Job Discussion Forums

[maenad1]

I need to find a summer school position in the UK this year where my 12-year-old niece (Turkish, elementary level) will be able to attend school either at the same school or nearby for 2 weeks.

I've got UK citizenship, a DELTA, and teacher-training and summer school experience, so I'm pretty hopeful I can land a job with most summer schools. I'll only be looking for a 4-week or 6-week contract. The question is, which schools should I apply to?

I'm looking for the following:
1. A school where a 12-year-old will be in a class with younger students. (My niece is a village girl, she's 12 but she's less street-smart than a 9-year-old Brit.)
2. A school which will give me a fat discount for an accompanying family member. (Ideally I don't want to pay more than 500 pounds per week). Any thoughts as to what kind of discount I can ask for?
3. A residential summer school, preferably not in London. Manchester, or Birmingham (I don't like big cities) with a good program for young learners.
4. A school which gets a good multi-lingual bunch of students in - I don't want my niece coming home after 2 weeks speaking Italian or French.

I'd also appreciate any tips regarding job-search. It seems rude to write to schools and say "I'm highly qualified but only want to work for you if you give me a fat discount for my niece" - yet equally rude to put HR to the trouble of a selection, screening, and interview without telling them the truth up front.

Any advice? Thanks!

[scot47]

And it strikes me that you have been in the Levant for too long. Gone native. This is not the British way of doing business.

[artemisia]

The British way of doing business? You mean stiff-upper lip?

maenad1
I wonder if you're looking a bit too soon? With some of the residential schools, they're only set up and more or less exist during the summer months only.
I'd suggest approaching language schools in the small, attractive cites of Oxford and Cambridge. Many schools there run a summer programme but they're not all for children and not all residential. It might also be good to wait until schools start advertising summer school jobs all over the UK so that you can see the range of jobs and locations available rather than getting locked into something early on.

Being a supervisor in supplied accom won't be fun though. It'll be full of loud, probably spoilt, bratty kids. I think there is a fair mix of nationalities in all the cities I've mentioned but there won't be any guarantees you won't get an influx of big groups like Italians or Brazilians coming through. I doubt you'd be able to specify you don't want that for your niece with the schools you apply to especially if you're getting a discount.

As far as being upfront about the situation with your niece goes, I probably would be because there's no point in going after something you won't be able to accept. You could just find out in advance that there are programmes and accom for kids, apply for those positions as you usually would and if you're short-listed, then tell them about the situation with your niece and what you'd be looking for before the application procedure goes too far.

[barabbas]

Have you thought of applying as a DoS to a summer camp? BC accredited ones are normally crying out for Dip.-qualified DoSses.

Being a key member of the staff would also give you more leverage with your family needs.