London Summer Programme

English lessons run in the afternoons: fifteen lessons a week in classes of no more than eighteen students. The course is SkillUp, the school's young-learner programme, built around interactive lessons, creative projects and teamwork so that students practise communication, collaboration and leadership alongside the language itself. Levels run from pre-intermediate to advanced; students take an online placement test before arrival and are grouped mainly by age, with English level taken into account where possible.

A week on the programme follows a fixed shape. Mornings are given over to excursions and activities, lessons fill the afternoon, and evening activities run after dinner. Monday to Friday there are five half-day excursions, and Saturday is a full-day excursion out of the city. Entry to one paid attraction is part of the package, and arrivals and departures fall on Sunday. Students start on a Monday and stay for as many weeks as they choose.

Students live in the school's own residence, in the same historic building where they study, with more than a hundred beds onsite. Rooms are dormitories of three to six, with one room of eight, in bunk beds and with shared bathrooms. Two members of staff live in the residence, every room and floor opens with a key card, and CCTV covers the school and the residence. The alternative is a host family near the school, offered to students aged fourteen and over, in a single or twin room with a shared bathroom.

Full board is part of both the residence and the host-family option. For students in the residence, breakfast, lunch and dinner are served in the school's own restaurant and coffee bar, which also serves snacks through the day; on the day of arrival only dinner is served, and on the day of departure only breakfast, with extra meals available if arranged in advance. Students staying with host families take lunch at school and eat the remaining meals with the family. All the chicken, beef and lamb is halal, vegetarian food is available, and vegan options are offered on request.

The activity programme runs Monday to Saturday, in the mornings, the evenings and at the weekend. Half-day excursions go to places such as the Natural History Museum, the British Museum, the Tower of London, Camden Market and Oxford Street; evenings bring a board games night, a Bankside walking tour, a movie night and a look at London after dark. Saturdays are for the full-day trips out of the city, to Oxford, Cambridge, Bath, Brighton and Canterbury. Because the programme runs across the summer, groups may also take in the city's summer festivals and the King's official birthday.

School and residence share one building in south-west London. There are large common spaces with board games and table-tennis tables, study rooms for quiet work, an onsite laundry service, and the school's own restaurant and coffee bar.

Living and learning happen in the same place: students sleep, eat, study and spend their free time in one building in south-west London, with the rest of the city a short ride away. Classes bring together students from many countries, afternoons are spent in English, and the mornings, evenings and Saturdays are spent seeing London rather than reading about it.