Any camps in NW DC that use the school's regular (school-year) staff?

[Anonymous]

Or do they all use summer counselors? If so, does anyone seem to do a particularly good job of training and supervising them?

We've sent our daughter to camp at her preschool (Westmoreland Children's Center) and been very happy b/c most of the teachers are there year-round, but she will soon be aging out of the preschool program (they have an older kids' program, but I don't know much about it), so we are looking for alternatives for the future.

[Anonymous]

Not the OP, but bumping this up because I'm interested too. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I only know that my son's preschool, Little Folks, the teachers during the year were also the camp counselors teachers. But that was only for 6 weeks.

[Anonymous]

Sidwell Summer director here - many schools that run camps will find professionals from other schools to serve as teachers in the summer. Just as students need a change of scenery, so do teachers. So we actually encourage this! In our Bethesda Day Camp at Sidwell's Lower School we use only professional teachers in the role of teachers - they come from area schools, many are Montgomery County teachers and a few come for other area independent schools. Bethesda Day Camp serves campers ages 3 1/2 through entering grade 5. On our DC campus, the Explorer Day Camp also employs professional teachers to run workshops and homebases (college and high school counselors serve as assistants). For some specialty workshops, Sidwell teacher will teach but usually only 1 or 2 weeks and not the whole 8 week season. Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

Washington International School does

[Anonymous]

Replying on behalf of CommuniKids summer spanish immersion camp: our 3-4 year old teacher for most week is one of our regular school-year teachers, and the 5-6 yo teacher is one of our curriculum developers. (there are weeks when substitutes will be necessary since they are out for vacation sometimes during the 9 week session). HTH!