Onboarding Instructors

Welcome to our season 2023!

This year I wanted to have everything in one place – so here’s your onboarding page: Things you need to know to plan your travels to camp, all the paperwork needed, German taxes explained but also our fabulous games.

It should also give you details about our 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 address
  • Fill in our staff questionaire – you will then get a contract depending on your current job status (i.e. freelance, unemployed, at uni)
  • fill in the profile with all relevant information in your teamer app.
  • For our Webpage: 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)
  • Read through the safety manual for the Grigri+, the belay device we use in all our climbing activities. In addition, review this video if you are unsure how to use the Grigri.

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 – they don’t accept a digital one so please print and sign and send a picture of it back to me.

Teamer App
Please familiarise yourself with our teamer app. This is where you can confirm any camp offers, but you can also check, which ones you  signed up for. Also fill in all the gaps in your profile – especially if you are a returning instructor, there might be quite a few.

Work permit
Sprachcamp Allgäu will organise the work permit for you and pay the fees.

Induction days  for our upcoming season

There will be an induction day on the 7th of May / 21st of may/ 9th of July / 8th of October / 15th of october, starting at 1 pm.

It is compulsary for those who haven’t done a camp before or who want to familiarize themselves with the location or review any of our English language games. (The day before your first camp with us is your date for your induction day) 

Please come prepared. I expect you to have read the manual and please watch the links for the games. For our first day you will need a first draft of your first half day and you need to introduce one of the games to the team. 

Online zoom session

There will be an online zoom meeting on the 30th of april at 7pm, where I will be introducing some of our English Games and some basics of Teaching English as a foreign language. Please let me know if you can attend.

Our Locations for our schoolcamps

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

We work from Bergengrün, Bergheimat and Schlössle, three houses that are quite close to each other, however, it’s different busses that you need to take to get to them.

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:

Bergheimat, Schlössle and Bergengrün

To get to Bergheimat/Bergengrün take line 1 to Riezlern Post (Baad), change to line 5 Ifen bus, get off at Fuchfarm – from there it’s a 5 minture walk – to Schlössle you get off at Tobel, line 1 to Baad. From there it is also a 5 minute walk uphill.

Busses Kleinwalsertal: just follow this link

Accommodation before camp and Arrival

We will provide food and accommodation during the camp but also one extra night before our camp week. If you work two or more camps in a row then we also provide accommodation for the weekend in between camps. It is usually possible to catch a flight back on the day that camps finish – for schoolcamps that is Friday morning, for holiday camps it is the Saturday morning.

If you arrive a day early for induction day or camp, we usually book you in at Oberstdorf.

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.

If you can only catch an evening flight, please book yourself into one of the airport motels. They should be quite cheap and we will reimburse you for that (within your travel budget of 300 Euros).

As our camp locations are usually booked up over the weekend, we use the Jugendherberge Kornau to set you up the night before. 

To get there just jump on the bus line 1 from Oberstorf station and get off at Kornau busstop (about 5 minutes away).

Please provide us with your itinery asap, latest 4 weeks before camp so that we can plan your stay.

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 Oberstdorf station  – for the Summercamps, Eastercamp and the following schoolcamp it is Immenstadt station. Check in with us if you are not sure.

Getting from Sprachcamp to the Airport

Most school camps finish in the evening with our final S’mores night and you can leave anytime the next morning – students usually pack up and leave around nine thirty.

All camps in the Kleinwalsertal have a bus stops nearby, buses leaving for Oberstdorf every 10 minutes, plan for an extra 35 mins to get to the next train station (Oberstdorf).

The following websites can help with your planning:

http://www.allgaeu-airport.com/passengers-visitors/getting-to-the-airport/bus-train/

http://www.bahn.de 

There is a Bayern ticket, that allows 5 people to travel on one ticket anywhere in Bavaria, if you manage to find a travel buddy. Check the webpage for other offers

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 should be looking at before camp, just follow the links. Enjoy watching.

Team Games (Problem solving) you might want to revsise:

Word Games / Icebreaker Games with focus on Speaking English

For your 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.

Here you can find the complete card decks as a pdf for Sussed, Therapy Card deck, Worst case scenario and Feeling cards.

Please familiarise yourself with the games – you will still have to adjust some of them to play them with a group or you  might have to consider the age group you are working with. Remember to hand in your first 1,5 days so I can check that we are on the same page.

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

We provide:

  •  a group first aid kit
  • a climbing rope for any private climbing sessions you might want to go on – please tell me before camp, so I can load it onto the van.

Equipment that we don’t provide:

  • Your own safety and climbing gear

Travel expenses

Your budget for travelling is a maximum of 300 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. We cannot except taxi fares or week long parking tickets at the airport. If you have questions, just send me an email.

You can include insurance to cover cancelled flights or tickets.

Please also get in touch if you need an advance payment on flights.

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

Remember to keep your receipts – you need to add the copies to the document.

Money will be transfered within a couple of days.

Pay for school camps and holiday camps

 We pay half a days preparation for each school camp, so you do have time to write up some flipcharts, finish planning your days and get ready for camp. School camps run Monday to Thursday evening – which makes it 4 full days .This varies for Holiday camps, these are week-long camps. Payment details will be in your contract.

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

German Taxes

The instructor 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 the UK. The deadline for your tax claim for the season 2022 is the end of september 2023.

Remember: Taxes can only be claimed the following year.

 

Cancellation Policy

If a camp week has to be cancelled we will try to offer the instructor an alternative date (This has never happened for a schoolcamp) If we don’t get enough bookings for our holiday camps we will let you know in advance –  but as bookings come in very short notice this might be a last minute confirmation. We had fully booked holiday camps for the last seasons, with Easter Camp groups being very last minute.

If the instructor 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.