We deliver the English language programme in a way that is entertaining, interactive, engaging and challenging. We cleverly combine laughter and learning!

 The campers learn from new material that takes them outside their usual comfort zone but stimulates their interest providing them with new skills and knowledge that they can use during and after camp. Campers really enjoy learning to speak the target language together.

 Groups of students help choose their preferred lively projects.

 Emphasis is on gaining confidence and improving vocabulary so that they acquire fluency, engage in conversation and develop the skills and confidence to make presentation to an audience.

 Campers choose projects in discussion groups which make language-learning more interesting and personal

 Other times the Language Coordinator and team prepare projects from an innovative selection that the campers enjoy

 Campers often choose something that simply interests them, a topic of the day or some element of the culture of their country.

The following topics are some of those recently used on our English programme at York. Each summer new topics are usually added. Each project offers different levels of difficulty and appropriate vocabulary in order to cater for the range of ability levels.

 ‘Personality poster’ - on the first morning the campers make up a ‘personality poster’ about themselves and use adjectives that they think describe their personality. This is a great way to get to know new friends and to take the first steps in language learning.

 ‘The Great Survival Debate’ is an imaginary debate on the equipment necessary for survival in the desert. Everyone has to discuss the issues and learn the vocabulary.

 'The Food Tasting Festival' encourages campers to learn words to describe food smell, texture and flavours. The reward for learning the vocabulary is to taste some delicious traditional dishes of the country, served by the teachers. Campers love it!

 ‘The Song Project’ – campers choose a contemporary well-known song BUT together make up some humorous new words that will change the lyrics.

 ‘Holiday Brochure’ – the group discusses and selects holiday destinations finally designing a holiday brochure.

 ‘Film Project’ – campers decide on an original idea, write the script, design a film poster and then go out and actually shoot a short film.

 Every morning starts with a warm-up in the language with teachers and campers talking together – and a song in English playing in the background. The teachers introduce the campers to ‘tongue-twisters’ and word games such as Scrabble. Teachers start conversations in groups about what they liked about the previous day, their favourite music and the activities to which they are looking forward.

 Learning vocabulary in an ‘inter-group’ way – using new words talking as a group about past and future projects and later working on projects initially in groups and then on their own as they gain confidence.

 At the end of all projects the groups present their results often using one of their ‘products’ (e.g. the film, travel brochure or a song).

 On the first morning of camp students are carefully assessed and placed into groups of about 7-10 campers according to ability and age

 There are 4 ability levels: beginner/elementary - pre-intermediate - intermediate - upper intermediate/advanced

 We operate a ‘continuous assessment’ system – so students may change classes at any time as they progress

 Lessons are Monday to Friday for 3 hours from 09.00 to 12.00 with a short mid-morning break of about 10 minutes

 At the end of camp, certificates are awarded to each student and a full progress report sent independently to each family.

The Village Camps site, Queen Ethelburga's College, provides an exceptional standard of state-of-the-art accommodation. The Camp has an impressive range of leisure and sports facilities all in the glorious 'parkland' setting of the green Yorkshire countryside. Highlights include a full day excursion to Manchester with time for shopping and planned leisure activities in the impressive Trafford Centre as well as a half-day excursion to the historic, walled city of York. Here there is time to visit the famous York Minster and other major points of interest. In the afternoons and evenings, campers at York enjoy an exciting range of activities. Highlights are the fun team competitions on BIG Night, International Night and the Talent Show.

Further details about the excursions and activities can be found in the "Country England Overview Pages".