How to choose children's summer camps with English learning

The information concerns all those who plan to send their children to foreign camps this summer to learn English. As I probably correctly assume, most people, when thinking about this, remember England. And, of course, many are about Switzerland.

Sending to families

I have already said that I am categorically against being sent to families. But, of course, I can in no way impose my opinion, I can only warn. Some parents believe that it is necessary to save on this issue. I encourage you to add a little, but under no circumstances make your child the subject of roulette or lottery. Because there are good cases, but this is 1 out of 10.

Because you understand that English families who accept children, and especially in the summer, – These are not very wealthy families. Who, for some reason, need income. These could be elderly people, maybe a lonely woman. And even if in the description of the family it is stated that there is supposedly a child living (and there may even be a child your age), this does not mean anything. Because this child, at the time of your child’s arrival in the family, may be safely in some camp.

And even if it turns out that this child is at home, it is not at all a fact that he will communicate with yours. Because your child will probably not speak at the level at which an Englishman speaks. And children, you yourself know what they are like, especially teenagers. If they are not interested, they immediately dig into their own hole.

Which camp to choose?

Of course, it is better to choose a camp with accommodation in a residence. There are also huge pitfalls here. First of all, it is best not to choose a residence that costs less than £1,000 per week. I understand that this offer may not be attractive to everyone. Therefore, I propose to consider this a kind of border zone. If the cost of a course that a company offers you, or that you find on the Internet, still costs less than £1,000, then please put it under a microscope. Just understand what you are buying.

It is quite possible that your child will enjoy this program, that he will make friends with the guys, that he will have a great English teacher. But this is also a kind of lottery. Because these types of camps are organized by mass companies that have many centers throughout the UK. Which simply rent certain boarding schools. And parents often think: “Oh, Stowe school, great!” The most beautiful school in the world!” And it’s not the school itself that makes the camp. This is just a third-party organization, and in a fairly cheap segment, that makes a camp there.

So please make sure that it is the school itself that makes the program. If it is a school itself, then it is clear that this level is very high, and, of course, such camps cost much more. For example, 1200, 1300, maybe 1500 pounds per week. This is the cost of the camp organized by the boarding school.

About mass summer camps

We return to regular camps. If you look at a picture of a residence, for example, a company shows you: this is where your child will live, then you make sure that this is really the residence where he will live. The fact is that there are quite a lot of residences on the territory of boarding schools, there can be 10–15 of them. And some of them have been renovated. It is clear that they will put the most beautiful, most modern one in their brochure. Make sure your child will definitely live there or it is not guaranteed. Again, this may not be important to you. Not all parents care about super cool living conditions with amenities in the room. But if this is important to you, then please find out.

About food. You might get lucky, or you might not. You understand that when the tour is on a budget, they cannot offer you pickles, no matter how much you would like. Maybe 2 pieces of pizza in one hand, not a lot of meat. You need to realize all this. As I already said, the children will be offered normal rations. Just don't expect anything here that you're used to at home. Firstly, in any case this will not happen, since you are traveling to another country and you need to take this calmly. When we go to China, we don't expect to eat cheesecakes for breakfast. And it’s the same here.

Please make sure that you will be staying in the residence shown in the photo. What kind of food will you have, you can even request a menu, this is absolutely normal. Request the activation program. It is clear that many schools will offer a standard set. That is, in the morning we worked out until 12:30, then we had lunch and then the activities began, maybe 2 excursions a week, maybe 3 at best, but, as a rule, 2.

About activations. Find out what kind of activities there will be, try to get the program. Because activities can consist, for example, of playing football. One of the employees, who more or less knows how to play, will join the guys. The girls will watchthere is a TV. In the evening there may be a so-called “movie night”, when everyone sits in the assembly hall and watches some English movie on the big screen.

Such entertainment is not very successful. It is better to go to such budget camps with a group leader.

Why is a leader so important?

Good, cool group leader – this is the person who will level out these rough edges that the organization that organized this tour will one way or another impose on you.

What do I mean? For example, when everyone is watching this already boring movie or playing this already boring football game, a good group leader gathers the children and takes them to a nearby city or village. Or they even go to a musical in London, which was organized in advance by a company located in Russia or a CIS country.

Now I will say a few words about sending with groups. Groups – it can be very cool, or it can be very terrible. Here you need to approach the matter sensibly, with an arrangement. For example, we, as a company, have been making groups since 1996. I don't think there is anyone more experienced than us, considering that every year we do 10 to 17 groups and have already sent over 210 groups.

As a person with extensive experience in this matter, I will tell you that the leader of the group on the trip – This is the key word, absolutely everything depends on it! We traditionally have groups – This is such a cheap travel option. Often it is organized by the teachers themselves in order to simply go to England and see the country, do some shopping, and so on.

How to choose a group leader?

If you want your child to travel with not someone who is shopping, but someone who actually works, take your choice very seriously.

Be sure to meet the group leader in advance. You can use Skype, it is clear that you can live far from each other. For example, we gather groups from absolutely all over the country; Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan also join us. Make sure that this is actually the person who will take care of your child. Who will be there if the child suddenly develops a fever. Who will really take care of the children and smooth out rough edges if they arise. And they can always arise. Because Russian children – they are more demanding than, for example, the British. And English parents won't complain. Therefore, there is a certain mentality here that assumes, well, there’s nothing wrong with it if now the children just hang out on their own once again.

It is very important to understand whether this person has already traveled with groups or not, what experience he has. How will the company that organizes the group train him? Does the company have any clear algorithm of actions, how many groups has it sent? I would definitely recommend asking for parents’ phone numbers, or video reviews, or real reviews. Real reviews are very easy to check, they can be Googled if the person’s last name, first name, patronymic, his position, his photo and maybe even his email address are indicated.

Be sure to talk with those people who have already sent their child with this leader and at least with this company. Preferably with several. Preferably to this camp.

If you have several proofs at once that everything is fine and plus after that you talked with the manager, asked him all the questions, and you intuitively, like a mother or like a father, understood that everything will be fine, then you can send!

I want to emphasize once again: even if the camp doesn’t turn out so well, the leader is great, who will really be with the children, who won’t go to see his friends, who won’t go shopping, who will be with them all the time – Then you can safely go with such a leader.

Individual tours

Concerning individual tours more expensive than 1000 pounds.

If you send your child to a camp organized by a boarding school, you can be 99% calm. It is clear that you will not always be at peace, but at least I promise that these centers will have good food and will have really high-quality teachers. Massive companies that make medium-budget programs, of course, are not very attentive to the recruitment of teachers. Imagine if they have 30 centers across the UK, they need to recruit a huge number of teachers. It's summer, everyone is on vacation. Naturally, some of them will end up without a foreign language teaching certificate. Some people will even be forgotten to be checked by the police and at a mental hospital, which is actually mandatory here. But we know that this doesn't always happen. Again, there is some kind of lottery here. Maybe the child will come across some stupid teacher and demotivation will begin.

As for boarding schools, there are more expensive courses. Here the teachers are often those who work at the school throughout the year. And if not, because, of course, they also need to rest, then school is onperforms only according to its own standard. And boarding schools always attract talent.

The food in boarding schools, I’ll tell you honestly, is excellent throughout the year! Moreover, many schools make food even better in the summer. It's just cool.

Features of summer camps held by boarding schools

Some schools use punch lines. For example, at Felsted summer school there is an English child in each class. Moreover, this is a child scholarship recipient, these children are specially attracted, this is a kind of social work. They help the teacher communicate with the class. I don’t know anything like this anywhere else.

As for excursions, they are also organized in an interesting way. They can’t just take the children to Trafalgar Square, throw them out, and say, well, let’s all get together in 3 hours. Honestly, this is what usually happens. This is where they will land, for example, near the stadium, in the newer part of London. They will board gondolas built by Emirates Airlines and ride over the Thames. Then they will take a water taxi and on this water taxi they will head towards Trafalgar Square. That is, there will be a completely different, interesting program.

Or, for example, the school Gordonstoun, very famous, where Prince Charles studied, his dad and many other princes. It is located in Scotland and this school owns its own yacht. This is actually the only school of its kind in the UK. So, part of any summer tour will be a 3-day cruise on this yacht. Where the children will learn to set sails themselves. It's just awesome and the kids usually squeal and squeal!

There is another option. For example, Village camp – this is a very cool camp with Swiss management, which operates at the Queen Ethelburga School in York. Queen Ethelburga is known for its high standard of living; the rooms have Italian beds, plasma, telephone, amenities – everything is very very cool. In addition to these accommodations, Village Camps organizes various thematic courses. For example, English and horse riding, English and drama, English and basketball, English and football. Or you can not study English, but still play football with UEFA coaches. There are very interesting different activities of this kind.

Or it could be engineering or medicine. You know, now in Russia there is a big problem with career guidance. Therefore, I think it makes sense to send children to courses that are dedicated to this. This already applies to children 13+ who have more or less decent English.

I hope everything I said gave some food for thought. All the best to you.