Two-Week Immersion Programme at Highfield and Brookham

Children join real lessons with British pupils across the full curriculum — Maths, English and Science, Drama, Music, Art and Design Technology, and Games, PE and sports fixtures. Fluency comes from hearing and speaking English all day rather than from a language timetable. Each pupil is given a boarding buddy, a British child who helps them through the school day and the evening. The programme is for children aged 9 to 13 who already have enough English to follow classroom teaching.

One price covers the whole fortnight: airport transfers, uniform rental, bedding rental, school equipment, meals, laundry, and a course completion certificate with a short report from the Head. A parent must either be in the UK for the duration of the stay or appoint an accredited guardian to act as the child’s emergency contact.

Up to 130 children live in the Boarding House, in 22 dorms across the boys’ and girls’ wings. The boarding team provides 24-hour care, and matrons help with daily life such as uniform. Highfield is a phone-free school; international pupils make video calls home each evening through the school’s own checkout system.

Full board, freshly cooked on site: a hot breakfast buffet with fresh fruit and pastries, morning and afternoon snacks, a choice of hot and cold lunch options catering for various dietary needs, and home-cooked evening meals eaten with friends and staff. Boarders finish the day with toast and milk before bed.

Evenings bring cookery, bushcraft, sports, crafts, games and discos. Saturdays add academic extension lessons and sports fixtures, and Saturday evening its own programme of films, popcorn and milkshakes. Sunday is a cultural or leisure trip — London, Guildford, Winchester or the beach.

The school sits in 175 acres of grounds inside the South Downs National Park, with its own golf course among the extra-curricular facilities. London Gatwick and Heathrow are both about an hour away.

Highfield was founded in 1907 and feeds senior schools including Eton, Harrow, Winchester, Wellington and Marlborough. Around a fifth of its boarders are international, and the school deliberately keeps no single nationality dominant so that English stays the language of the place. The whole boarding community, staff included, eats dinner together every evening.