A Country School

ECS was established over 30 years ago to give children and teenagers a wonderful holiday learning English in the English countryside. 

At that time we were called The English Country School and later English Country Schools. Most people today know us as ECS. Encouraging our pupils to enjoy and explore the natural environment remains a key part of what we do.

Our courses take place in an extensive and very beautiful rural campus, with woodland, ponds, even a small river in the school grounds. This provides a green and healthy backdrop for a wide variety of outdoor sporting, social and educational activities.

We arrange language-learning activities for pupils to help them better observe and appreciate the world around them. Attractive, engaging classroom materials from National Geographic are supplemented by out-of-class activities such as nature studies and a digital photography workshop that help pupils to focus on the beauty of their surroundings.

We also take walks and other excursions into the surrounding countryside, for example to the Jurassic coast of Dorset; and our technology-free English through Adventure camp takes pupils back to nature in a very beautiful location by the sea.

We have put in place a series of measures to mitigate the impact of our courses on the environment. You can read more about our commitment to environmental responsibility here.

We hope that after a happy, healthy holiday in the fresh air of the English countryside pupils will return home not only happy, healthy and with improved English but also with a deeper connection to the natural world.

You can see some of the countryside locations for ECS over the years here