All courses available either in person or via Skype or Telephone. Please contact us for more information

Vous recherchez des Cours d'Anglais? Cliquez-ici.

French Summer Camp in France: The French Lessons

At our French Summer Camp in France, our starting point is and always has been providing great French classes and encouraging young people to enjoy learning French. This is how our French Summer Camp started and is still the main focus of our camp.

Children are very good at succeeding in things they put their mind to….things that they want to do! However, all too often, they don’t see the point of learning French which of course is detrimental to their success. School systems often focus on the curriculum, training students to pass exams and they put pressure on students to be correct when they speak or write French which ends up with them being scared to express themselves for fear of making a mistake. However to motivate children to want to learn French, we take a different approach. Learning a language is about having a go, making mistakes, getting our point across, wanting to communicate, having fun and this is how we try and ignite enthusiasm in our students. We put the language in context, they will talk French to real French people, they will use French outside of the classroom, they will meet and speak to French children who attend our camp to learn English and then they start to see the point in learning French, rather than it being just another school subject. This enthusiasm and motivation is more important than the number of words they learn in their time with us (although they will learn a lot of words too, among other things!).

We do, however, run exam preparation courses as part of our French Summer Camp in France. These courses have an element of the above, but they also focus on the skill, vocabulary and grammar needed to pass the exam in question.

Students at our French Summer Camp in France are split into groups according to their age and level of French. We typically have 4-5 French classes running each week as part of our Summer Camp. Children of 6-10 years of age (primary school age) are placed in separate classes to children of 11-17 years of age (secondary school age). Within these age brackets, groups are further split depending on age and ability. Our teachers are specialists in teaching French as a foreign language to children. For younger learners, we use games, songs, puppets and fun activities and projects. For older learners, we also use games, fun activities and projects but we also adapt our course programmes to suit the personalities and interests of the class including popular music and rap, podcasts, comedy sketches, modern theatre.

This testimonial really sums up what our French Summer Camp in France is about :

« Alessandra had had French classes at school for a couple of years. After two years they were still teaching basic words like greetings, colours, numbers. They said they couldn’t start teaching sentences until they children were 10 / 11 years old. She was not enjoying it at all and really didn’t see the point. So, she couldn’t be bothered and didn’t do well. The school told us the reason for her poor performance was that she clearly had no memory for language and would struggle to learn another language. They said they had tried but there was really nothing they could do about her lack of memory! Not a great conversation. However, I wasn’t prepared to write off her ability to learn another language at age 8. So, I sent her out to Alpine French School. And we made a very big decision over the summer holidays to change her school here in the UK. This year, the French teacher in her new school says she is very enthusiastic in class. She hasn’t scored less than 85% in her French tests since she joined and has even had a Commendation from the Headmaster for consistently scoring 100% in her weekly French vocabulary tests. Unquestionably she sees it as more fun learning French after having experienced actually using French in real life settings when at your school. Nearly a year later, she is still talking about being able to go to the local market and buy nougat in French! She asked me yesterday if she’ll be able to do that again this year. » Louise Romano, UK

April 27th, 2023
Activities Courses Juniors

Family Camp FAQs for Summer 2023!

Our ‘Family Camp’ is one of our most popular options for parents and children to study with us during the summer season, but it’s also the option that we get asked the most questions about! So we thought we’d put together a quick blog for the ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ and…

March 28th, 2023
Activities Juniors

Summer Holidays in France 2022 Recap : Why not visit in 2023?

Summer 2022 feels like a long time ago, especially now we have snow in Morzine. But what a Summer it was! Our Summer Camp kicked off with a busy week as Morzine hosted the starting stage of Le Tour de France and the bi-annual Harley Day’s Festival. We managed…

Mountain walks on our Learn French France Immersion course

September 15th, 2021
Activities Juniors Things to do

New this year! Alpine French School welcomes you, children & parents, during all school holidays!

Why not visit Morzine during the next half-term holiday and enjoy learning French as well as enjoying the great mountain activities that Morzine has to offer! New, this year (2021 – 2022), we offer family French day camps in the school holidays : October half-term, Christmas & New Year,…

May 3rd, 2021
Juniors News Special Offers

Affordable French & English Summer Language & Activity Camps for local children & teenagers

If you are looking for an alternative to other Morzine holiday clubs for this summer, then read on….. Why are Alpine French School Summer Activity & Language Camps the right fit for your children this summer? The basics: Specially designed for expat children and teenagers living in the Vallée d’Aulps…