Angloville - Poland
Ratings
Review
Angloville is a great opportunity to meet some incredible people from around the world, both the other Native Speakers and junior participants. I did 3 programmes leaving from different cities (Gdańsk, Warsaw & Łódź) which allowed me to see and learn a lot about Poland.
I only did Juniors programmes, but the participants really seemed to enjoy and engage with the activities throughout each week. I did find that the field trip activities were a bit of a gamble but overall, the people are what make the week & experience, and everyone was great!
Although each day was jam-packed with sessions, the days weren’t as tiring as I expected, and I really enjoyed getting involved in the games & hanging out/playing cards with the other mentors in the evenings.
Yes, the kids did all enjoy their programmes and I did see improvement in their fluency and ability, there are major issues.
-The Polish coordinators are not paid enough, they invest a LOT of time and effort in order to make each programme a success.
-One of the participants I met was suspected to be on the spectrum, which of course is not an issue (they were a great kid) but the fact it was not made aware to the us meant that they could have missed out on support - which is not fair to the coordinators/mentors or the kid themselves.
-One of the field trips, a boat trip!?, really missed the mark in fostering an environment for English speaking and engaging with an activity.
-The volunteers have bed & board which is nice (although the venues all lack in at least one aspect, another thing which hinders the kids) but zero support with any other costs incurred; flights, between programme accommodation & travel, etc. - yes we are made aware of this but even still say €50/person/programme would go a long way considering the time and effort put in as without the volunteers, there is no programme.
I truly did enjoy my experience as the people I met were all incredible - coordinators, mentors & the participants - and I would like to do more programmes in the future but I would really like to see some improvements and additional support provided to the people who make the programmes possible and to help support the participants, the reason we all get involved.