British Boarding School Experience at Abbey College Cambridge

The weekly study timetable combines academic subjects with English language lessons, so that pupils carry the language into the subjects they are studying rather than learning it apart from them. Pupils are placed at the level appropriate to their age and prior schooling, and work alongside the college's own pupils across the curriculum. The placement runs for one or two terms, and pupils finish with a comprehensive academic report and a completion certificate. Classes at this college are capped at fourteen pupils.

The termly fee covers tuition, the English language lessons, accommodation in college housing, pastoral support and the extra-curricular programme; the college states that accommodation is included in the programme price. Fees are quoted inclusive of VAT. A registration fee and a refundable deposit are charged separately, and examination entry is not included. Pupils finish with a comprehensive academic report and a completion certificate.

The college has more than four hundred student rooms, all either on the campus itself or within a few minutes' walk of it. Abbey House sits on campus; Purbeck House, Tripos Court and Orchard House are close by. Rooms range from standard and superior single rooms to twin rooms, with studio and apartment options also available. Pastoral support is included.

Meals are served in the college's on-campus dining room, and there is a fair trade coffee bar on site.

Pupils join the college's extra-curricular programme as full members of the student community: weekly clubs, sports and activities, lectures, and university preparation sessions. The hall is used for sport as well as assemblies and concerts, and there is an outdoor court for basketball and a secure courtyard.

The campus at Homerton Gardens has forty-two classrooms with a maximum class size of fourteen, five physics laboratories, four biology laboratories and three chemistry laboratories, two studios for GCSE and A Level Art and Design, two music studios, and a library for study and revision. There is a hall used for assemblies, sport and music concerts, an outdoor court for basketball, a courtyard, a common room, an on-campus dining room and a fair trade coffee bar. Wifi reaches throughout the school and every pupil has a locker.

The placement is built for pupils considering a British school or university and wanting to find out what that actually involves before committing. A term is long enough to be taught, assessed and supported as any other pupil is, rather than to visit. Because academic subjects and English lessons sit in the same timetable, and because pupils board alongside their classmates, the language stops being a subject and becomes the medium of the day.