We have 3 residential courses, for 7 - 10, 11 - 14 and 14 - 17 year olds, located in Port Regis School near Shaftesbury in Dorset in the south of England about 2 hours from London.
We have a new, separate course for teenagers 14 - 17 that takes place in the town of Cheltenham in the west of England, about 2 hours from London.
We have some limited self-catering accommodation at Port Regis for parents of the youngest children (7 - 10 year olds) who want to stay near their child. This accommodation is available for a minimum of one week. We will be happy to provide details of other local accommodation for parents dropping off or collecting children from the schools. If you do not intend to live on campus at Port Regis we do not recommend that you live locally while your child is at the school: experience suggests that this is counterproductive. For further information, please read our advice document Homesickness: how you can help
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 general educational / social development which will eventually be reflected in better test results across the board.
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 qulaification to prove their attainment in speaking and listening in English can choose to attend our separate Trinity GESE academic workshop and exam. This could help to motivate them to mix and speak English among the various nationalities on the course, to everyone's benefit.
We are pleased to offer a discount of up to 10% per child as follows:
Returnees: 10%
Siblings: 10%
Extended family (eg. cousins): 5%
Friends attending together: 5%
We discourage this. However if you wish to accompany your child on the free transfer coach please note:
- Only one adult per family
- Children are not allowed to sit on the parent’s lap
- Transfer coaches leave at approximately 13:30 and 16:30 and 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: for this reason we cannot be sure that we will have 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. If you come to the school by taxi remember you will need to get back again!