English Plus+ at Marymount

Teaching is split between English Skills classes and English Workshops. Students take a written and oral test on arrival and are placed in a class matched to their age and level, with a maximum of twelve international students. English Skills classes build speaking, listening, reading and writing through lively, interactive tasks. Workshops are task-based sessions on a new topic each week, where students research, discuss, collaborate and create. On Friday afternoon each class presents its work to the school.

The course fee covers all tuition and teaching materials, a student folder, an academic report, a certificate and a course photo, the participation of the resident English Student Hosts, full board residential accommodation, transport and entry fees on all excursions, the daily activity programme, close supervision by resident staff, personal laundry for machine-washable clothes, and medical and travel insurance. Airport transfers from Heathrow or Gatwick are included on published arrival and departure days for flights scheduled between 09.00 and 16.00. Private transfers outside those hours are arranged at extra cost.

Students live on the enclosed campus of an international school in small, attractively furnished bedrooms of one to three beds with shared bathrooms. Resident house parents look after students throughout the stay and supervision is close at all times, with a staff-to-student ratio of at least one to four. Access to mobile phones is restricted to encourage students to make friends and join in; WiFi is available at set times.

Full board: three meals a day plus snacks, served in the school dining hall. The kitchen offers a healthy range of food chosen to suit international students, and all diets are catered for.

Afternoons offer a choice of activities including sports, arts and crafts, drama and nature walks. Evenings bring team challenges, quiz nights, mystery and talent shows, traditional British games, discos and relaxed nights in the houses. There are two excursions each week — London sightseeing, Hampton Court and Chessington World of Adventures among them — plus trips into Richmond Park, and constant chances to practise English with the British English Student Hosts.

The campus sits in Kingston upon Thames, a short journey from central London and within easy reach of Heathrow and Gatwick. It is safe and enclosed, with extensive grounds for sports and games, classrooms, a dining hall and boarding accommodation on site.

The course is built for juniors, many of them away from home for the first time: caring staff, a predictable daily rhythm and an action-packed programme. Nationalities are mixed, and British children take part as resident English Student Hosts, so English is the language of the corridor as much as of the classroom.