Welcome to the online induction for Activity Leaders.

There are three parts to this section.

As an Activity Leader for Elac, you have a key role to play.

The activity programme is a central and integral part of our courses.  If the programme is to succeed it must involve all our students, enhance their experience in Britain and energise them.  If it does, you, too, will have succeeded.

The aims of your part of this induction process are:

	to familiarise with the sorts of activities we put in the programme
	to alert you to the main responsibilities of your job
	to help you to help our students have a memorable time

The Activity Programme

The activity programme is not an optional add-on to our courses.  We therefore expect students to take an active part in it (as will their parents).  All students will be required to attend the pre-activity meeting, where group leaders will take their own roll call.  They will also be required to engage in some activity on certain days.  On other days they may be allowed some supervised free time, but it will not include permission to return to their house or leave the site, unless this is agreed with and supervised by their Group Leader.

Activity sessions take place morning, afternoon and evening. The person responsible for planning and organising the programme of activities and excursions is the Activity Co-ordinator, but all staff, teachers and activity leaders will be involved in putting the programme into action.

The activities

In the morning and afternoon sessions the activity choices will include a lot of sports: basketball, football, volleyball, swimming, badminton, cricket, tennis, as well as some non-sporting alternatives, such as dance, drama, arts and crafts.  In the evening, the activities are of a more social nature and include things such as quizzes, discos, treasure hunts, talent shows and karaoke.

If you'd like to see an example week's programme of evening activities, one is available on Elac's main site.  Click here to open that page in a new window.

Enthusiasm and commitment

Any programme of activities, no matter how good it looks on paper, can fall flat if those people involved in supervising and facilitating it approach it in the wrong way.  We want the activity programme to be full of life, energy and fun – and, more importantly, so do the students and leaders.  It is not something that you can do half-heartedly in order to earn a little extra money.  This is always noticed and commented on by the leaders.  Put yourself forward for extra activities by all means, but only if you are prepared to give your time and energy to that event.

The students

The students on our courses are teenagers.  When it comes to activity time this may often mean that they will be quite lukewarm about trying something different or unusual.  Sometimes you will need to sell the choices on offer, because our experience is that students who try things out and get involved generally enjoy it, and go home much happier.

Preparing for and supervising activities

	The activities often require some preparation beforehand, and much of this will be done by the Activity Co-ordinator.  However, all staff involved in activities will be expected to pitch in, so it is important to make sure that you are at activity briefings before the sessions, so that you know what is expected of you.
	Some activities will naturally last for a longer period than others.  If an activity that you are responsible for finishes early, then encourage the students to get involved in something else if possible.  Similarly, the Activity Co-ordinator will expect you to make yourself available to help elsewhere with the programme of events.
	Please make sure when you are responsible for an activity that involves equipment or apparatus belonging to Elac or the Course Centre that the students use it sensibly.  If something is damaged, then make sure that you let the Activity Co-ordinator know as soon as you can.  At the end of the session make sure that all equipment is accounted for and returned.