Running a holiday club can be an excellent way for teachers and other school staff to earn a bit of extra money during the school vacations, and it’s not hard to think of exciting activities to get the young people engaged. The best option is to have a trip booked as part of the week’s entertainment, possibly as a final day celebration or as a way of expanding the children’s horizons. This comes with its own set of problems, from raising the money to pay for entrance fees and travel to completing the necessary risk assessment paperwork. This article aims to give some pointers about hiring a minibus as transport for the trip.
Firstly, see if there are any minibus companies that are attached to the local council for use by youth groups. This might not ensure the cheapest price, but the vetting of the company will have been done already, and you don’t need to worry about have to get a criminal background check done on the driver. However, during school holiday time, there will be dozens of other holiday clubs running, so you may run into competition for locally approved services.
The next step to try is to call the local high schools a few weeks in advance. They are often very keen to make contact with their feeder primary schools, and will do what they can to help out. Because they go on so many trips and sports fixtures, they tend to have several minibuses and staff who are trained to drive them. By explaining what you’re doing, and proposing some sort of link with the high school (possibly going up and using their facilities during the holidays), you’re likely to be able to hire their minibus for free. Again, this relies on a number of factors to work, not least whether the staff who are qualified to drive are available.
If that fails, get a list of local minibus companies who will recognize the name of the school that you work for. This will hopefully make them a little bit more sympathetic to your cause, and you may be able to negotiate a discount with them. They may also have a connection to the school. Be sure to remember to ask for a background check, and if the company baulks at that, then don’t hire them. When transporting children, all drivers must be able to display a clean police check, and should already have one in place for their job.
April 15th, 2011
Tushar Mathur
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