Onboarding Language Assistants

Welcome to our season 2023! I am really looking forward to be working with you this upcoming camp season.

Our camp offers a great opportunity to gain some experience in teaching English in an outdoor setting. This is really fun and useful for the kids and a lot of language assistants really enjoy the experience and love to come back.

Here is our information package – things you need to know to plan your travels to camp and about working with us. This page will also tell you about our camp locations, including a pack list and our teamer app – an important part of our paperfree camp administration. We also have a section on our programm and games, so that you can get ready for camp! Any more questions just send me an email!

 

 Before camp:

To do List

  • Send a copy of your passport (pdf or photo) to our email adress
  • Fill in our staff questionaire – you will then get a contract depending on your current job status (i.e. freelance, unemployed, at uni)
  • Sprachcamp Allgäu work contract (will be sent to you via email once you filled in the staff questionaire)
  • fill in all relevant information in your teamer app profile.
  • Please send us and email with a nice portrait picture of you (or one that you are recognisable) and a brief profile text for our team page *see example here: https://sprachcamp-allgaeu.de/team
  • Please also have a look at our sample programm and the manual. (see below)
  • For UK passport holders only (work permit paperwork): Please fill in the Vorlage Erstantrag questions 1 – 13. If you cannot fill in the pdf, just send me the information in an email. I will then do the form for you and send you a signature request via Adobe.
  • A letter of permission so that I can pick up your work permit at the foreign office. I need your signature for this – if you cannot sign it please let me know.

Teamer App
Please register yourself with our teamer app. If you haven’t applied through our online application, please use our short cut and register here, so we can get you logged on.

Work permit
Sprachcamp Allgäu will organise the work permit for you , if needed. If you work for us over a period longer than two week you will also have to go to our local foreign office to give fingerprints. 

Induction days  for our upcoming season

There will be an induction day before our Easter camp /on the 9th of april  and a short Induction afternoon before our summercamp on the Saturday 29th of july.

This is the first time you will meet the summer camp team and get the chance to get to know them before the kids get there. It also gives you a brief insight into our camp and you will get to know the area with it’s lakes and rivers – however, it is not compulsary, but might be helpful to find your way round camp. 

If you arrive on the day of camp start please be there by 10 o’clock at the latest. 

Online zoom session in march

There will also be a voluntary online zoom meeting (date ttbc) where I will be introducing some of our English Games and some basics for Teaching English as a foreign language.

Our Locations for our holiday camps

The camps are located in the Allgäu mountains or in the Kleinwalsertal valley of Austria. The area is truly stunning.

We work from Bergheim Unterjoch for our Easter camp and from Jugendhaus Elias for our summer camps. 

We are right in the middle of the mountains and we can walk our groups almost everywhere straight from the hostel. There is lots of hiking paths, nice spots in the river to do landart or  shelter building or survival skills.

You can find our camp locations here:

Jugendhaus Elias

Closest train station to Unterjoch is Sonthofen station, for Jugendhaus Elias it is Blaichach station.

Accommodation before camp and Arrival

We will provide food and accommodation during the camp but also one extra night before our camp week. Our holiday camps finish on the Saturday at noon, you can plan to leave after that or stay with us for another couple of days – please check with me. 

Make sure that you filled in your food preference in the teamer app, so that I can order the right food. The hostel isn’t great with vegan food, so if you are vegan it’s helpful to bring your own favourite spreads (for sandwiches) and snacks.

You can usually stay at our camp location on the night before. camp starts. Or check in with us and you can stay at my place. It’s nice to have guest at our house.

 Getting there

Memmingen Airport (Ryan Air) and Munich Airport are the closest airports – both airports are about 3 hours from our hostels by public transport. Just be aware that with some evening flights you might not get here  – the last train from Munich leaves at 8pm. (It’s one hour from the airport to the train station)

Closest station for all our schoolcamps is Blaichach station  – for the Summercamps, Eastercamp it is Immenstadt or Sonthofenstation. Check in with us if you are not sure.

Getting from Sprachcamp to the Airport

Most camps finish noon on the last day with our final meet and greet with the kid’s parents.  You can leave anytime after that.

There is a Bayern ticket within Bavaria, that allows you to travel within all of Bavaria – and share with up to 5 people. There might also be a 49 Euro ticket – check with me or the Deutsche Bahn about special offers. There isn’t a special discount if you book in advance, unless it is long distance travel.

 

Games

Equipment, that we provide:

  • loads of games ropes, pens, paper, lego bricks, smurfs, picture cards, feeling cards,
    For bushcraft: flint steel, knifes, pans, tarps, Vaseline, cotton wool

Games you can look at before camp, just follow the links. If you are already teaching English you might get some ideas for your lessons as well. Enjoy watching.

Team Games (Problem solving) we might play:

Word Games / Icebreaker Games with focus on Speaking English

For debriefs: Picture / Emotioncards 

Here is our manual for the camp. It is quite an extensive collection of team games and English language games: Sprachcamp Manual

Also have a look at our Sample Programmes for one of our school camps here.

Kit List

  • Outdoor clothes,
  • Your Climbing gear (Safety Gear)
  • First Aid kit
  • Waterproofs
  • A daypack
  • Water bottle, lunchbox
  • Depending on the season: hat, gloves, a warm jumper,Sunglasses, swimming gear
  • Toiletries (ex: shampoo, toothpaste/brush)

*For the hostel: slippers, a towel, PJs, earplugs  – we provide bed sheets for you! You don’t need a sleeping bag

You don’t need a sleeping bag for the hostel, they provide bed sheets for you. 

Travel expenses

Your budget for travelling is a maximum of 200 Euros. Please plan your travels on a tight budget, if possible. We strongly advice you to book your flights in advance or keep your eye on the prices. Expecially during holiday peak times i.e. the summer prices are bound to sky rocket.

You can claim flights, train tickets and other expenses, from camp to your home.  (I cannot legally accept receipts if you are travelling on routeI) f you have questions, just send me an email.

Please download our Travel expenses template (one form per camp)

Remember to keep your receipts – please add copies to the travel expenses document.

Once I have your template I will transfer your money within a couple of days.

 

Pay for school camps and holiday camps

Payment as agreed for the whole week.

Please remember that your wages are before VAT. You will be paying German (Lohnsteuer) Income tax, that you can then claim back – see Taxes.

This doesn’t apply if you are still a student and you can provide a proof or enrolement of your university.

 

German Taxes

The language assistant is solely responsible to declare their own taxes in their home country. You can claim back your taxes that you paid in Germany, depending on your earnings in your country. The deadline for your tax claim for the season 2023 is the end of september 2024 – an email will be sent to you. 

Remember: Taxes can only be claimed the following year.

 

Cancellation Policy

If a camp week has to be cancelled we will we will let you know asap. We had fully booked holiday camps for the past camp seasons.

If the language assistant gets ill, we would really appreciate immediate notice and help with looking for a replacement. I would advise you to cover insurance for cancelled flights on a travel insurance policy. Unless you have a super cheap Ryan Air flight, where the damage is slightly less.