Préfleuri Summer Camp — Chesières-Villars, Switzerland

Mornings at the camp are given to language learning. From the age of six children take French or English classes from Monday to Friday, three hours each morning, and are placed in groups by level from complete beginners to advanced. Academic support lessons can replace language classes for children who need to catch up or prepare for the school year. Five-year-olds join a pedagogical workshop instead of the graded classes, and three- and four-year-olds follow a bilingual kindergarten where French and English come through songs, stories, games and creative play.

A stay covers the programme, accommodation in the school chalet, full board, daily laundry, the camp uniform, photographs, and Swiss illness and accident cover, together with the sports programme, excursions and evening events. The minimum stay is two weeks and longer stays are discounted from the fourth week, with a further reduction for a second child in the same family. Day places cover the programme, sports, equipment and excursions but not accommodation, and families of day pupils arrange their own insurance. Airport transfers, riding lessons and the themed weeks are booked separately.

Children sleep in the school chalet on its own grounds above Villars-sur-Ollon, in rooms of four to six. Rooms are arranged by age, gender and nationality so that children share with peers but also mix with pupils from other countries. Staff live in the chalet and each child knows which adult to find during the night, so supervision runs around the clock. Brothers, sisters and friends in different age groups meet at meals, on outings and at evening events.

Boarders receive full board. The kitchen serves family-style traditional and European cooking with balanced, varied menus, and respects the dietary and cultural needs of the children in residence. During their stay children also try Swiss specialities. A weekly buffet is one of the fixed points of the camp week.

Afternoons are for sport and the mountains: tennis, swimming, archery, ice skating, golf, mountain biking, kayaking, rope courses and climbing, orienteering, team games and Olympic-style competitions. Children walk to a forest cabin on the estate, spend afternoons on the lake, visit adventure parks, an adventure maze and the bowling alley, and go on excursions to a chocolate factory, castles and mountain viewpoints. Evenings bring themed parties, laser games, big group games and shows. From the age of eight children can add a themed week — performance, extreme adventure, an Alpine expedition or a tour across Switzerland.

The camp occupies a two-hectare estate two kilometres from the resort of Villars-sur-Ollon, with the boarding chalet, classrooms, grounds for outdoor games and a forest cabin used for overnight adventures. Laundry is done daily on site. A member of staff qualified to administer prescribed treatment looks after day-to-day medical needs, three doctors practise in the resort and the paediatric department of the nearest hospital is about ten kilometres away.

The camp has been running in the same chalet since the middle of the last century and takes children aged three to fourteen from all over the world. Groups are organised by age — three to four, five to seven, eight to nine, ten to eleven and twelve to fourteen — so activities match what each child can do, while meals, outings and evening events bring everyone together. Weeks begin and end on a Saturday. Families can reach the team every weekday morning, and children call home on set evenings during the week.