Lyceum Alpinum Junior Day Camp in Zuoz

The Junior Day Camp combines a holiday programme with an integrated language school for children aged 6 to 9. Every participant receives 16 lessons of English or German per week, taught in the morning from 08:30 to 11:45. Lessons are not built around a strict curriculum or standardised worksheets: exercises introduce each topic in a playful way and are selected for the individual child, with vocabulary and grammar kept level-specific. Each participant is placed in a group according to their level of proficiency, and all language levels are welcome, including children with no previous knowledge. Classes are small and led by the camp's own teaching staff. Between 11:45 and 16:00 the chosen language is also spoken at lunch and during activities, so practice continues through the day.

A day camp with a pick-up service and no overnight stay. The camp runs Monday to Friday from 08:30 to 16:00: language lessons in the morning, lunch, then a sports and entertainment programme in the afternoon. Children can be booked in for one week or for two or more. The price covers 16 language lessons per week and supervision from 08:30 to 16:00, learning and teaching materials, meals, the pick-up and drop-off service, and the supplies used for excursions and activities. Parents or guardians remain responsible for health and accident insurance, and the school advises taking out liability cover for the camp and the journey. A registration can be withdrawn up to 30 days before the camp starts at no cost; after that a published cancellation scale applies.

There is no accommodation with this camp and no overnight stay at the boarding school — children return to their families every evening. Instead the school runs a pick-up service: a school bus collects participants in the early morning and brings them back safely after lessons and activities. The service is available as far as St. Moritz and Madulain, and parents sign up for it when they register.

Lunch is served on campus every day between 12:00 and 12:45 and is included in the camp price. Supplies for the excursions and afternoon activities are included as well. The language chosen for the course is also spoken at the lunch table, which is part of how the camp keeps practice going outside lesson time.

Afternoons run from 12:45 to 16:00 and are given over to sports and entertainment, with a different activity each day. The programme the school publishes for this age group includes sports on the Lyceum Alpinum campus — football, golf and tennis — a village tour of Zuoz, a visit to the playground, river rafting on the Inn from Madulain to S-chanf with an experienced guide, a bouncy castle and bowling in Samedan, minigolf, indoor climbing and a ropes park, a forest and nature experience with compass and shelter-building, a visit to the Rega air rescue base in Samedan, a trip to the National Park, board and strategy games, painting, drawing and handicrafts, and a baking afternoon where the children decorate their own cupcakes. Outdoor activities depend on the weather.

The camp is based on the Lyceum Alpinum campus in Zuoz, in the Engadine valley of the Swiss Alps near St. Moritz. The campus carries the sports grounds the afternoon programme uses — football, golf and tennis are all played there — and the language classrooms used in the morning. Several of the excursions run from the campus to the surrounding villages of Samedan, Madulain and S-chanf.

A first camp for children who are not yet ready to sleep away from home. The day is full — language lessons in the morning, lunch with the group, an excursion or a sports afternoon — but the evening belongs to the family, and the school collects and returns the children itself so parents are not driving back and forth. Participants come from England, Malta, Ireland, Italy, France, Canada and China among others, and a shared language is what the children need to play together, which is the camp's strongest motivator for learning one. Camp counsellors and teaching staff supervise throughout and are the contact point for everything concerning the children.