minimum of one adult for every five or ten students.

Funding

Will you charge the schools for attendance?   Usually family resource centers, schools, or school boards will arrange to pay for all students attending with one lump payment. (Check with your local school board office to identify Family Resource Centers in your school district).  If they are not covering the fee for all students, they will collect the amount from those students who are paying.  (Typically they cover expenses for students whose families are unable to pay.)  Sometimes festivals have two different fees - $1-3/student for local schools and $2-5/student for schools from other communities.  This amount can help to defray costs and can be used as matching funds when applying for grants.  Generally adults accompanying the students (teachers, bus drivers, aides, parent volunteers) are given free admittance.  Some festivals issue tickets to the students who come during the school day to give the child free admission to the evening events, which encourages families (who pay) to return for the evening.

Although some schools will have their students pay at the gate, often they pay by giving a purchase order for the amount to the “vendor” – in this case your festival – before the event.  The vendor is then responsible for submitting an invoice for payment referencing the purchase order after the event.  School districts usually pay their bills once a month, following a board meeting where the expenditures are approved.  Depending on when in their cycle your invoice is submitted, it could take up to forty days to receive payment.  After that, you should call to check.

Two other ways to help with funding is through grants or by asking local business to become a sponsor.

Contacting schools

As soon as possible let schools know what you are doing.  Send a letter that explains what your plans are.  It is best if you already know of a school or specific teacher that would be interested.  Most principals and teachers are overwhelmed with papers in their mailbox and will not pay much attention to unsolicited letters.  If you can call and speak to the principal or a teacher and let them know you will be sending information about your festival you can count on a better response.  Be sure to follow-up with a phone call a week after you have sent your materials.

See Guidelines for Inviting a School to your Festival (a link here to the article)

Preparing curriculum based materials

You can prepare materials specifically for your festival or you can adapt materials that already exist.  In the resources and links pages you will find many ideas for activities. Some have been developed specifically for small community festivals.

The more prepared and more information you can include for the teachers the more likely they will be to use it.  If you can suggest activities the students can do to prepare for the fieldtrip it will make the experience more meaningful.

Ideally, materials you prepare should:

  • Have activities teachers can do with kids in advance that would prepare them for the field trip.
  • Have activities for children to do on the field trip (like collecting information)
  • Have activities kids do on return to school with the information collected at the festival.
  • Be linked to the core curriculum.

Refer to the Core Curriculum

Look at the core content for your state, especially arts and humanities and social studies. In Kentucky, festival activities can also be linked to portfolio writing.  See the activity: Writing at the Festival on the Resources and Links page.

See: Kentucky’s Core Content for Assessment

An excellent book that outlines many different types of activities for students is: APPALACHIAN LITERATURE WORKBOOK, by Judy Sizemore, edited by Ginny Eager, Forward in the Fifth.  It can be purchased from the Jesse Stuart Foundation.

Return to top

RETURN TO MAIN ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS PAGE

GO TO: Guidelines for Inviting a School or Class to Your Festival

GO TO: Resources & Links