Ski school morzine?

[SWS17]

Looking for recommendations of a ski school in morzine. 2 beginner children and one adult who was class 4 (ESF) but may have slipped back to class 3 (thanks Covid and age!). I notice on here that there’s lots of reluctance to go with ESF (which would be my preference as the hotel is close to the meet up point) - does anyone know why this is? I’ve always had quite good experiences with ESF. We need instructors who speak enough English to be understood but we are not fussy about them being native English speakers. Thanks in advance!

We are in Morzine now and have in the past always used BASS who have been excellent if not expensive. this year bringing my daughter’s 18 year old boyfriend and booking last minute we used ESF for his beginners lessons and it has been fine, 7 in his lessons - all English speaking. french instructor but fluent English. lessons half the price of BASS so on this occasion I would recommend ESF. maybe for young children a British ski school would he preferable but will be more costly.

ESF tend to have very big classes and are a lot stricter/shoutier than we Brits are comfortable with for young children.

Most resorts now have ESI which might be a good compromise as instructors speak English and class sizes are limited but they are generally cheaper than independent ski schools.

Don't know if they exist in Morzine - Bass might be the equivalent- but we used New Generation when DS was younger, he absolutely loved the class as limited to 4 people and instructor made it lots of fun.

If your kids are happy enough to follow instructions and you don't expect very indivdualised attention, ESF are very cost effective. I think when people expect a very child centred approach with lots of coaxing, ESF will disappoint.

I've had private lessons with BASS and ESI in Les Gets. BASS are ridiculously expensive, I got the feeling I was just paying extra for a British accent. I really don't understand why they charge such a premium. ESI much better value, instructors ok and I have had the best experiences with ESF. I've also used them in other resorts for family ski lessons for friends and they have always been great, with perfectly acceptable standards of English, the younger ski instructers especially are excellent these days. ESI / 360 run out of Les Gets definitely, not sure about Morzine.

My son had private lessons with Evolution 2 after they were recommended to us over ESF. Great instructors. I’m not sure about the price comparison but he loved it and we thought we got good value.

We used ESF but the children made a lot more progress once they moved to Oxygene.

Also look at ESF Montriond, who meet at Ardent. The bus goes straight there from Morzine centre and ESF groups tend to be smaller.

... and The Snow School (run by ESF), but smaller groups , French instructors who deliver lessons in English. Meet at top of Pleney like ESF etc.

We used ref this year previous years we used oxygene. I think the class size was smaller than we expected but which was a bonus.

Teachers are no nonsense. English was spoken fluently. Kids liked them well enough.

We used ESF in avoriaz for the children. (Stayed in Morzine but the easier lift took us straight into Avoriaz village). They were excellent - smallish groups and good English.

We used Evolution 2. Really good

Not overly impressed with ESF in Les Gets - quite big classes and movement between classes if they felt they needed to be in a lower classs even when we wanted them to stay together. Also, not much tuition or interaction in English, just a case of following the instructor down the piste.

If 360 operate out of Morzine, I would book with them in a heartbeat - everytime we saw them in Les Gets, they were interacting with the kids (making them laugh in very good English) and everyone looked like they were having fun.

Hopefully OP will come back and report on the school she actually used as presumably it's happened now! I have always been happy with New Gen in France. Evo 2 are good too but have just been bought out by the lift company CDA so wonder if there might be any changes; hopefully not.
In my experience all ski schools will move children up/down as per ability after the first day so the groups can work more effectively together. Otherwise a child that should be in a lower group might hold up everyone else.

@abricotine I think thats true where there is a noticeable difference in ability but in our case there wasn't, and it was hard for 1 child to be moved from a group of siblings/friends (in a mixed French / English group) to a lower group where she was the only non-French speaker out of the 12 kids in the group. The instrutor didn't really speak to her at all. Admittedly, she didn't have quite the same techique but was absolutely fine keeping up with the original group so didn't hold them up (and she was the only one that was moved). I'm not overly precious, so in the grand scheme of things not a massive deal, but a consideration when choosing ski schools for the OP (although hadn't noticed the date of the post so as you say, far too late now!!)

@Africa2go yes makes sense... I can imagine that wasn't easy for her.

ESF offer longer hours than our usual school for a different resort we are looking at next year (and I am the one who bears the brunt of an earlier finish!) but you are right - a lack of flexibility (and possible language issues) are always worth bearing in mind when choosing ski schools.