Spending time with your child choosing a summer school is good fun. However, there is a big choice of schools and it is easy to get confused. In this series of articles, we give parents the information they need to choose the right summer school for their child.

How to choose a summer school

1. Is the summer school designed for groups or individuals?
2. What is the staff to student ratio?
3. What’s included? What’s not included?
4. How does the school make sure that students are happy and safe?
5. How many hours of learning are included a week? Is a week 6 days or 7 days?
6. What experience and qualifications do the staff and management have?
7. How does the school make sure that students from different countries mix together and speak English all day long? Do British students do activities with international students?
8. Apart from English, what extra study options are included?
9. What makes this summer school special and different from the other summer schools?
10. What is the maximum number of students from each country? What is the maximum number of students who speak the same language?

Different students need different challenges. Some students need the extra academic challenge of our Get Ahead options. However, for other students the first priority is improving their fluency and confidence in English. Here’s how we deliver immersion:

Native speakers everywhere! 

For a better immersion experience, British teenagers do activities with our international students.

1:4 staff to student ratio

With a very high staff to student ratio of 1:4, we really can make sure that students speak English all day from 0730 to 2230.

The best nationality mix

We have strict limits on the number of speakers of each language. This means that for students, speaking in English is not an option, it’s a must! Read more about the advantages of summer programmes designed for individuals on our blog.

Learning English never stops

Even when students are doing Professional Sport or activities such as music lessons or cooking, our teachers are introducing new vocabulary and helping students practise grammatical structures.

Up to 24 hours of English included

By choosing Get Ahead Intensive English students can study up to 24 hours of English a week: 15 hours  of Core English and 9 hours of PET, FCE or IELTS.

Motivation

Our ‘Get Ahead’ options (included in the price), which include Performing Arts, Leadership and Professional Sport, motivate students to learn more by giving them the opportunity to use their English to develop the skills and knowledge that they are interested in.

Staff who understand language learning

Amy is the Senior House Parent,  Anna  is the Activity Designer Manager. They do not teach in the summer, but they are qualified teachers, which means they know how to help students practise English even when they aren’t in class.

The only summer school in historic Ludlow 

More Than English is the only summer school in historic Ludlow, so our students meet more native speakers. Read more about Ludlow on our blog.

Serious about immersion

If your first priority for your children is immersion, you will love
More Than English:
24 hours of learning
20+ of activities
= 50 hours (minimum) practice of English a week
(+ House Time + mealtimes with teachers + excursions)

Spending time with your child choosing a summer school is good fun. However, there is a big choice of schools and it is easy to get confused. In this series of articles, we give parents the information they need to choose the right summer school for their child.

In this article we explain the difference between

(1) Summer schools for groups and

(2) Summer schools for individuals

Summer schools for groups:

Definition: students travel in a group, often a large group, with a Group Leader (a teacher or other adult from their country).

(+) Parents feel relaxed.

(-) Not surprisingly, when students need help, they  often speak first with their Group Leaders in their language (not in English)

(-) Also not surprisingly, because they have friends from their country, many students do not make the effort to mix with students from other countries.

(-) Students speak English less.

(-) Often there are too many students from one country.

Summer schools for individuals: 

Definition: students go to summer school independently, or with a brother/sister, or with one or two friends.

(+) Lots of staff to look after students (e.g. 1 staff member for every 4 students) and excellent systems for welfare and safety.

(+) Mixing with students from other countries is a must – students have to speak English all day long.

(+) Students speak with the school’s staff in English all day long.

(+) Better nationality mix and smaller numbers of students from each country.

(+) Richer cultural experience.

(-) Students often feel nervous on the first day.

Which kind of school is best for your child?

Both summer schools designed for individuals and summer schools designed for groups can offer a positive experience for your child. If you want your child to travel with a teacher from their country, you will have to choose a Group Summer School. However, for parents who want their children to live in an English speaking environment, make big improvements in their fluency and gain confidence away from home, a summer school designed for individuals is the best option.

The location of the campus is important when you are choosing a summer school. Why is Ludlow the perfect place for your children’s summer school adventure?

Safe

Every parent wants their children to have new experiences and to explore the world, but more than that, every parent wants their child to be safe. Ludlow is not a big city. It is a very safe, secure town, which means that when your child is on summer school, you can feel relaxed. Also, because we are the only summer school in Ludlow, your child really will experience complete immersion in English.

Historic

King Henry VIII had six wives. One of them, Catherine of Aragon, lived in Ludlow Castle, which dates back to 1086 and is located on the main square in the centre of the town.The town walls still exist today, making Ludlow a very special place to visit. There are many black and white houses dating back to Shakespeare’s time. Do explore the narrow, medieval streets and take a walk along the river for the best views of the castle!

Cultural capital

Ludlow is a wealthy town with many entrepreneurial people and young people who enjoy meeting our students and talking to them whether it be in the castle, at the market or in the shops. It is a famous destination for food and cultural festivals including:

www.ludlowfringe.co.uk  www.foodfestival.co.uk

Options for Parents

Parents also love Ludlow! Some parents bring their children to summer school and spend a few days in Ludlow staying in one of the beautiful hotels and trying out some of the famous restaurants:

www.townhouseludlow.co.uk   www.thecharltonarms.co.uk

www.ludlowcottages.co.uk   www.dinhamhall.co.uk

Parents can even do a 100% personalised language course at a school for adults 20 minutes drive away. The Lydbury English Centre has a fantastic reputation for teaching business people who need English for very specific purposes.

Central

Because the campus is located in the centre of England, our students see more of the UK. England is quite a small country, and from Ludlow in the centre, you can reach most of the most famous cities in about two hours or less.  In summer 2016 our students will visit:

 In the North: Liverpool

In Central England: Birmingham,  Shakespeare’s Stratford, Warwick Castle, Shrewsbury

In the South: Oxford, Bath, Bristol

We offer free airport transfers from Birmingham airport (1 hour 20 minutes). Coach transfers from Heathrow (2 hours 30 minutes) are only £40 each way.

Ludlow: the safe, summer adventure

Beautiful, with 1000 years of history and near all the famous places in England, Ludlow is the perfect place for your children’s safe summer school adventure.

Parents often ask us: “what are the benefits of summer school?”

You would expect us to talk about improved fluency in English, and learning to communicate with students from other countries in English. You would probably also expect us to talk about learning to use English in new ways, for example, to take part in debates, or to work in international teams on different projects from dance shows to film productions.

However, summer school can help students in ways that you might not expect. We recently went to visit students and parents in Mexico and we were delighted to hear how the positive effects of summer school carry on long after students return home.

Confidence away from home

The first thing parents in Mexico tell us that they really like about More Than English is that we do not accept big groups of friends from one country, and this means that when students arrive, they have to make new friends, and if they need something, they have to ask for it in English. Speaking in English and communicating with new people is not an option, it’s ‘a must’!

Bridge to full-time study abroad

We were pleased when Veronica’s parents told us that because summer school helped their daughter  feel more confident about tackling the challenges involved with studying away from home, next year she will be studying in the USA for a full academic year.

Inspiration

Summer school at More Than English offers students the chance not only to use English in new ways, but to develop new interests too. We met Alejandra and her mother in Mexico. Alejandra told us that summer school had a really positive effect on her:

“On summer school we did so many activities. When I came back to Mexico, I just wanted to continue trying new things”

You next!

Alejandra is planning to come back to More Than English in July this year. Veronica’s sister Carolina would love to come this year or the next. We also met lots of other teenagers Mexico during our visit to Mexico and we look forward to welcoming some new students this summer too!

Your journey to England will be over 8000 km. But who knows, the journey you will be starting on, could be a lot longer than that!

Starring Veronica from Mexico:

Educational agent Nyamka brought 15 year old Sumi from Mongolia,  to Ludlow for the weekend  to visit our fantastic campus. As well as medieval Ludlow, we also visited super modern Birmingham, which was an important city during the industrial revolution.

Sumi is preparing to study GCSEs in the UK full-time from September 2016. With 24 hours of learning and the opportunity to use English to study other subjects, More Than English summer school is the perfect ‘bridge’ for students preparing to study in the the UK full-time.

We’d especially like to thank one of our British students, Imogen (15) for joining us and giving our guests lots of English practice and the true English experience!

If you are a student from Mongolia and would like more information about summer school, please contact us (info@morethanenglish.co.uk)  and we will put you in touch with Nyamka.

What is the most important ingredient for a high quality summer school?

We think the answer is very simple: it’s the staff.

Congratulations to all our staff for achieving the highest accreditation grade in our school inspection: Premier College Status.

We were delighted to have commendable grades in the following areas:

A. Premises and Health & Safety

B. Learning and Teaching: Course Delivery

C. Student Welfare

D. Management and Staff Resources

E. Quality Assurance and Enhancement

F. Marketing and Recruitment

Guilia from Venice (left) chose the PET ‘Get Ahead’ afternoon study option. Practice papers, grammar exercises, mock speaking exams: what was the result of all this hard work?

Guilia, who is only 12, took the Cambridge PET exam at the exam centre in Birmingham and passed.

We are so proud of you Guilia and we hope to see you on the FCE course in July 2016! Until then, keep working hard!

If you would like to know more about Intensive English options for your child this summer, contact us today: claire.norwood@morethanenglish.co.uk 

Hey there, summer schoolers! I have been a student here in More Than English for nearly 5 weeks. It has been a surprise-filled and challenging experience, but now, friends, I have been asked to do a blog about my first 3 weeks here that I spent, guess what, studying Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth”!

A while ago in my hometown there was this fair where international schools presented their school programmes for students all around the world. I met the More Than English team and they were very pleased to show me how their summer school stood-out from all the other schools. When the Director of Studies came to a point were he informed me about the Get Ahead options he mentioned the opportunity to study world wide known English play-write William Shakespeare. He told me that the Shakespeare course has wonderful advantages like enlarging the view of world, humans and their behaviour as well as completing your mind with knowledge about honourable man who has influenced the world and without him the world of English and English theatre would not be the same. I was very impressed with his presentation although I thought that I probably would choose a different course if my path went through the door of More Than English.

However, after a lot of deliberation i ended up choosing this summer school and the Shakespeare option. For many years my dream has been to become an actress that’s why my father encouraged me to explore my dream and at least study Shakespeare, so i could experience the reality of acting and move on without it.

Once classes had started I was a little worried that I wouldn’t understand anything because of the old English language. But as days passed I began to feel more and more comfortable with the teacher, the play and of course my classmate.

Our 3 week course concluded with a much dreaded essay, which ended up not being as hard as i imagined. I had learnt so much new vocabulary, many quotes that I use even today as well as expand my imagination and knowledge so that I would not refuse to do another course on this world wide famous person – William Shakespeare.

Elsa (15) from Latvia

Yesterday we woke up at 7:45 am and we had egg and toast for breakfast at 8:00 am. We had lessons at 9:00 am. After the lessons we had beef lasagne for lunch. After lunch we had tennis for 2 hours. We were all tired but… no time to sleep! It is time to play golf and benchball. We always play golf with a professional golf player. We love it! We had barbeque for dinner outside. Then we had a campfire by the lake. We ate some marshmallows that we had cooked in the fire and we had put in two chocolate biscuits. We had a lot of fun!

Jacopo from Italy