Loxdale Winter English Course for Young Learners, Brighton

Twenty English lessons a week, fifteen hours of tuition, taught in the mornings. Winter classes are small - typically six to ten students, capped at sixteen - so every student gets individual attention. A placement test and a level interview on the first day set the class level; progress is monitored continuously, with a revision session every Monday. Lessons cover speaking, reading, writing, listening and grammar, and add British culture: festivals, education, food, local history and the places students visit at the weekend. Students aged sixteen and seventeen may be placed in classes with adult students where the school judges their level and maturity suitable.

The course fee covers tuition and course materials, the placement test and level interview, weekly progress monitoring, a certificate, full-board homestay accommodation, the weekly city bus pass, the full activity programme and the weekend excursions. Airport transfers, travel insurance, the evening minibus, special diets and the residential upgrade are booked separately, and a one-off registration fee applies to every booking.

Students live with a vetted local homestay family on full board - breakfast, lunch and dinner. Host families are selected to be within reasonable distance of the school, and are inspected regularly. Students are home for dinner by six in the evening. An on-site residential option is available as a paid upgrade for students who would rather stay at the school.

Full board with the homestay family: breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. Vegetarian meals are provided at no extra charge; vegan, halal, allergy and other special diets are arranged for a weekly supplement.

Four and a half supervised afternoon activities and three supervised evening activities a week, all included in the course fee. The programme mixes drama workshops, art workshops, film nights, quiz evenings, team challenges, bowling, table tennis, badminton, football and a conversation club. Weekends are for supervised excursions - London, Bath, Portsmouth, Oxford, Cambridge, Windsor and other cities, built around museums, galleries and indoor attractions. The number of excursions grows with the length of the stay, from three on a two-week course to seven on a five-week one.

The Loxdale centre in Portslade has a sports hall, a garden, a computer room and social areas, and students may use them in their free time after afternoon activities. Evening activities take place back at the school.

Winter at Loxdale is deliberately quieter than the summer: smaller classes, motivated classmates and Brighton outside the tourist season. Students get the British winter - cosy cafes, winter markets, indoor attractions - alongside real family life with their host. Free time is balanced with care: students may explore Portslade, Hove or Brighton in groups of three or more with parental permission, while beach visits and solo trips are not allowed. Every student has the school emergency number, the accommodation and welfare officer and the principal on speed dial, and the social manager meets independent students twice a week.