Cavendish Junior English Camp in Bournemouth

Juniors at the Bournemouth centre study General English in small, internationally mixed classes. Each junior lesson lasts forty minutes and lessons can be scheduled in the morning or the afternoon, and occasionally outdoors in the school garden when the weather allows. Levels run across the full range from beginner to proficient; students are placed by level and age, either before arrival or by a placement test on the first day, and can move class at any point during their stay. Standard classes are capped at fifteen students, and on the Premium programme the school guarantees no more than eight.

The camp price is an all-in package: tuition, accommodation with full board, the excursion programme and the day and evening activities are all covered, along with a placement test, teaching materials, the first course book, a student identity card and a certificate of studies for campers who attend at least eighty per cent of lessons. Entrance fees for a handful of optional attractions are not included and can be added through the school's all-inclusive option. Airport transfers, the Thorpe Park excursion and special dietary requirements are charged separately.

Campers choose between a carefully selected host family and the school residence. Homestay families are selected and administered by the school, and campers may share a room with no more than two or three beds, matched where possible to age and personal preferences. Residence rooms are single with en-suite bathrooms. Both options run from the Sunday before the course begins to the Saturday after it ends, and a refundable damage deposit and key charge apply in the residence, payable on arrival and returned on departure.

Junior campers receive three meals a day: breakfast, a packed lunch and dinner, in both homestay and residence accommodation. The school canteen serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, and the Little London catering trailer in the gardens provides hot meals throughout the year, with a home-cooked barbecue in the summer. Vending machines with snacks and drinks are available on campus. Special diets — vegetarian, vegan and lactose intolerance among them — can be arranged for a supplement charged per night.

The activity and excursion programme is a core part of the camp rather than an add-on. Over a fortnight campers take six excursions and nine day or evening activities on the Premium programme. Typical excursions include London, Oxford, Winchester, Salisbury, Southampton, Portsmouth, Bath, Beaulieu and the New Forest, along with castles and stately homes such as Windsor, Blenheim Palace, Corfe Castle and Hampton Court, and coastal destinations including Portland, Weymouth, Lulworth Cove, Christchurch and Poole. Most excursions are accompanied by a fully qualified guide. On-site the school runs its own activity programme with football tournaments, beach volleyball and table tennis, plus karaoke and disco evenings in the Cavendish Club, cinema visits, bowling, a virtual reality centre, LaserQuest and the SplashDown water park.

The camp runs on the school's own Bournemouth campus. There are thirty classrooms, most with interactive whiteboards, ultra-fast Wi-Fi across the whole campus and in-house multimedia facilities. A dedicated events venue hosts the cinema, disco, karaoke and party nights. Public areas are air conditioned and there is a large conservatory, a canteen and landscaped gardens with palm trees, decked terraces and plenty of seating. The gardens also hold Little London, the school's own corner of British landmarks built around a red London bus converted into a cafe with video screens and music equipment upstairs.

Bournemouth sits on the south coast of England, about ninety minutes from London, with eleven kilometres of sandy beaches and the Dorset countryside and New Forest on its doorstep. The school has been running since nineteen eighty-three and is accredited by the British Council, with membership of English UK and RALSA; its Malta centre is accredited by FELTOM and the ELT Council. Inspections cover teaching, management, accommodation and the welfare of under-18s, and all staff hold a criminal record background check. Campers are supervised from arrival to departure, with two to four leaders allocated to each coach depending on the ages in the group, and the school collects feedback from students, parents and staff after every programme.