English Summer Camps

Each summer, EDUCO organises hundreds of ESL summer camps for Italian children (ages 6 - 18) across the country. Each camp is overseen by an Italian camp director and camp activities are facilitated by a group of mother tongue English speaking tutors. Camps last either one or two weeks and take place throughout the whole summer from June - September in locations all across Italy, including Sicily and Sardinia.

Our camps offer a unique experience for Italian children as they do not adhere to traditional teaching methods, and instead use theatre and ‘play’ to inspire a joy for second language learning. Our expansive ESL repertoire draws on drama techniques, songs and games, immersing Italian children in an engaging and interactive setting throughout the camp week.

Our tutors are recruited from all across the world to participate in our TEFL through Performance and Play Course. They attend a mandatory orientation prior to being sent out to our camps.

EDUCO’S TEFL-PP course is made up of three components:

PART 1 - Mandatory orientation training with our didactic team (40 hours)
All tutors must attend our orientation training in Italy, prior to being sent out to EDUCO camps. The orientation takes place in Rimini (Emilia Romagna) and lasts five days, for a total of 40 hours of training. Tutors are trained by EDUCO’s didactic team, all of whom have years of experience as international educators and teacher trainers, in addition to hundreds of hours of work experience in our camps.

While at orientation, tutors will immerse themselves in EDUCO’s extensive TEFL repertoire, with a strong focus on language acquisition through the use of drama techniques, songs and games.
Training will cover everything from lesson planning techniques and how to pre-teach for second language learners, to classroom management and cultural norms within Italy.
The daily schedule at orientation is modelled off of the EDUCO camp weekly schedule, and activities are carried out as they would be during regular camp hours.

PART 2 - In field experience (minimum of 120 hours)

All tutors who participate on our course are required to complete a minimum of three weeks in EDUCO camps following their orientation. While at camp, tutors are supervised by their camp directors (who are almost always Italian ESL teachers working in the public education system). Each director is responsible for providing feedback on their tutors, both during the camp week and following the completion of the camp.

PART 3 - Study Grant Classification & Assessment

All tutors who participate on our course receive a study grant for their time in camp. Depending on the number of camps completed, tutors move up in the study grant/course levels. We expect certain teaching and cultural objectives to have been met upon the completion of each level. A complete breakdown of the study grant levels and the expected criteria to be completed within each can be found here:

Our summer 2024 orientations will take place from:

June 2nd - 8th
June 9th - 14th