friLingue Maths Camp St. Bernard, Valais

Maths is the whole point of this camp, and it is taught the way school cannot: classes of about eight students, every morning from Monday to Friday, with the pace set by what each child actually needs — catching up, closing gaps, or preparing for an exam. Levels run from "I love maths" to "maths and I are at war", and the camp takes both. Teaching is done by instructors who work with teenagers all year, and the small group is what makes the difference: nobody sits at the back.

The price covers tuition, full board, accommodation, all course materials, and the afternoon and evening programme. In the winter intakes it also covers the ski or snowboard course itself — fifteen hours a week on the slopes with the camp instructors. Equipment hire, airport transfers and the optional afternoon courses are charged separately and are listed under extras.

Participants live in the camp house in the Val de Bagnes area of Valais, under the supervision of the camp team day and night. The house that hosts the camp changes with the season: the main house at Dranse serves the autumn and spring intakes and the first weeks of the winter season, and a second house in the neighbouring village of Bourg St. Pierre takes the later winter intakes. Rooms are shared and the bathroom arrangement depends on the house.

Full board, three meals a day, cooked by the camp’s own kitchen team rather than bought in. Fruit and snacks are available between meals. Special diets — gluten-free, lactose-free, vegan, halal and others — are catered for and are booked in advance as a paid extra.

Afternoons and evenings are the other half of the camp. Sport, creative workshops and excursions fill the time between lunch and dinner, and the evenings bring campfires, treasure hunts, a camp olympics, werewolf nights, a disco and a film night. In the winter intakes the afternoons belong to the mountain: a ski or a snowboard course, graded by ability, with the camp instructors.

The camp house provides WiFi throughout, communal rooms for lessons and workshops, and a dining room where the whole camp eats together. The setting is the Swiss Alps: the village sits on the road to the Great St. Bernard Pass, with the slopes and the hiking country directly around it. Every participant receives a certificate of attendance at the end of the stay.

A small camp in a mountain village, with a three-language team and children arriving from several countries — the common language at the table is whichever one everybody understands. Arrival is on Sunday and departure on Saturday, or on Sunday for children travelling with an airport transfer. What children take home is usually two things at once: the maths they came for, and the fact that they did it somewhere they wanted to be.