Are you ready for a photo challenge?
Participate by uploading up to three photos to bit.ly/mtephoto. Winning photos will get you house points and will be printed and featured in our gallery. The deadline is 10:00pm on Sunday, so get those cameras and smartphones ready!
Yesterday, lots of students arrived at our school. After having a nice rest, they’re all excited to join the others – in learning, making new friends, and of course, having fun!
Learning English actively is always challenging, so students were very hungry by lunchtime. They were happy to enjoy the most British meal there is – fish and chips!
When eating lunch, students are mixed up by nationatilites. Not only does it encourage them to meet new people from all around the world, but it also means they’ll be speaking English all day long.
In fact, they were getting along so well that it made the dining room a rather noisy place, but we certainly didn’t mind!
Third week started off with three fresh Get Ahead options – Shakespeare, Speech making, and Drama and Theatre.
Students could also pick some of the previously available options, such as Tennis, Football, and Golf.
Drama and theatre is all about practice and learning from your mistakes so our students got into action from day one.
In the evening, students got a choice on what they wanted to do. If they felt sporty, they could play cricket or benchball. On the other hand, crafts are great if you just want to unwind with your friends and make something nice.
Finally, it was time to go to the cinema. Last week, we watched Johnny English. We liked his humour, but when it’s really important you won’t talk to him – you’ll go to the new Men in Black film. So we did!
Thursdays bring new blood life to More Than English summer school, but at the same time we have to say goodbye to departing students who have completed their journey.
A big group leaves today, after spending the last two weeks at summer school. We wish them the best and hope to see them again. Also, we would love to keep hearing from them.
Summer school is a great way to make new friends. Plus, it’s so easy for teenagers to stay in touch afterwards thanks to technology. These connections might not be active at all times, but they are not dormant either. They are on stand-by and who knows what they can enable these friends to do in the future. Belonging to a worldwide network of connected friends definitely sounds very empowering in our age.
Lots of teenagers from nine countries joined us today. We welcome them all and wish them to make the most out of their experience at More Than English summer school.
An exciting week lies ahead, with new Get Ahead options, clubs, activities, trips and excursions. Are you ready for week 3?
Another Wednesday with two full-day excursions that help More Than English students get immersed in the English history, culture and language, as well as broaden their horizons.
Travelling is an amazing experience. Travelling with peers from other countries to Bath, a place with such a long history, going back more than two thousand years is a truly magical experience – a journey in time. The main attraction in Bath is the Roman Baths.
Incredible architecture that leaves you wondering how the Romans managed to build all this. Of course, there is some information about this inside the museum…
The other group visited the lively, modern, beautiful city of Liverpool. One of the most interesting places to visit is the Merseyside Maritime Museum, with an exhibition about the Titanic.
If you go to Liverpool you should definitely pay a visit to the Beatles Story.
After an incredible day, it’s time to get back to base, because tomorrow is a big day, with departures and arrivals. Can’t wait!
Today is a very, very, very special day at More Than English.
A day when we celebrate students’ efforts and a day when students really, truly step outside their comfort zone. Everyone is down at the local art deco cinema for a feast of entertainment. Ladies and gentlemen, take a seat, grab some pop-corn, make a *smoothie and settle down in your favourite armchair for THE BIG SHOW:
(*no added sugar version)
On the stage tonight:
First ladies and gentlemen, please give a huge round of applause for the greatest dancers the world has ever seen:
Next up, our feature film: The Alien Invasion
Rated PG
Warning: contains scenes of extreme comedy.
And now ladies and gentlemen, a feast for your eyes. This is the first year that we have had the pleasure of welcoming Greek students to More Than English, and so it gives us particular pleasure to present to you a drama inspired by the most eminent writers from ancient Greece: Homer, Herodotus, Sophocles and Virgil. Ladies and gentlemen, we present to you the story of The Troy War adapted for the stage by our so, so hardworking Activity Design Manager, Anna:
“I could never do that.”
Is this what you are thinking?
If so, we’d like you to think again.
Sitting in the audience and watching such an amazing show it’s easy for us in the audience to think that we could never do that. It’s easy to think “those people are so talented, I could never do that.”
At More Than English we prefer to talk about hard work and practice, NOT talent.
People are not born good at dance, acting, film making or anything else. People become good at something because of hard work and practice. Lots of practice. This is the basic idea behind “Growth Mindset”, which is the theory that every single one of us (yes, including you) can become good, very good at anything.
Read more about "Growth Mindset"
So, next year, it’s your turn.
Sometimes you don’t need words:
… Wasn’t that amazing? Let’s just say we are VERY, VERY PROUD of our young people. Thank you to all parents and students together with Activity Designer Manager Ania and Activity Designer Nerea who led on the organisation of this fantastic evening supported also by Emma and Beth.
Represented by our young ambassadors tonight at International Night:
Two companies have emerged. They’re both selling similar products. They are both staffed by determined teenager entrepreneurs, and they are BITTER RIVALS.
Team 1: led by the remarkable Daria from Romania, 12 years old with C1 English:
Team 2: Vitamin Oasis: with a horizontal management structure.
Daria’s team is selling smoothies with no added sugar apart from honey in their banana milkshake option.
In contrast, Vitamin Oasis are selling smoothies with Oreos blended in… Think about that name: “Vitamin Oasis”. What does it suggest to you…?
So, we have a team selling healthy products and a team selling drinks made with added sugar. Who do you think will sell the most? Should Vitamin Oasis be allowed to use a name which suggests health?
In the first Business lesson tomorrow the teams will review their sales of each product; make adjustments to their product range and meet the public for one final sales push.
The winning team will be the one which makes the most money. After that we hope that governments in every country will step in and impose legally binding regulations that ban the adding of sugar to smoothies.
Students and teachers spent the morning working hard in English lessons.
Ludlow is in beautiful countryside. But Birmingham the super cosmopolitan second city, is only just over one hour away. That means More Than English students can get the best of both worlds.
Birmingham, in the heart of the Midlands (central region of the UK) was an industrial powerhouse during the industrial revolution, but these days is probably better known for its fantastic universities including The University of Birmingham, currently ranked No 15 out of 140 in The Times) plus the biggest and perhaps one of the most modern and architecturally ambitious shopping centres in Europe.
Interesting: students always love the fun of going to the city. But, they always seem glad to arrive back home in their international community in their countryside palace: Moor Park.
In the evening our lovely students working in mixed nationality teams started preparation for International Night, which is tomorrow.
Shopping on summer school excursions: that's controversial, isn't it? Consumerism is destroying our planet (your planet) isn't it? Young people love fast fashion but shouldn't we avoid encouraging this altogether? In fact, shouldn't we be trying to reduce shopping time on excursions to zero? On the other hand, teenagers just really enjoy shopping and although with globalisation we're tending to get the same shops in every country, it is still exciting to visit shops in different countries. Let us know what you think: info@morethanenglish.co.uk
Today is the 50th Anniversary since the first person walked on the moon, and today our brave international adventurers of 2019 continue on their journey.
First rule of business:
“If it can go wrong, it will go wrong”
… which is why every entrepreneur needs to develop resilience and a problem solving mindset.
How do you start a business? This week, our young entrepreneurs are learning how to start a business from scratch (from the beginning).
It does not matter what business you start: the basic principles are the same. This week, the students are going to experience first hand all of these elements so that in the *future they will know how to start a business:
(*By ‘future’ we don’t mean in ten years’ time, we mean, when you get home. Many teens have started successful business. Read more.)
After all that hard work, it’s time to relax. But not toooo much.
Starting today… Club Time Drama (+swimming option + unihockey option).
This is not our official drama course, which is next week. This is just a Club Time activity, and Club Time means fun. Did you say “just” a Club Time activity?
Just a warning… never, never, never underestimate teenagers and that includes the Club Time drama crew: they’ll be in the theatre on stage on Tuesday, and we guarantee you’ll be “glued to your seats” in the theatre.
What is the subject of their drama? Well, here’s a clue:
We watched Johnny English – not only the greatest spy, but also the greatest teacher in the world, who gives House Points to his students in a very unique way…
The new week starts on Friday at More Than English summer school. do you find it weird? Well, perspective is everything, as Rory Sutherland says in his TED Talk. And besides, it doesn’t matter what day it is when you’re having so much fun every single day, right?
Dance Choreography is now in session, allowing teenagers to move more and impress us a lot with their amazing dance moves.
Ceramics kicked off today and it couldn’t be more hands-on! The students started their journey in arts and crafts by making clay birds. Aren’t they lovely?
For big fans of tennis and golf, these options are still being offered during the second week as well. How could we stop a teenager from mastering the perfect golf shot anyway?
This was an absolutely epic night for our students. Some of them had gone bowling before and some hadn’t. But even for the ones who had, this was the first time they went bowling together with other teenagers from 18 different countries. How cool is that?
Wednesday was excursion day. One group set out to London and another one to Manchester. That’s two excursions in parallel. Think of the logistics…
This is the biggest excursion of our summer school. Breakfast and lunch was already packed and we set off early for the big city.
A smaller group got dropped off at the British Museum. They really enjoyed it, especially the Egyptian mummies.
The second and larger group went on a boat cruise on the river Thames. That was so much fun.
We jumped on the boat at Tower Bridge and got off at Westminster, next to the Parliament and Big Ben, which – unfortunately – is covered up for repairs. Oh well…
We continued on foot, heading towards Piccadilly Circus, passing by 10 Downing str. No moving vans yet.
Eating out and doing shopping is always on the to-do list.
We walked for more than 7.5 miles. A healthy mind needs a healthy body, as the ancient Greeks said, right?
The flag on top of Buckingham Palace was up, which means that the Queen was in, but she was too busy to come and meet us. We waved anyway.
The group that went to Manchester enjoyed a more relaxed itinerary. Even though they probably got to walk less, they practised their penalty kicks at the Football Museum.
There are other things one can see at Manchester though. It’s such a lovely city!
You are now safe back at school and you can unfasten your seatbelt. There are more journeys up ahead, so get ready to do more.
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