If your 5-6 yr old was in ski school over Feb half term...

[dameofdilemma]

How was it? How big were the groups? How good were the instructors? Did your kids love/hate it?

We're thinking next year we may put dd in ski school, she'd be an advanced beginner having learnt through private lessons this time (can make it down an easy wide blue with snow plough turns if reminded to turn so not a beginner but def not intermediate).

Am put off though by the size of the groups we saw having lessons in half term (Austria) - lot of kids seemed to be waiting around for others to catch up/stand up or waiting their turn to do exercises. The ski company rep said the groups can be up to 12-14 kids in groups in Feb half term. And this isn't a cheap ski company.

Dd is sociable and will like learning with other kids and having lunch with them etc but I don't want to ruin her new found love of skiing with a grumpy instructor, tedious lessons and slow progress.

Ultimately I want her to catch up with dp and I (we're only intermediary) so we can all ski and learn together.

Any advice welcome...

My 2 have been in ski school both France and Austria since aged 3, now 14 and 11. IME group lessons work absolutely fine. You get good and bad instructors at all levels, but I wouldn't dismiss group lessons.

DD (6) was in a group of 6 in France this half term. She did really well. Didn’t love it until day 3 (of 6). DS (8) loved it from the off but he hated kids club which DD loved. I have to say that DS did one private lesson and that really progressed him.

Also they moved kids up a group or two if they were progressing more quickly than the others.

ESF les lindarets posted that their maximum groups were 8 - even in peak weeks.

We never go at half term (school don't object to us going for a week in January) but we've used that ski school for several years and the kids have always enjoyed it and made brilliant progress (aged 3-10).

We went to the 3 valleys and used Momentum, who were absolutely brilliant. Group size was 8 and every single child loved it and progressed really well.

We have also used ESF when DC were very little - never again, they were utterly dreadful and DC didn't enjoy it.

Try to get a personal recommendation. It makes such a massive difference to the children's (and therefore your) enjoyment.

What I have seen of EDF look like huge groups with inadequate supervision. We have had great success with English instructors in small groups of 4 to 6 kids. We have just booked for Easter and booked English ski school 9.15 to 1.30 daily. Unfortunately we couldn't find any English ski school for afternoons so my daughter will have to do French ski school, likely ESF, but she has the personality to not be phased by big groups even if all French and patient enough to listen to instructions in 2 languages and will just copy the instructor and progress regardless. However I know one of my sons could never cope with this and has to be in small English group or he would not listen or lose the group hence he will do the mornings. However progress must be better in small speaking English group and my kids had such fun as they could get all the instructors jokes etc and make friends with the rest of their group. I would only use ESF as a last resort.

Try New Generations - they are brilliant.

I probably wouldn’t bother with ESF although I guess it is completely instructor specific. (And I can’t believe how all the ESF instructors don’t wear helmets!)

I second the vote for New Green although the kids instructor last week also did not wear a helmet!
Really good instructors, flexible to move people up and down classes and small groups

New Gen not green!!

I use New Generation as an adult. They are a British run company and I find them more flexible than ESF.

Both mine have done ski school (esf and others). I don't think the groups have ever been particularly large maybe 8 or so kids.

Progress is obviously slower than with individual but I think that also depends on your child. Dds technique is beautiful to watch she wants to learn and practices what she is taught in ski school. Ds is happy to snow plough his way down a black and to be honest while he has improved in ability has not really improved in technique.

Ski school though is also about fun. Both mine can bend right down on a red and collect a snow ball and throw it. They can both turn 360, make a small jump, cut off piste through the trees, go up the sides and actively seek out moguls.

Both of mine love ski school maybe we have been lucky as the instructors have always been good fun and great with the kids and the kids have come back full of stories. As much as I want them to progress I want them to have fun on their holiday

Evo2, New Generation were very good.

Best place I've been for kids lessons is Whistler though. 4 per class, GPS tracking of their route, English speaking, brilliant instruction that is marked on individual technical elements. No 'yeah great' goodbye at the end of the class, not that i cared that much full technical debrief!

Thanks all - have heard good things about New Gen from others too.

Its not really progress that I'm worried about, more that dd could spend a lot of time waiting around in the cold, lost in a large group, not really knowing what she's supposed to be doing, which doesn't sound like fun.
I wasn't worried till I heard the group sizes were 12-14 this half term for one of the Austrian ski schools.

I think part of the problem is also we'd prefer to avoid France - have always found it v busy esp in half term and a bit crap for vegetarians. But we might have to bite the bullet as there seem to be more ski school options there.

Is there an option with the 'not cheap' company to book your own lessons? That might open up more choice.

Much - the only option is to book with the local ski schools, with the company we went with this year.
They do a partnership with a ski school in Val DI where they guarantee small groups, English speaking lessons etc but am really not keen on going back to VDI.

The problem is we like the smaller resorts as we've found them quieter. But then there is less choice of ski schools. We also prefer hotels to chalets which makes Esprit unattractive (though their ski school and activities for kids look great).

We're going to have to compromise on something I know....

When booking our holiday we choose the ski school first (based on recommendations). This year it was New Generation. Then we check their availability in each resort then choose from those resorts (ie which we prefer for location/price/height etc). Then we book the accommodation in whichever resort we have chosen. That works much better for us than choosing a resort and then not being able to get great ski school. However for my kids it is all about the skiing not the apres ski or any other activities or the accommodation. They just want to ski 9 to 5 every day non stop. Once we had accommodation we booked the train and a stop over in Paris but if that had not worked we would have driven down. Good luck.

skischool - thanks. Am slowly learning that booking ski holidays pre-kids and post-kids is very different...

I was maybe thinking Val Thorens at Easter next yr as New Gen operate there and VT is snow sure but then recall the thread about the ski schools not committing to lessons at Easter...its a minefield!

If you're looking in the 3 valleys also try Momentum.

The best ski school I've had was Momentum in La Tania. Also a very family friendly resort.

I've never had a problem at Easter. British Easter hols is peak time in high resorts, I doubt you'll struggle. Italy and France have both been fine. We loved the ski school in Cervinia too but we hired an instructor for the week rather than group lessons. The cost for 4 kids was the same as a group lesson in France.

Val thorens definitely book lessons at easter because we’ve just booked. Had option of group or private but have gone for private this time as two of our party don’t like ski school

My son has done lessons with ESF and Oxygene and we particularly loved Oxygene. I think the maximum number of kids they had in the lessons was 8 and they do a headcount whenever they stop (my friend's son got lost during an ESF lesson and ended up joining a different one - neither instructor noticed that they had lost / gained a six year old. Yes, my friend complained).

I don't think there is any issue in morning ski schools at Easter. The issue I had was afternoons with English companies. Also best companies get booked up early. Good luck.

It's interesting as it's a few years ago now but my 5 year old had such terrible lessons with Oxygene one year we got a full refund. They were sat on the snow a full 25 minutes before the end of the lesson waiting while the instructor smoked. They never progressed past walking up a slight incline.
It was a few years ago admittedly but we vowed never to go back. Depends on the instructor I guess.
Our ski company runs its own lessons now but before that we had some good experiences with New Gen.

6-8, ski school, Austria. My daughter loved it.

@dameofdilemma we are off to VT this Easter and have booked lessons with Esf. I noticed they do a slightly more expensive option where they cap the numbers to 6 per group.

Check out their website.