English - Summer - Teens - Exeter

Fifteen hours of English classes a week, thirty hours over the two-week course, taught by native-speaker teachers in classes of no more than seventeen students. A placement test on the first morning puts each student in a class at their own level, and lessons concentrate on speaking, listening, vocabulary and pronunciation. All lesson materials are included, and students finish with a certificate of attendance.

The fee covers tuition and all lesson materials, homestay accommodation with meals, a bus pass for travel in the Exeter area, eight half-day activities, one full-day trip, two half-day shopping afternoons in Exeter supervised by Activity Leaders, the certificate of attendance and the Awards Night. Travel from UK airports, the airport meeting service, travel insurance, spending money and special dietary provision are arranged separately.

Students stay thirteen nights with a local host family chosen and monitored by the school. Hosts pass an enhanced DBS check, a home inspection and a suitability assessment, and no host takes more than four students at a time. Each student has a suitable bedroom with enough space; a student may share a room with a travelling companion or with a student of another nationality, as the school encourages mixed nationalities so that English is spoken at home. Bed linen and towels are provided, and laundry arrangements are available for longer stays. Most journeys between the host home and the school take no more than forty-five minutes.

Breakfast before school, a packed lunch to take with them and an evening meal with the host family, cooked as typical British home cooking. Dietary needs and preferences are taken into account when students are matched with a host.

Eight half-day activities over the course, one full-day trip and two half-day shopping afternoons in Exeter, all led by the school Activity Leaders. Activities take in the seaside and the Devon countryside, sport and cultural visits; past excursions have gone to Dartmoor National Park, Exmouth, Sidmouth, Dawlish, Totnes, Tintagel, Lyme Regis, Bristol and Bath. Evenings include a Ceilidh Night, a Disco Night and a Talent Night, and the course closes with an Awards Night with trophies, medals and prizes.

Classes are held at the school in Exeter, a small cathedral city in Devon within reach of both Dartmoor and the south coast. A bus pass for all travel in the Exeter area is part of the programme, and the host family brings the student to school on the first morning.

A small, safe and friendly summer school. Each weekday morning opens with a meeting led by the school academic manager and the activities manager, so every student knows what the day holds and whom to speak to. Classes and host homes mix nationalities on purpose, and students who are too young to travel alone in the evening are collected by their host.