Vacational Studies Summer Course at Cheam School

English is taught every morning except Sundays and full-day trip days, from 09.00 until 12.50 with breaks, which comes to fifteen taught hours a week. Classes hold no more than fourteen students and are grouped by level across the CEFR range from A2 to C2. The method combines task-based learning with traditional teaching and is built around a video-creation project; students are prepared for the Trinity GESE qualification, which can be taken on site. A 'Digest' period with teachers follows lunch, and an optional Masterclass is run for advanced learners. Online one-to-one preparation before arrival, and individual lessons during the course, are available on request through the application form.

The course fee is inclusive. It covers residence on campus, all meals, the teaching programme, the sports and social programme, fees and health and possessions insurance, the laundering of clothes, and supervised transfers between Heathrow and the school at the published arrival and departure windows. It does not cover personal spending money, optional excursions and theatre visits, the Trinity examination fee, or travel to and from England. The course is sold in two-, three- and four-week lengths within the published summer dates.

The course is fully residential and everything is on campus. Students sleep in dormitories: some rooms have four beds and some have more, and rooms are shared deliberately so that English keeps being spoken. Girls and boys are accommodated in separate buildings or on separate levels, and the school aims for a mixture of nationalities and a similarity of ages within each dormitory. Bed linen is changed weekly and clothes are washed twice a week; towels are brought by the student. Bedtime is 22.30, occasionally extended to 22.45.

All meals are included and are taken in the school dining hall, which serves a buffet with a wide choice. Lunch is included on Sports Day; on most excursions lunch is not provided.

Afternoons and evenings are given over to a sports and social programme run by a dedicated team, largely former students. Team sports include football, basketball, volleyball and baseball; individual activities include tennis, table tennis and swimming in an enclosed heated pool. There are also non-sporting activities such as dance choreography, community music and singing. For competitions the school is divided into four Houses, named after the schools the course has used in the past, and a Sports League runs through the course, ending with a Sports Day of performances. Taking part in sport is not compulsory. Excursions and theatre visits are arranged as optional extras.

Cheam School is a campus of several buildings set in extensive grounds with formal gardens and woodland. Facilities used by the course include a modern sports hall, a range of tennis courts, a large open-air heated swimming pool, several playing fields and an astroturf pitch, a theatre with its own auditorium and stage, classrooms, and a dining hall with servery.

The course has run since the early 1970s and has used the Cheam campus since 1975. It sets out to develop young people aged ten to eighteen and over through learning English, living as part of an international community, and following the routine and values of a traditional British boarding school. Students arrive from many countries and are placed in dormitories and classes that mix nationalities.