Travel & Transfers
Accompanying Students for Departure
Travel to the UK
Students' travel to and from England must be booked and paid for independently. Once your child's place with us has been confirmed, we will ask you to provide us with the travel details. It is important that this information is provided to us as soon as possible.
When booking your child's flights to the UK, the flights should be booked for the stated Arrival Date. On the Arrival Dates, students should either arrive into UK Airports for an airport transfer or should be brought to the school by Parent Transfer. Your child will not miss any aspects of the course by arriving in the UK on the stated arrival dates - the English language placement and induction will all take place the morning after the arrival date.
For departure from the UK, flights home should be booked for the stated Departure Dates. Parents wishing to collect children from the London hotel should do so on the morning of the Departure Date.
Airport Transfers
SBC offers an Airport Transfer Service for students attending Dean Close Summer School, at an additional cost to the weekly course price. We offer two types of Airport Transfer; Coach Service or Taxi Transfer.
Option 1 - Coach Service
For arrivals, the Coach Service is available for students whose flights are scheduled to arrive at Heathrow Airport between 9.00 and 17.00.
All departures take place from London Hotel following the overnight London stay. As such, the Coach Service to Heathrow Airport is available at any time on the departure days
The timetable for the Coach Transfer service to and from Heathrow is as follows:
Arrival Coach Service* |
Departure Coach Service |
Depart Heathrow 12.00 |
Departure Transfer Service to |
Depart Heathrow 15.00 |
|
Depart Heathrow 18.00 |
*Arrival Coach Service is for flights scheduled to arrive at Heathrow between 09.00 and 17.00. Flights arriving at Heathrow outside of these times or at other UK airports will need Taxi Transfers.
Option 2 - Taxi Transfer
Flights arriving at Heathrow before 9.00 or after 17.00 will need a Taxi Transfer. All students arriving into other UK airports will also need to make use of our Taxi Transfer Service.
Students departing from Heathrow may make use of our Coach Service. For all other UK airports, our Taxi Transfer Service is available.
Prices for Taxi Transfers are given below:
Arrival Taxi transfers |
Departure Taxi transfers |
||
Heathrow Airport |
£195 |
Heathrow (use Coach Service) |
£75* |
Gatwick Airport |
£210 |
Gatwick Airport |
£175 |
Stansted Airport |
£230 |
Stansted Airport |
£190 |
Bristol Airport |
£100 |
Bristol Airport |
£210 |
Birmingham Airport |
£160 |
Birmingham Airport |
£190 |
*If a student needs to travel to Heathrow Airport on a day other than one of the stated Departure Dates, then they will need to travel directly from Dean Close School and not from the London Hotel. The price of a taxi transfer therefore will be £195.
For other airports or train stations, prices are available on application.
Meeting Students on Arrival
Once your child's flight has landed in the UK they will need to go through Passport Control and then collect their baggage. Once they have their baggage your child should follow the signs to the Exit/Arrivals Hall. Immediately on entering the Arrivals Hall, a member of SBC Staff will be waiting for your child.
Please note, Heathrow Airport is very busy and at peak times, it can take 1-2 hours from the time a flight lands to complete Passport Control and Baggage Collection. Our staff will always follow the live flight information and will be aware of any delays.
In the Arrivals Hall, our staff will be easily identifiable with a bright YELLOW T-SHIRT with SBC on the front and TRANSFER TEAM on the back. They will also be holding a sign displaying the child's name. Children using our Coach Service will be accompanied from the main Arrivals Hall to our Welcome Club. Our Welcome Club is located in one of the airport hotels, away from the main terminal buildings. At Welcome Club, children will be able to have some refreshments, relax and meet some of the other new students before taking the next scheduled coach to the school.
Accompanying Students for Departure
SBC Staff will accompany your child from the hotel to the airport terminal on the Departure Date. It is our policy to arrive at check-in at least 2 hours before the scheduled departure (for some destinations and long-haul flights we may allow up to 3 hours). Our staff will assist your child with the check-in procedure, before taking them to the security point.
Some airlines require online check-in prior to departure to guarantee a flight booking. It is the parent's responsibility to check the policy with the airline. Where online check-in is offered as an option, we recommend that parents do the online check-in, as this can save time once at the airport on the departure date. If possible, any registration documents, e-tickets or boarding passes should be given to the child prior to travelling to the UK. If this is not possible, we can assist with printing off any required documents if they are emailed to the office during your child's stay.
Letter of Consent to Travel
Child travellers entering the UK without their parent(s) or a guardian may be asked to present a LETTER OF CONSENT TO TRAVEL. We will provide a template of this document once you have completed the booking process. The document needs to be signed by a parent and handed to the child to be kept with the passport at the time of travelling.
You may also want to consider having this letter notarised (witnessed or signed by a solicitor) as recently the regulations have changed for children travelling from certain countries without their parent. In particular this applies to children travelling from ITALY or SPAIN who may not be able to board a flight without either a notarised letter or a letter from the local police (in Italy this is called the Dichiarazione Di Affido).
We recommend that you check with your airline and local police about whether your child will need any official documentation to leave the country without being accompanied by a parent or guardian. Children have in the past been refused boarding onto their flight because they did not have the correct documentation. Countries known to be affected by such regulations are (this list is not exhaustive):
ITALY, SPAIN, FRANCE, PORTUGAL, LATVIA.
Unaccompanied Minors
If your child is flying to the UK without a parent or guardian, you can request UNACCOMPANIED MINOR (UM) Assistance directly from the airline. This means that a member of the airline staff will stay with the child from check-in until handing him or her over to a named representative at the destination. This service is available from most airlines and should be arranged with the airline when making the flight reservation.
Most airlines will charge a small fee for the UM Assistance. Some airlines will not accept child travellers under the age of 12 without also booking the UM service. We recommend you check the airline's policy about child travellers in advance of the date of travel.
Where the UM service is booked, the airline will usually request the details of the person who will be meeting the child at the destination and we can provide you with this information if it is required.
On occasion there may be changes to arrangements and the named member of staff given for the UM Assistance may change. If this is the case we will always arrange for another member of our team to meet your child and the named member of staff will sign a Letter of Authorization for the collection of the UM child traveller.
Parent Transfer
For those parents or guardians who are bringing their children to the school, we ask that you arrive between 11.00am and 2.00pm. The children will be checked in by one of the summer school team who will answer any questions you may have. The students and parents will then be shown to their room and are given a quick tour of the school. There will be refreshments available for both parents and students. On departure days, parents or guardians who are collecting their children should do so from the London hotel between 09.00 and 11.00am.
