More than 30 youngsters from Kingswood School have visited City of Bath College’s aircraft cabin to enhance their studies, and have discovered that the sky’s the limit.
The five and six-year-olds were taken on a make-believe flight to Australia on board the aircraft cabin, which is situated in the College’s Travel & Tourism department.
Clutching their own hand-made passports and boarding passes, the school children checked in before boarding the plan for the safety demonstration and take-off.
The experience was made so realistic that some of the youngsters could be heard asking what time they would be arriving in Australia and if the weather would be sunny.
The visit marked the start of the children’s ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ project which also includes learning about the cultures and national dishes of countries around the world.
Collette Williams, City of Bath College’s Travel and Tourism lecturer, said the annual Kingswood School visit formed an essential part of the customer service module for Level 3 students.
She said: “Working with others in real-life situations really helps to develop our students’ confidence and many of them haven’t worked with children before.
“These are students who will go on to work in the Travel and Tourism industry so this will help boost their employability skills.”
Level 3 Travel and Tourism student Emily Riley, 17, said: “It’s a great experience for us as it provides us with some skills of interacting with different age groups.
“It’s good to work with such young children as we’ve learnt how to talk to them at their level and how to explain things in language they understand.”
Becci Howe, Head of Key Stage 1 at Kingswood School, said the children had benefitted from the ‘journey’ in the aircraft cabin.
She said: “It’s a great real life experience for them. Some of them have never been on a plane before and they really did think they were flying somewhere.”