Program Ubud

About the school and the kids

In Ubud we are working with 2 local schools, with around 500 children attending our classes every week.

All children attend their regular Indonesian classes between 7:30am and 12:30pm and then attend our after school English classes at VP Bali later in the afternoon. The classes of VP Bali are extra classes for the children and an addition to their normal school hours.

In every school we are using the ESL curriculum which gives a structure that allows for consistency and routine. Most children are in the basic level, followed by the intermediate level and we have small classes of advanced level. So mostly volunteers will be teaching very basic English (think: words, time, places, names, family etc) and we do this in a creative and FUN way.

To keep the classes interesting and fun we ask volunteers to bring in their own skills and talents into the classroom (think: yoga, music, dance, sports, arts and crafts).

The children are working through a program with changing topics and depending on their level of English, specific worksheets and lesson plans of the curriculum are used.

Each class is provided with a folder about the class which includes lesson plans, worksheets and volunteer diaries. Volunteers are always teaching with an another volunteer. This co-teaching is very important and volunteers are expected to work as a team in their class. Besides the curriculum, volunteers are free and also excepted to use their own creativity to organize activities such as games, songs and other creative learning, related to the subject of the curriculum.

This is no boring ‘job’, it’s meant to be easy going, creative and light!

We like to play educational games, and do small competitions. The concept is that children learn best through play. It may seem ‘slow’ learning, but it will stay with them beyond those hours in school. The longer they join our classes, the more they learn, the better their chances to succeed in life, continue to grow, get good opportunities in life and they may even join our (paid) internship program within VP Bali.

The classes change from time to time (depending on school holidays, ceremonies and the like) so it is important for volunteers to be flexible, patient and “in the moment” within these changes. Repetition is very important to help the children learn, but because it is an extra class which they join because they want to, it needs to stay fun. All children that come are eager to learn, and we keep things interesting by doing regular activities like; monthly recycle events, student of the Month awards, and workshops by professionals (volunteers and local professionals) so it’s not too difficult to keep everyone’s attention.

Volunteers -as members of the VP Bali family- are the building blocks of the children’s future and they need you.

Currently 80 children are receiving scholarships in Ubud from VP Bali, enabling them to participate in higher education (high school and/or University). We receive new applications weekly as the numbers at the school grow. For more information about our scholarship program: (link to scholarships)

Find more information about “why we teach English” here.

Disclaimer: Although Bali is in general a very safe place, we ensure our kids’ safety by not disclosing the exact location of the schools. We require all our volunteers to sign a code of conduct which also states that the locations of the schools may never be revealed especially online, on social media, blogs, etc. The specific location of the program and homestay will be disclosed to our volunteers on the orientation day.