Over the last 24 years we have developed and refined our child care programme to meet the requirements of the whole family on a ski holiday.

Why Choose Esprit?
★ 24 years experience as the UK’s leading family ski specialist
★ The biggest choice of child care services in skiing
★ Strict ratios of nannies to children in all our Nurseries
★ All nannies properly qualified and English-speaking
★ Snow Club fun for children over nursery age
★ Exclusive Esprit-only ski classes, with the best English speaking instructors
★ Maximum 8 children in a class, and only 6 per class for 3-4 year-olds

Nursery	4 months – 3 years	All day care with qualified Nursery staff
Spritelets	3 – 4 years	Half-day ski-play -a toddler’s introduction to skiing
Sprites	5 – 12 years	Sub-divided into ski lessons for a range of different ski abilities and age group levels
Supervised Lunch	3 – 12 years	Lunch with staff supervision 12-2 pm
Super Sprites	8 – 12 years	Afternoon snowsports adventures with qualified instructors, including lunch
Snow Club	3 – 8 years	Half day activity club with our Snow Rangers, including lunch
Cocoa Club	6 – 12 years	Supervised evening club 7.30-10 pm
Cocoa Club Plus	10 years +	Evening club including après ski activities
Teen Team	13 – 16 years	All-day ski/board group

Esprit Nurseries
In all our resorts we have fully equipped exclusive Esprit Nurseries, available to all Esprit children aged from four months to three years. Most are based in dedicated rooms in our larger chalets or hotels but in some resorts we have hired special rooms in local properties. Our Nurseries are run by qualified British nannies or nursery nurses (DCE/NNEB or equivalent), with child care assistants in some nurseries, for six days a week from 8.30am to 5pm. The location of each nursery is detailed on the resort pages.

The nurseries are structured to provide a happy and stimulating environment for babies and toddlers. A typical day begins at 8.30am when the children have free-play to settle them in and to absorb the disruptions of later arrivals and the occasional tearful goodbye. Mid-morning they all have a snack and then those who need a nap can sleep in one of the nursery cots, while the other children have a creative session with paints, stickers or other craft activities. Lunch is specially prepared by our staff. We are happy to puree fresh ingredients for babies, but we also stock our chalets with a selection of baby food, freely available. After lunch there is another nap opportunity for the sleepy, and a structured session for the more active. This may be anything from music and movement to making cookies. After an afternoon snack the outdoor fun begins – weather permitting! Depending on age and parental consent, children may be taken on a ride in a gondola, on a bus trip, out for a walk or simply to play in the snow. Older toddlers may even go ‘bum-boarding’. The structure of the day will vary to take into account weather conditions, children’s routines and local facilities. The day draws to a quiet close with free play and parents are asked to collect their children by 5pm, and accompany them at Nursery high tea in their chalet or Chalet Hotel.

Where we have more than one Nursery location in a resort, we allocate children of similar ages together so that their fun and activities can be more tailored to suit their ages and abilities. Therefore your child may not necessarily attend the Nursery in the property in which you are staying and you will be informed of their allocated Nursery on your arrival.

Esprit Classic Ski Classes
Most children grasp and enjoy skiing from an early age if their introduction to the sport has been an enjoyable experience. The Esprit approach is to work closely with the local ski-schools and select the best English-speaking children’s instructors to run ski classes exclusively for Esprit children, with guaranteed small classes.

Small classes are a vital factor for children’s safety, enjoyment and speed of learning, so our initial ratios are 1:6 for Spritelet classes and 1:8 for all other Sprites. The ski instructors may, however, move children from class to class to match their ability levels.

We have found over the years that ability, as much as age, tends to be the deciding factor in balancing children’s ski classes. So our stated ages are a guide and there may be a wider age range within the class, but the children’s abilities on skis will be similar. Some ski-schools operate an assessment system on the first day of lessons to ensure children are placed in the appropriate class.

In all resorts, children are collected in the morning from their chalets, Chalet Hotels or designated meeting point and taken to their Esprit lessons or Snow Club. If children are taking part in Esprit lunches and/or Esprit afternoon care, Esprit staff will also collect them at the end of their lesson.

Esprit Supervised Lunches
To maintain the flexibility necessary for a family holiday, we also offer Supervised Lunches for children not in Snow Club or Super Sprites (where lunch is already included). If in an Esprit ski class, children will be collected from their morning lesson and be taken for lunch in one of our chalets, hotels or designated restaurants.

If skiing independently, they must be at the designated meeting point for 12.00pm to be collected for lunch. Supervised Lunches will run from 12 noon till 2pm, after which children are collected by their parents for family skiing. The convenience of the lunch location for parental pick-up varies considerably from resort to resort, so please ask our Reservations Advisory team for exact details if this is what you wish to do.

Esprit Snow Clubs
Designed for children aged three to eight years, Esprit Snow Clubs are the half-day complement to our Sprite and Spritelets ski classes, and run six half-days per week, led by our Esprit Snow Rangers.

Fun for Children
Snow Club sessions are tailored to suit the children’s ages and include a myriad of fun and
exciting activities that we know children really enjoy. Depending on children’s age, the weather and local resort facilities, these may include for example:

- Fun ‘Wacky Whizzing’ on sledges or ‘bum-boards’
- ‘Hunt the Ranger’ adventures - generally ‘gungeing’ the poor Ranger when they find him!
- Igloo-building, snow-art & snow-sculptures
- Exploration missions around the resort on foot and by ski-lift
- All the latest Esprit action-songs, chants & games
- Indoor & outdoor treasure hunts
- Creative arts & crafts and story-telling for the quieter sessions

All this with the enthusiastic support and close supervision of our Snow Ranger team, with our stringent care ratios of 1:8. The crowning event of the week, to which all parents are also invited, is the Esprit Medal Ceremony, where all children in Esprit ski lessons and/or Snow Club receive their ski medals and Snow Club certificates. This is also the chance for the children to show their parents what they have been up to all week, complete with songs and mini-sketches, and everything they have made themselves. A guaranteed photo opportunity and the ideal way to end the week on a high!

Details for Parents
The Snow Club includes lunch and the appropriate take-to and pick-up services for all Esprit Ski Classes. Snow Clubs run in every resort, sometimes in several locations, depending on the numbers of children involved. Where we have more than one Snow Club location in a resort, we allocate children of similar ages together, so that their fun and activities can be more tailored to suit their ages and abilities. Therefore your child may not necessarily attend the Snow Club in the property in which you are staying, and you will be informed of their allocated Snow Club on your arrival.

Other than in Scheffau, Snow Club normally runs in the mornings for 3-4 year olds in Spritelets, and after lunch for older children (usually the afternoon only for all Snow Club children on the last day). Timings can of course occasionally vary due to resort conditions.

At the end of the day, chalet and Chalet Hotel guests’ children will be escorted back to their respective ‘homes’, where high tea will be supervised by our staff on five nights per week, so parents need only take control of their offspring at 6pm, except on our chalet staff’s day off, when children will be returned to their chalet or Chalet Hotel at 5pm.

Parents in Hotels Alpin or Mühle collect children from Snow Club at 5pm and supervise their evening meal in your ‘home’ hotel.

Esprit Evening Care
Baby-Listening Patrol
For children aged four months and over, a baby-listening patrol is provided free of charge in all our chalets and Chalet Hotels on the staff day off, (generally Thursdays) from 7.30pm to midnight. On all other evenings, we also offer a free baby-listening patrol in all our Chalet Hotels, plus Hotel Alpin in Scheffau and apartments 11 & 12 in the Alber in St Anton, from 7.30pm-11.00pm.

Esprit Cocoa Clubs
For six to twelve year olds who are not yet ready for bed when the adult-only dinner starts, we run evening clubs in all our resorts, but not in every property – please see the individual resort pages for details. Children staying in different properties are welcome to join Cocoa Club, but parents are asked to deliver and collect their children unless otherwise specified on the resort pages. Cocoa Clubs run under the supervision of a member of Esprit staff and are not structured sessions. They run from 7.30-10pm on six evenings a week. The evening’s activities are very much guided by the children’s own energies and wishes and generally involve a different theme each evening. There may be games, story-times, giant junk modelling or quiz nights, and one evening in the week there will be a mini-disco or other glamorous event!

Cocoa Club Plus
During peak weeks in Val d’Isère, Courchevel, Belle Plagne, Chamonix, Tignes, Kaprun and Selva, and all season in La Rosière, we will be offering a Cocoa Club Plus option whenever we have a number of children over 10 years. For a small charge, payable locally, we will take children 10 years and older out for some après ski fun on three evenings a week. This may include ten-pin bowling, a pool competition, ice-skating or other fun activity and will vary according to the resort’s particular facilities.

Special Needs Children
We are happy to welcome children with special needs into our child care programme, as long as they can cope safely and happily with their ‘share’ of the care and attention of the Esprit Nanny/Ranger and/or the ski instructor, without compromising the safety of other children in the group. For children who need extra help, we may be able to provide one-to-one care on certain dates. Places are particularly limited on peak dates (generally Christmas, New Year, half term and Easter) and are available on a first come first served basis. Nursery, ski lessons and/or Snow Club must be booked as normal and there is then a supplement of £150 for one-to-one care for the duration of the child care sessions booked, whether part or full days. Please discuss your requirements with our reservations staff before you confirm your holiday reservation.