School trip

[Jo Bowers]

Hi/hola

I am a Spanish teacher in a catholic school in England and along with my Religious Studies colleagues we are hoping to organise a pilgrimage with a group of students. We hope to walk from Sarria to Santiago at Easter 2017 to earn the Compostela and I was wondering if anybody has ever done this with a school group?

A big concern I have is accommodation. I am worried that if we are a group of 15 that we would be unable to find accommodation in a refugio. In addition, given that refugios are mixed dormitories and we are travelling with school children there could be an issue there with safeguarding (I mean with the rules, not that I think anybody in a refugio would attack our students!).

My questions then are as follows:
a) are there hostels that have single-sex dormitory accommodation, that I can book in advance? If so, how much are these likely to be?
b) are we likely to be able to house a group of 15 or so in a refugio by just turning up?
c) how difficult is this route?
d) does anybody have any advice?

Many thanks for your help.

Jo

 

[SYates]

My best advice, looking at the numbers of pilgrims from this years Easter Week (~6,000 arriving during Holy Week in Santiago!) would be to choose another way, for example the Camino Ingles http://caminodesantiago.consumer.es/los-caminos-de-santiago/ingles/ and yes, book accommodation beforehand. I don't think you will be very lucky in finding a lot of same-sex dorms on any route and you can't pre-book the Xunta albergues anyway. what I would do is contacting the parishes along a way other than the CF and look if they can facilitate you parish/sports halls or similar.

Good luck and Buen Camino, SY

PS You could also contact @JohnnieWalker here on the forum who runs the Camino Chaplaincy in Santiago and ask him for ideas.

 

[Jo Bowers]

Thank you for your reply. It would probably be the week after holy week (as we break up on the Thursday before Good Friday) but dates are not set yet anyway. The numbers of pilgrims from this year is very useful so thank you very much

 

[Pabloke]

Hola, Jo Bowers.

I coincided at Portomarín's albergue with a large group of Portuguese teenagers (40) and their teachers (8). It took time to get them in bed; they got up early (5am) and, for the rest of pilgrims, it was impossible to keep on sleeping due to voices, noise and lights on.

Please, be sure you are able to keep the group organized. I think it's a great idea to teach youngsters what St James' Way is, but may be hard for the rest of pilgrims to share spaces with a bunch of teenagers, specially when going to sleep, the most important moment at an albergue.

Don't forget that many pilgrims have hundreds of kilometers in their legs.

Don't get me wrong, i don't mean you shouldn't do it, quite the opposite, go ahead and enjoy it. Just think of the long distance pilgrims.

 

[Jo Bowers]

Thank you for your response. I absolutely agree with you - I would be taking a maximum of 15 students, but I understand the concern.

 

[jsalt]

My questions then are as follows:
a) are there hostels that have single-sex dormitory accommodation, that I can book in advance? If so, how much are these likely to be?
b) are we likely to be able to house a group of 15 or so in a refugio by just turning up?
c) how difficult is this route?
d) does anybody have any advice?

Hi Jo

a) I never came across an albergue with single-sex dormitories (except Youth Hostels, and they are few and far between on caminos). You can book privately-run albergues, which usually cost between about 8 and 15 euros per bed.

b) Maybe, but if I was the group leader I wouldn’t like to chance it.

c) It’s not difficult.

d) Book some private albergues for your group, about 12 kms apart. Remember that you can only walk as fast as your slowest member, and there is ALWAYS someone in a large group who walks slowly (you don’t mention their ages). Have plan B when you discover that little Susie has seriously bad blisters after about 5 kms and refuses to walk another step.

Have fun!
Jill

 

[HeidiL]

We usually walk at Easter, and have met many Spanish school groups. Apart from the two kids who had sex in the staircase in Sarria (!!!), they have all been nice - but if there's a way you could bring another adult and spilt the group, at least regarding accommodation, you'd probably have an easier time.

Also (important!) have the kids bring all their kit, including fully packed backpacks and the shoes they intend, to walk in to school a week before you start. That way you can save the girl who intends to bring three kilos of makeup, and the boy who grew two shoe sizes since Christmas and didn't notice. Otherwise, they will be your weakest members.

Have a wonderful walk!

 

[GreatDane]

On my day out of Burgos last month my camino friend and I kept seeing a giggley, loud, silly group of about 2 dozen youngsters/students and their support vehicles that stopped to take group photos every couple minues. Linda and I kept our heads down and just kept powering along hoping we'd stay well ahead or well behind. When I did actually meet up with them at Fuente de Prao Torre later that afternoon, it ended up being a French tour group of middle aged adults! Oops.

 

[Dave]

Hi Jo,

I've led American high school groups on pilgrimage most summers for the last 13 years. When we walk the CF, we walk from SJPdP to Santiago and on to Finisterre. When we last walked the Francés, we often booked rooms in private albergues so that we wouldn't have to worry about getting squeezed out. Cost a bit more, but it was really nice to not ever have to rush.

I don't even try to split the students by gender into different rooms. We generally all sleep in the same room, often with others mixed in, and it's just part of the experience. Frankly, I think it helps to have non-group members in the room. The only time they ever get a bit rowdy in the dorm room is when it's just them. I realize, though, that your school might require that kind of division. In that case, I'd try to look for albergues with room sizes that suit your group and distribute students accordingly. Won't work all of the time, but you can probably have a reasonable degree of success.

Teenagers' bodies rebound better than adults, so I find that they can manage the walking pretty well. We do train very hard in advance, though, gradually building up the group over the months prior to departure. That helps a lot.

Happy to field other questions. It's a blast--definitely one of the major highlights of my life as a teacher.

Dave