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Located in the best family ski resort in the French Alps our acclaimed childcare service in Sainte Foy has been reviewed and recommended regularly in the national press.
A Family Ski Holiday for the Parents
We recognise that to ensure you thoroughly enjoy your holiday we must make sure your children enjoy their holiday too. That is why we regard children at our resort as important as any other guest and make sure they are having a great holiday too. That means you can relax while enjoying your well earned break from work and home making - and the time you do have will be quality family time for you, your partner and your children. The nannies will keep a record of what the children have done each day, their favourite activities, how well they ate their lunch and healthy snacks, and whenever possible the childcare team will take a few photos so you and the children have a record of their ski holiday fun. The childcare team have mobile phones so you can check in from time-to-time if you would like to see how the young ones are doing.
The Children
The Venture Ski childcare team - all qualified and experienced nannies, have a special programme of activities for all young ages. We group children into similar ages, always remaining flexible for families and children who would rather play together than split up into age groups. As a rough guide, we view under-2 year-olds as infants, 3-4 year-olds (usually pre-ski school age) are our "cadets", 5-7 year-olds, the "juniors" who you may have in ski school or with a private ski instructor for a couple of hours each day; and then the "tweens" - 8 year-old and over - we know they are too cool for a creche, but we have some great activities (including occasional hosted trips round the ski slopes) for competent youngsters with parental permission.
The Childcare Team
 
Led by Matthew Downes, a former primary school and sports teacher, the childcare team are all qualified and experienced nannies with English as their first language. We do think this is important for the children to feel immediately at home and settled. They are often kindergarten staff, trainee teachers or Au Pairs. They are all police checked and first aiders. The nannies gain the trust of the children quickly so they can act "in loco parentis", but they also go out of their way to make friends and have fun with the children too. We specialise in childcare for infants and toddlers, right through to the 8-12 year-old "tweens". That means we recruit a childcare team with specialists in infant care as well as nannies who can "pal-up" with the older ones and ensure they have a fun plan of activities too. We have a mixed team of male and female nannies and although we don't give in-house ski lessons, we do have experienced skiers including a qualified BASI ski instructor on the childcare team, which ensures we can engage with younger children and the older ones too.
Activities
Our childcare service takes care of children from 9:00am to 5:00pm including lunch and 'high tea' at 5:00pm. If they are in ski school they will be dropped off and picked up, and for the younger ones particularly on the first day or two, our nannies will endeavour to monitor their progress in ski school to ensure they are settling in.
We also have a range of DVD/Video's for early evening entertainment, and babysitting can be arranged once you are at the resort at a fixed price of €10 per hour.
Our Facilities - Luxury Chalets, Crèche, Pool & the Great Outdoors!
We have in-chalet childcare services available where our nannies can base care around your own accommodation or use the facilities of our crèche if that is more suitable for the activities of the day. Of course our objective is to get children outdoors and sledging in the snow, snowballing, treasure hunts, snowman building, hot chocolate trips and so on, as much as possible, but occasionally tiredness or inclement weather means we can put the crèche to good use. In there we play all sorts of games including arts and crafts, face painting, soft soccer and all sorts of games. Again subject to the numbers and ages of children in childcare, and with parental permission, we use the swimming pool facility which is a firm favourite with children of all ages... so don't forget their swim suits and floats where necessary.
Our Childcare Philosophy
Venture Ski now has a tremendous reputation as a family-friendly ski tour operator with excellent childcare. Our founder has six children all under twelve years old so he fully understands the complexities of taking little ones abroad in the winter. His knowledge and experience on a series of luxury ski holidays with childcare was a key factor in designing the Venture Ski experience and selecting Sainte Foy as the ultimate family friendly resort. |
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"top-notch on-site childcare” The Times
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We never seek to do "just the minimum". We work at all levels of our service to fulfil our mission to give all guests an unbelievably memorable holiday. So for example, our childcare staff ratios are well above statutory limits. Our minimum staffing ratios are:
- Infants: One member of staff for every two children under 2 years.
- Cadets: One member of staff for every four children aged 3 - 4 years.
- Juniors: One member of staff for every five children aged 5 - 7 years.
- Tweens: One member of staff for every eight children aged over 8 years.
Please note that these are minimums, and it is rare that we have more than 10 children in any one period. With five carers on the team, plus their own chef to prepare home made wholesome food you can see that we ensure that children at Venture Ski can expect the holiday of a lifetime too!
All childcare is subject to availability, so we recommend you try to make reservations as early as possible. Venture Ski Child Care is £325 per child for a six day week, but please also ask the customer service team about childcare if you would like to make any special arrangements.
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