Has anyone on here ever been an Animateur in another country for school trips or anything?

Question

my sister has just returned from a french trip, and hwile she was there there was a group of people called Animateurs who were like students taking a gap year before university and the like, and they were there to help them on the trips and teach them fun skills like fencing, abseiling, circus skills etc and generally just ensure they had a great time! I was thinking wow that sounds great fun i'd love to do it, and I was wondering if anyone on here has ever done it or anything like it? and if so, how did you find it?

I am studying french at GCSE currently and I am going to take it at Alevel too. Also, is there an age limit on being an animateur? im currently 15, but 16 in one month.

Thanks alot in advance for your help!

Answer 1

No, but I know the job you mean, I've worked as a teacher in Ireland for groups that came over from France.

It can be great fun, but you should never go into something like this thinking you'll be great friends with the kids. They won't respect you if you don't set up disciplinary guidelines at the very start and stick to them. The woman running the centre where I worked as a teacher once had a group where the kids were fine, the animateurs were the problem.

As regards the age limit, most of the kids were your age and the animateurs were in their twenties.