In Ertheo we know that choosing a soccer and English camp for our children is quite complicated. There are many campuses, with different levels of soccer and languages, in addition to the doubt and concern that arises when the option appears to send our children several weeks to England, a country with a different culture, although there are also programs in Spain and other territories.
But soccer camps in England with languages have many more advantages than disadvantages, such as improving the language through sports, which surely seems more entertaining for the children, also the students take on more responsibilities that make them grow personally, and we cannot forget that a summer camp can be an experience that will mark the future of your child.
Given the many doubts that you will surely have when choosing a soccer and English camp for next summer, we are going to explain the main aspects that you should consider in order to choose the most suitable one if you are looking for a camp where your child will learn English.
what are the English courses offered at the camps?
The camps that base their program on soccer and English usually have very participative classes, in which the teachers look for the complete improvement of the student with specific work in all areas.
The vocabulary of the sport practiced on campus is the axis on which the classes revolve, in order to achieve greater student participation and increased attention in the classroom.
As we have said, all aspects of the language are worked on, listening, writing, reading and speaking, to which can be added total immersion in the language if you decide to choose a program that takes place in England.
how to evaluate a soccer and English camp?
In order to know for sure which camp you are going to send your child to, you should first ask yourself several questions about the different options you have on the table. The ideal would be to answer the questions that we are going to ask you about each sports program and then evaluate which one best meets your child’s needs.
who teaches the English classes at the camp?
If your idea is that the main part of the camp is the English classes because you want your child to improve his or her level, then it is very important to look for programs that offer high quality English classes. We make two distinctions when categorizing camps:
- Those that focus more on soccer or fun and include language lessons as an extra complement.
- Camps organized by an academy or agency specialized in languages and that collaborate with a sports institution to implement their program.
In the camps focused on English classes, the teachers of the academy are in charge of organizing the lessons and also of creating the didactic material, which makes the classes of much higher quality, since they are designed by experts in the field.
In addition to this, there are four other important points to know before choosing one or the other:
- The hours of class included in the program.
- If the teachers are native speakers.
- How the children are distributed in each class (if they take a level test or if they are grouped according to other criteria such as age).
- How many students there are per class.
The location of the camp and its participants
Another very important and fundamental thing is the place where the camp is held, of course, so you should analyze where each program is held. There are camps outside of England where English classes are also offered, but obviously the immersion in the language is not total for several reasons, such as the coaches are not English speakers, which means that the sports activities are not done in English.
To learn English, it is best to choose a school that has two fundamental characteristics:
- All activities are conducted in English: trainings, play activities, excursions, etc. Your child will have to use English for everything on campus.
- Great variety of nationalities in the camp. The children will have to communicate with each other in English.
With two weeks of attending English training sessions, meeting other foreign children, participating in English activities, communicating with the camp staff and attending English classes, the child’s linguistic immersion will be very complete, more so than if he/she only attends 3 English lessons per week at another campus.
In order to be cautious and warn you before this happens, we have to give you a very important piece of advice. It is not advisable to send a child to a camp in England if he/she does not have the minimum basic knowledge to start a conversation that will allow him/her to get by in the day-to-day life of the camp, such as understanding the coaches or being able to talk to classmates. If a child attends a camp with little or no knowledge of the language, the intention of learning as much as possible can have the opposite effect.
We don’t know if your child is very or not very independent, but at the age when they usually go to camp, adapting to living away from the family and in a different environment is a special effort. If we add to this situation the fact that everything is done in a language different from our own, it sometimes makes adaptation a little difficult. Therefore, your child must have a minimum level to understand others, otherwise his or her experience may be ruined.
With all this information assimilated, you are now ready to choose a soccer and English camp, so now we are going to show you our offer in England. First of all we are going to inform you about the 3 best ones for your child to increase his/her English level while playing his/her favorite sport, which are the programs of the clubs Arsenal FC, Chelsea FC and Manchester City.
Arsenal FC
English 90% English
Accommodation 80% Accommodation 80% Sports Facilities
Sports Facilities 80%
Price 80% Price
Overall Rating: 8/10
One of the most important clubs in Europe, Arsenal FC, offers every summer a camp with very well organized English classes with native teachers. Along with the classes, the students participate in soccer training and activities where the coaches and monitors also communicate in English. Another aspect to highlight is that normally few Spaniards attend, but there is a cultural diversity among the students. They only accept a maximum of 20% of reservations of children of each nationality to ensure that there are children from all countries, which makes the immersion in the language complete.
interested in this camp?
Chelsea FC
English 70% English
Lodging 80% Accommodation
Sports Facilities 80%
Price 70% Price
Overall Rating: 8/10
The Chelsea camp is another of the best options for the summer. The English classes are organized by the Berlitz academy, one of the best in the UK, so the students will learn with native teachers.
In addition, all activities, both soccer training and excursions, are conducted in English.
The last thing we would like to point out is the low number of Spaniards in the program, so if you want your child to speak only English, sign him/her up for this camp.
are you interested in this camp?
Manchester City
English 95% English
Lodging 95%
Sports Facilities 100%
Price 80% Price
Manchester City also offers a camp with English classes taught by native teachers, although these lessons have a particularity that differentiates them from the others, as they are interactive. What does this mean? Well, the classes take place inside and outside the classroom, with different activities and more oriented to communication. Examples of this modality are lectures on game strategies, nutrition, healthy lifestyle habits and other soccer-related topics.
are you interested in this camp?
Other camps in England
In England we have four other soccer and English camps, but these are more for sports and entertainment, although they have good quality English classes. These four programs are those of Real Madrid CF and Liverpool FC. The Real Madrid camp also has the Berlitz academy as the organizer of its language classes, but both this camp and the Leicester camp tend to receive a large number of Spanish speakers, so your child will probably end up speaking more Spanish than English.
English is not only spoken in England, the United States is the other major country where Shakespeare’s language is official. So if you want a total linguistic immersion for your child, but you are also looking for a destination where sport is even more important, in Ertheo we have the FC Barcelona camp in USA and IMG Florida. Here you can choose from several programs, although this academy is more oriented to sports preparation.
English in other destinations
For those who are looking for programs that combine soccer and English but without such a strong interest in learning English, there are camps in Spain, Italy or Paris with language and sports classes. These camps offer an opportunity to maintain the level of soccer and English, as well as entertainment to spend the summer with new friends.
In Spain there are several spread throughout the country, some offer more hours of English than others:
- Real Madrid Campus Experience: 15 lessons a week.
In addition to those in Spain, England and the United States, there are also options in other destinations if you are interested in different and attractive places, such as Dublin or Paris.
- Real Madrid in Dublin: 15 hours per week.
- Paris Saint Germain: 1 hour and 15 minutes a day.
You may also be considering other options, so we leave you our post about tennis and English camps, although if you are not interested in tennis either, here is a summary of the 8 best summer camps in England, the best programs in the British Isles.
We recommend that before making the final decision you always count on your child’s opinion, since he is the one who is going to go to the camp and who is going to live the experience, so it is mandatory to count on his advice to choose one option or another. So now you know, if you want your child to learn English in the best environment, in Ertheo we have the best camps and we can help you choose the most suitable one. What are you waiting for to live a unique experience!
