Course Programme

Don't just learn English – live it !

3-week course: Sun 30/07 - Sun 20/08 

“There’s a different point of view awaiting you, if you just look up.”

Jack – Mary Poppins Returns

Each challenge also offers a teachable moment. If you find yourself faced with a challenging situation, figure out what you can learn from it. See challenges as platforms for growth.  When you change your point of view, your experiences will change with it.  

Students will live and learn throughout our programme. The 3-week course offers many educational, creative, sportive and team building activities and participants will learn English on their way towards independence alongside P.L. Travers famous Mary Poppins stories. Literature is a great key when learning a language and immersing oneself into a foreign world or culture as it contains the country’s history and an immaculate language to broaden the students’ vocabulary. Following our 2023 theme, Mary Poppins, the programme offers active and creative drama sessions during which students will work in four different groups, able to decide whether they would like to act, craft fancy costumes, create the play’s stage and stage props, or make music. There will be drama sessions each week, theatrically interpreting the SLS theme and working towards a presentation for the day of the Final Closing Ceremony in the end of the 3-week-course. Many great trips and sportive as well as creative activities will help students to improve their English language skills, get to know the British culture and the international group.

Following Mary Poppins’ footsteps and the stories' adventures, the students will join an Art Workshop focused on Sidewalk drawing. Throughout the workshop, they will be creating exciting Street-Art that one wishes to become part of through jumping into the image. Throughout a Craft Workshop students will be working on a Mary Poppins handbag with unlimited abilities in small activity groups.​

One of the highlights of this year’s Summer Language School is a sleepover at school on the first course weekend. All students will either be camping in our roomy canvas bell tents on the large school fields or will be accommodated in one of our new school buildings, if the weather isn’t suitable for camping out. The building is surrounded by the school’s fields and the school’s large vegetable garden as well as a small woodland with a fire pit, ideal for campfire evenings. The building has a large and fully equipped kitchen as well as girls’ and boys’ toilets and showers. Boys and girls will be allocated to separate tents or rooms and a team of experienced adults will be supervising the international group at all times. During the camp weekend, the group will enjoy optional Slack Lining­–not as high up as on roof tops, but in our lush and soft green school fields–and Kite-Making activities. Students will be able to explore the magical surroundings through outings to the nearby River Dart and an afternoon trip to Dartmoor National Park, which is historical habitat and an ideal place to immerse oneself in British history and heritage. You can even see some of the famous Dartmoor ponies there. One of the adventurous camp days will be closed with a Grand Family Group Dinner. Supervised by our chef and camp supervisors the group will be planning and preparing a majestic multiple-course menu for supper, using vegetables and fruits from the ample school garden. The camp evenings will be spent around cosy campfires, singing songs, making music and celebrating an exciting outdoor movie night. The camp weekend is a great opportunity to live the foreign language and to spend time with international friends - the students simply love it!

Britain is full of culture and traditions which have been around for hundreds of years. Our active course will not only help students to improve their language skills, but also increase their understanding of British culture and traditions. Students will discover British traditional foods during the camp’s British Group Cooking session and participate in a Cream Tea Cooking workshop.

During the 3-week course, the students will enjoy walks in local places of natural beauty, including Dartmoor National Park and the South Devon coast. We will visit Looe, a characteristic and charming Cornish fishing village, spend an afternoon in the cultural nearby Exeter and explore stunning beaches on the beautiful South Devon heritage coast. The programme further offers creative crafting and art activities as well as exciting sport challenges such as Outdoor Rock Climbing, Archery, High Ropes and Zip Lining. The students will experience a beach barbeque and cook pizza in the school’s onsite outdoor kitchen.

Most evenings will be spent with the host family to experience daily British life and practice the spoken word. Some evenings, students will meet up for an evening canoe trip on the beautiful river Dart which will include a barbecue!

One of the greatest highlights of the course is the trip to London. We will visit London for 2 nights and 3 days during the Summer Language School 2023. London is one of the most culturally vibrant cities in the world. Following the literary thread, the group will join a Street Art Tour through London, hopefully discovering Mary along their way, join an evening walk and boat trip along the river Thames and visit great sites of interest. Some hours will be free for individual activities in small groups of friends. Students will be able to visit ​attractions, maybe one of the many free museums in London, walk alongside the river front, go shopping or just enjoy the flair of the city. A London Transport Travelcard will be provided which will allow the students to use buses and underground (Tube) trains. The London trip will be on the last weekend of the course. All students will depart from London on Sunday 16th August.