With more and more high schools in the UK developing their own ELT facilities and international study centres to support international students on full-time courses, many are finding that they have the facilities to cater for short-term language students too. A number of short-term courses are now available for international students wanting to either experience a taste of life in a UK high school or improve their academic English skills in preparation for more long-term study goals, and schools are becoming particularly innovative in their offerings.
Hazel Ormrod from Padworth College in Reading says that their short-term language programmes were developed to improve the English skills of students about to embark on A-level courses. “We have offered short-term courses for international students for more than 30 years,” says Ormrod. “We offer both language holiday courses during the Easter and summer holidays for students aged nine-to-16 and throughout the academic year for students aged 11-to-16 and intensive, general and academic English for students aged 13-to-19.”
Many of the short-term courses offered by high schools in the UK, including those offered during the summer holidays, incorporate both academic and language tuition, and this sets them apart from the courses offered by the UK’s popular language school sector. At Royal Russell School in Croydon on the outskirts of London, where international students can undertake a semester-long programme during the academic year, Mary King emphasises, “The course is not a specialist language course, it is part of the normal English curriculum with extra language support.”
At d’Overbroecks College in Oxford, international students can take part in a whole range of short-term programmes, from language and activity camps in the summer to semester-long programmes during the academic year, although Jessica Whiskin at the college points out that most of their short-term students have longer-term academic goals. “Many of the students who choose to come on our summer programme are students who will be continuing on to do either GCSEs or A-levels with us from September,” she says.
The college has developed its academic English programme, however, to appeal to a wide variety of students. “We work around a weekly theme so that the language taught arises naturally from the subject content,” explains Helen Wood, Head of Esol at the school, who adds that the approach is “ideal for ambitious learners who will use English in their school or university education, but has proved a real hit with short holiday course students as well”.
According to schools, the largest nationalities on their short-term academic courses tend to be from Europe. Katja von Schweitzer from St Mary’s Hall in Brighton notes a French and German bias to enrolments due to the fact that such courses “fit with their educational systems”.
However, at Padworth College, Ormrod reveals a more varied nationality mix among the students
on their short-term courses and points to a widening spread of interest into new student markets. “In recent years, we have seen more students [enrolling] from the Middle East and the up-and-coming eastern European states,” she confirms.
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