Italian Summer Camp experience!

We have recently been involved in an exciting project to send English speaking volunteers to work in Italy, Nadine Stroud, our Business Development Director commented “we are very happy to be involved in this rewarding project.  Our participants have been great ambassadors for the UK, have had a great time whilst receiving valuable experience and life skills.  We will be offering further exciting and career building opportunities with our outbound programmes.”

One of the volunteers, Timothy Nicolle sent us the following - what an amazing experience!

The WEP (World Education Programme) is a company providing children with experiences, either at home or abroad. In this case, the company was offering 17 lucky Italian children, between the ages of 8 and 13, the chance to learn English for a week in the Italian Piedmont mountains, an environment of outstanding beauty.

The structure of the week, was combining three hours of English lessons in the morning, with an interesting and exciting selection of activities in the evenings- ranging from climbs and walks with Italian mountain guides to learning the fundamentals of circus skills, such as juggling or riding a unicycle. In the evenings, the children played outdoor games and watched films in English, as well as having some free time in their busy schedules. The food was both exceptional quality and quantity, with the children being treated to a variety of pasta, pizza, local meat and vegetable dishes, all made from scratch by highly talented chefs- this made being in the mountains far from a slimming experience!

From the perspective of one of the two English tutors involved, the process of teaching was very pleasurable. The children were both receptive and well behaved and seemed to enjoy a different format of learning English through games and spoken activities, compared to the usual language lessons many of us can remember from school! Covering a wide variety of topics they quickly began using English to one another and also coming to the English speaking staff and trying to communicate directly and with increasing skill.

Being in the mountains meant teaching certain topics was very easy. Themes such as nature or holidays and travel were able to be taught by simply going outside and showing them the area they were living in. Similarly, being in such a beautiful environment with mountain vistas outside the window, made teaching a pleasure. Also, being on a mountain and not in the wind, rain or cold, made for an unusual experience!

For me, personally, the week was most enjoyable. Whilst giving me the opportunity to teach children with little or no English and see a remarkable progress within one week and the pleasure this gave them; being in such a beautiful area made the experience all the more engaging and showed me the advantages and possibilities of combining work and travel into one trip.

Timothy Nicolle