Westcountry Adventure at Sidcot School, near Bristol

Learning at Sidcot is project-based and cross-curricular, bringing together English, critical thinking, creativity and real subjects, with the countryside as the material. Students are placed by age, and the school is explicit that it places by age rather than by English level. Pathfinders (11–12) and Explorers (13–14) follow four lesson blocks a day on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, built around STEAM, Social Studies and Global Perspectives, Communication, and Wellbeing and Movement. Engagers (15–17) choose their own subjects before arrival from a published list of seventeen — among them Applied Maths, Art, Biology, Chemistry, Design and Technology, Economics and Entrepreneurship, English, Essay Writing, Food Tech, History and Politics, Media Studies, Physics, Psychology, Sport and Fitness and Theory of Knowledge — and study four of them each week. Every student takes part in Be a Leader, which leads to a CPD qualification.

The school offers a special discount — ask us for details. The published fee is a price per week, and the grid on this card is that weekly price multiplied by the number of weeks. The fee includes tuition, teaching materials, accommodation, meals, insurance, laundry, airport transfers, trips and activities. Horse riding is available on campus as an optional extra; the school does not publish a price for it and asks families to contact it directly.

Boarding houses are spread across the campus. Most rooms are shared between two or three students, paired by age and by language or nationality so that English is the common language. Single rooms are available for students aged 16 and above on a first-come basis. Each boarding house has its own lounge and kitchen. Families who want siblings or friends to share must say so when booking; the school does room placement before arrival and does not change it afterwards.

Freshly prepared meals are served daily in the modern dining rooms. The Sidcot Hub coffee shop is on campus.

Evenings on campus bring campfires, talent shows, international evenings, sports tournaments, karaoke and movie nights. Every Wednesday the whole camp leaves the campus for a full day out — the school names Thorpe Park, London, Dorset Adventure Park and the Eden Project. At weekends the programme goes further: Stratford-upon-Avon, Oxford, Bath, Cardiff, Bournemouth, Cheddar Gorge and a full surfing day. Leadership activities include bushcraft, orienteering, archery and surfing, as well as organising a charity event.

The campus is 160 acres of countryside in the Mendip Hills, with everything on one site: an indoor swimming pool, tennis courts, a sports hall, playing fields, a library, an art centre, music and drama spaces, and stables. The Sidcot Hub coffee shop is where students meet. Campus-wide Wi-Fi keeps students in touch with home.

Sidcot School is in North Somerset, forty minutes from Bristol and under two hours from London Heathrow. Academic Summer has used it as its countryside base since 2010. The school says students come from over sixty countries.