Frequently Asked
Questions

English Country Schools, or ECS for short, is a British Council accredited English language teaching organisation. Our primary focus is running a residential English summer school in the UK for international children and teenagers. We also offer online teaching.

Our English summer camp takes in England, UK. We combine formal lessons, educational workshops and a full activity programme in a safe and beautiful countryside location. Through all these activities, our pupils improve their English and develop personally.

Our organisation specialises in teaching young people under the age of 18, and we have a strong focus on holistic learning, engaging with nature, sustainability and environmental responsibility.

In beautiful countryside at Port Regis School near Shaftesbury in Dorset in the south of England about 2 hours from London. We also run a one-week adventure camp that takes place in a camp site next to the sea on the Dorset south coast. More information here

Some people may need a visa to join our residential English summer camp, but if you don't need a visa to visit the UK, you will need an ETA — an Electronic Travel Authorisation.

For further information, please see our visa advice page here.

We discourage this. However if you wish to accompany your child on the transfer coach, please note:

• Only one adult per family
• Cost is GBP 50 each way
• The journey to the school takes about two hours
• If there are more parents who wish to travel than we have seats available, the parents of the youngest children will have priority

Flights sometimes arrive early or late so we cannot be sure of having places for parents and we cannot arrange additional coaches just so that parents can travel. If we cannot provide a transfer for you (we will of course have places for your children) you will need to decide whether you wish to say goodbye to your children at the airport or arrange a taxi to come to the school. However you travel to the school, remember you will need to get back again!

Our summer school takes place very summer, for up to 4 weeks. For up-to-date information, please see this page.

We are pleased to offer discounts to a maximum of 15% per child as follows:

• Siblings attending together: 10% each
• Returning students: 10%
• New student referral: 5% each
• Online students with ECS: 5%

More information here.

Our courses are normally completely full. If we accept some students for less than the full course (see course dates) this leaves places empty which would otherwise be filled by full fee-paying students. This is not economical for us.

Furthermore, the course is conceived as a whole, with a beginning, a middle and an end. For example, a lot of the work that students do in the morning classes and workshops comes together in an end-of-course performance. This helps to make sense of the whole experience for the students.

Finally, students on a residential course make very close friendships: when they leave early this can have a demoralising effect on the other students. For these reasons we do not accept students for less than the full period of each course.

We organise classes for each age group at a variety of levels ranging from Beginner to Advanced. We ask parents to estimate their child's ability in the Booking Form, which gives us an initial idea of placement. We also assess each child's level of English on the first teaching day of the course after they have had time to rest from travelling.

There is generally a correlation between age and ability: the younger students tend to be in the lower ability classes, older students tend to be in the higher ability classes. Where this is not the case - for example a young student with very good English, or an older student with limited English - we ask parents to decide whether they wish their child to be placed by age or by ability. 

All pupils are tested on arrival and are placed in the best class for their age and level of English. Our aim on all courses is to provide motivating content which will make learning English exciting and fun and make maximum use of the multinational situation in an English countryside setting. We firmly believe that attending our courses results in substantially improved English and positive educational/social development which will be reflected in better test results generally.

We don't want to 'teach to the test' in our general English classes and workshops. However, pupils aged 11+ who wish to gain an internationally recognised qualification to prove their attainment in speaking and listening in English can choose to attend our separate Trinity GESE academic workshop and exam. This can help to motivate them to mix and speak English among the various nationalities on the course, to everyone's benefit.

Yes. Often students who speak good English still need to improve their writing, spelling, grammar, etc. The workshop choices on our courses for pupils aged 11+ (drama, digital photography, grammar and pronunciation, creating a course journal, poetry, etc.) are highly motivating and allow students to concentrate on particular interests and areas of weakness.

ECS is about much more than just learning English: all pupils benefit by participating in a variety of sports and activities with their peers from other countries and cultures. They have a great holiday and become more internationally minded, self-confident and independent.

Our experience is that this is counterproductive. Remember that all pupils continue to use and practise their English among the many different nationalities on the course during sports, social activities and free time.

We do, however, offer a service called 'English Focus' that aims to identify linguistic strengths and weaknesses in order to help a pupil to get the most from attending the course. Please see further information here.