Working at a Concorde Summer School
The first thing you should know is that every day is different! None of our positions is a 9-5 job, and summer school is very different from working in state education. What follows gives you a general idea of how things work from Day 1 of the summer - and after the first few days it's all plain sailing!
Induction
This is when you meet the management team and all your colleagues. There is a lot of general information to take in about health and safety, child protection, and fire regulations, as well as all the details of the summer programme. For the latter, teachers and Activity Leaders have separate workshops about the academic and activity programmes. There is also a tour of the school campus and out into the surrounding area.
Student Arrival Day
This is when the centre really starts running! At residential centres, staff help the students find their rooms, give help with heavy luggage and show students around the site, before holding a welcome party in the evening. In Non-Residential centres, new students are welcomed by the Homestay Organiser and introduced to their hosts—staff have a day off!
First Morning
Residential staff help with 'wake up and breakfast', and then all the students, both Homestay and Residential will go to school, unsure where to go and looking a bit lost. Activity Leaders have class registers and lists of students' names, and help to direct students to the correct classroom, where the Teachers give them all a placement test. After break, during which the students are supervised by Activity Leaders, teachers go through the student handbook and give the students an Induction Lesson. Meanwhile, Activity Leaders are busy preparing the activities for the afternoon and evening, and the excursion for that week.
First Afternoon
Students have an Orientation Tour of the town or city, with the Activity Leaders, while teachers have a staff development workshop and lesson preparation time for the week ahead. Concorde is a teacher training school and we actively encourage professional development through workshops, peer observations and support from an Academic Director.
First Evening
Non-residential staff have now finished for the day (!), but residential staff who are on duty need to supervise dinner, help organise an evening activity—the one they prepared earlier—then make sure the students get to bed (and go to sleep!).
But Summer School is not all work, work, work. We make sure you have plenty of time off, not only to rest but also to enjoy the location and see the sights. If there is an excursion at the weekend and you are not on duty, you are welcome to go on the coach for the day and explore the destination on your own or with friends. And there are plenty of staff social evenings where everyone can get together and have some fun.
Whichever centre you work in you know you will be part of a large team, many of whom have worked at Concorde before. And we aim to look after our staff as well as we do our students!
