English Immersion Stay with an English-Speaking Host Family in France

English lessons are given at home by the host parent, who holds a teaching qualification in English. They run every weekday, Monday to Friday, public holidays included: an hour and a half a day for primary and middle-school pupils, two hours a day for high-school pupils. Groups are small by design, two to four students at most, and the students stay with the family for the rest of the day so that the immersion is not broken. Lessons are usually held around the kitchen table rather than in a classroom: conversation, games and preparation for the afternoon's activity. All levels are accepted, from complete beginner upwards, and each student is assessed informally at the start and at the end of the stay; a formal assessment is available on request.

The price covers accommodation with the host family, the English lessons, the activities, all meals, round-the-clock supervision, the end-of-stay certificate and the return transfer between the railway station named in the family's profile and the family's home. Stays are sold as one or two weeks from a published Sunday start date. The horse-riding programme is charged as a weekly supplement on top of the price. Cancellation insurance, passport and travel documents and personal spending money are not part of the price.

The young guest lives in the home of an English-speaking family settled in France, on full board. Every family has been met and selected by Daily English, visited before its first stay and followed up afterwards, and one of the host parents is qualified to teach English. Most often two students of a similar age (no more than two years apart) and of the same sex share a room; a single room is possible in some families. Families are spread across France, and the family itself is chosen at booking from the published profiles, so the address shown on this page is the organiser's own office in Montpellier rather than a single camp site.

Full board with the host family: breakfast with the family in the morning, lunch at home, tea time in the afternoon and dinner with the family in the evening. Meals are part of the immersion - the table is where most of the day's English is spoken - and the week's menus are shown to the guest on the day of arrival.

Five activities a week, from Monday to Friday, planned by the host family and carried out in English: body-boarding, laser games, horse riding, canoeing, ice skating, archery and similar outings, depending on what the family enjoys. Evenings at home bring conversation, cooking, games, films in the original version, karaoke and craft workshops. Between twenty minutes and an hour of homework and review is given after the afternoon. A horse-riding option adds four riding sessions a week plus one other activity.

The stay takes place in a private family home rather than on a campus: the lessons are held in the house itself, and the family's own home and garden are the setting for the week. Activities use local facilities near the family - sports grounds, pools, riding centres, skating rinks - which belong to the area rather than to the organiser, so no campus facilities are listed for this stay.

Arrival is on Sunday from 3 p.m., when the family shows the guest the house and the garden, explains how the stay will work and goes through the week's programme and menus; departure is on Saturday at 11 a.m. The director, Sally Cornan, stays in contact with the host families throughout the stay and the students are called during the week. Daily English declares its stays to the Direction Departementale de la Cohesion Sociale, carries the UNOSEL quality label and works to the NF EN 14804 standard. Every student is assessed at the beginning and at the end of the stay and receives a certificate when it ends.