Today we took our daughter to the Bobo Kids Ski School in Flumserberg (Tannenboden). Quite frankly it was a disaster, and one of the most poorly organized ski schools (for kids) we have been to here in Switzerland.

Whilst the facilities are excellent, the kids just seemed to be grouped together in a totally random manner, meaning that kids who could clearly ski, spent over 30 minutes walking in a circle around some cones, whilst the instructors sorted themselves out

After one and a half hours our daughter finally got to ski down a very (very) gentle slope, and the instructor commented that she could stop and turn quite nicely and could easily cope in a more advanced group. At this point we finally pulled her out, and the instructor said we would be better coming back during the week when it was less busy.

Our daughter is only a beginner (although has mastered some basic skills) and she really needs to continue with lessons. Flumserberg seems to offer great facilities and is very close to us, but today has put us off a bit.

So can anyone here reassure me that during the week it is slightly better run? Are the kids assessed before being placed in a group normally? If they are initially placed in the most basic group (which does make sense) are they moved when they show themselves to have some skills?

TIA for any insight you can offer.

Fiona

I don't know about the school but Sunday (especially with todays great weather) was probably not the best day to come. If you can come mid-week it is much quieter. How much did the school charge BTW? We have some friends coming over soon and they want to put their kids in a school.

For somewhere cheap and quiet and good for kids to learn have a look at Brunni/Alpthal near Einsiedeln, closer than Flumserberg

Also at Atzmaenig not far from Rapperswil - (again closer than flumserberg) there's a great button lift for beginners, again if open would likely be cheaper and quieter

http://www.skiliftbrunni.ch/

http://www.atzmaennig.ch/index_en.cfm

http://www.brunni.com/

I do agree that Sunday is never the best day to do this sort of stuff, but the weather made it soooo tempting to be up in the mountains

We will give it a try again this week and see if it is any better.

The lessons themselves cost CHF 35, and you pay the instructor directly at the end of the session in cash. The plus side is you don't need to queue for a ticket, but you have to make sure you bring along the right amount of cash!

Thanks for the suggestions Nicky - we might have to look around a bit more I think.

I once put my son in the ski school there & will never do so again. The instructor he was assigned to "forgot" he was in her group, luckily another instructor noticed my son stading around & put him in her group. When I challenged the original instructor she did not care. We also found a child of about 4 leaving the school area on his own, we took him back to a teacher but to me these 2 incidents show a great lack of supervision. As to the quality of the lessons themselves, let just say I was not impressed.

We've used the school a lot last year and a little this year and have a season pass for both our kids. The youngest has now just, this year, left BoBo land and goes to regular lessons at the T bar. Yep we found BoBo land busy at weekends and with so many nationalities (quite a few who did'nt speak any or much German) there is inevitably quite a bit of confusion, 40 or so kids under 5 doesn't help either. We've found them to be quick to get school bibs on, take contact numbers from parents and generally teach although sometimes the lessons go slow I think this is inevitable with children. On the whole we have mostly been happy with the tutition and the actual class size (kids per instructor). Eddy is the manager of the ski school on that side and if you have any problems you should seek him out (walkie talkie permanently in hand).

It may be worth checking the afternoon lessons out, these are sometimes quieter than the morning

OK, we have now been back a couple of times, and I thought it might be useful to post a further update.

Since my original post we have been back to the ski school twice, and tbh I am still less than impressed. Both our subsequent visits were during the week, and once during bad weather so it certainly wasn't as crowded as on a sunny Sunday.

Overall the facilities are great, but it appears the best way to have your child actually learn anything and progress is to turn up on a Monday and sign them up for the whole week. Although they claim to welcome people who just turn up, in reality this means your kid will be placed in whatever group has space/is the closest. Basically it comes down to luck of the draw, and trying to talk to the instructors about an appropriate group based on your child's experience is generally met with indifference.

Eddy (the ski school manager) just kept saying we would be better off signing her up for a week of lessons so they could properly asses her (rather than spending 3 minutes watching her ski through the slalom course...).

Ultimately my daughter did enjoy her last lesson there, despite being a bit bored at times (inevitable in a large group i guess), but for her the best part was getting to ski on her own using the free lifts in the adjacent beginners area at the end of the lesson.

My real concerns were about the staff/child ratios and the general lack of supervision. I spoke with 2 members of staff about this, and they both confessed that it was practically impossible to watch all the kids all the time, and that they did rely to some extent on parents to hang around and help out. During one lesson (2 hours in duration) I was the only remaining parent (for that group) and was asked to take 2 children to the toilet.

I don't know about others, but if I left my child in a ski school I would have a serious problem with them being allowed to leave the area with a total stranger for up to 30 minutes at a time (the toilets are a little way off and down a flight of stairs, so the whole process can take a while with all the undressing/dressing involved).

Personally we won't be going back, but haven't ruled out trying a private lesson instead (and feedback on this option would be welcome, as would anyone who has a young and enthusiastic skier who wanted to split the cost sometime mid week).

What are the staff/child ratios? How many children to one instructor?

On the three times we were there the smallest group was 9 kids to one instructor (this was the more advanced group), and the largest was 15 kids with one instructor. The average seems to be about 10 - 12, which seemed quite a lot to me.

The kids are aged (for the most part) between 3 - 6 years old, and for example in a group of 11 children (my daughter's last lesson) 2 kids were having their first ever lesson, several had been there for 2 or more days, and the remainder we managing a basic slalom and were able to stop themselves at the bottom of the run. The instructor spent a lot of time skiing up and down the nursery slope picking kids up and stopping them at the end......

Did the DJ go back to his day job..? Has been a while since he's had a hit..

We paid 120 chf per hour for 4 hours "one to one" for my son. He has never needed a single lesson since then.
Maybe it is better to get it all over in one go? Probably cheaper in the long run.
Just a thought.

To be honest I find this totally inappropriate. I used to teach childrens groups in watersports in a previous life. The student/instructor ratio was always 6/1, and this could only be increased if there was an assistant instructor with the instructor, and they were doing taster sessions instead of proper skills courses. Speaking from experience, I don't think it is a reasonable expectation for one instructor to supervise 10 children in an outdoors environment, never mind find time to teach them skills. If I were you, I would check with the Ski School association and see what the ratios are supposed to be according to the instructors handbook.

Well our two kids have used Bobo's at Flumserberg and the Snowli school at Grindelwald. They've also had a few hours each with a private instructor at Flumserberg. IMHO, the Bobo school was OK but I agree with the comments about group size, especially at weekends it's very busy. The private tuition, also at F'berg, was very good but not cheap at CHF 170 for two hours. The Snowli school at Grindelwald was the best though with excellent facilities and a staggering number of blokes and blokettes wearing Swiss Ski Instructor red outfits. The children did a one week full day course at Grindelwald and I think this was the best tuition they've had. Both of them really enjoyed it and the teacher/pupil ratio was good. The facilities are excellent.
The cost for two children for one week was around chf 800.