Here at Buckswood Overseas Summer School (BOSS), we don’t only run our seven week summer camp for kids and teens during the English school summer holidays, we also run a course for three weeks during the Easter holidays which is called the Spring Course.
We have had a lot of students and staff who have experienced both our Spring Course and our Summer School who when asked, ‘what is the Spring Course like?’ will quite simply answer. ‘It’s the same as Summer School. But different,’ and they’re right. Our Spring Course offers exactly the same programme and benefits as our Summer School and if you have read our blog ’10 Reasons Why Kids and Teenagers Should Study at Buckswood Overseas Summer School,’ you will know what some of these benefits are, but still, what makes our Spring Course different? Well…
1. It is cheaper than summer school
Everybody knows that things are more expensive when demand is high. Take trains for example, they are a lot more expensive during rush hour and flights are a lot more expensive during holidays. It is the same with our courses.
As mentioned before, our Summer School falls during not only the English school summer holidays, but also what seems to be the school summer holidays all around the world. Therefore, demand is very high during these summer months. Our Spring Course however falls during a time when not many countries around the world have holidays so demand during this period is not as high so our course is cheaper so as to try and attract more students. Therefore, if you come to our Spring Course, you will save £165 per week.
2. The weather is colder than during the summer
You might be wondering why we are even mentioning this so I will tell you why. You might not believe this but during the summer here in the UK, it can be hot. So hot in fact that our students constantly complain that they are too hot! Summer 2018 was so hot in fact that we had students from Saudi Arabia, where the weather can be over 50°C (122°F) in summer, complaining that they were too hot!
We don’t have this problem during the spring when the average high temperature in the UK is 12°C (54°F) and the average low temperature is 4°C (39°F) so take advantage of this cool weather and enjoy it while you can!
(Disclaimer: it might be cold outside during spring but we have good heating at BOSS so it is hot inside!)
3. Our Spring Course is more intimate
During the summer, we typically have 200 students per week but during the spring we typically have less than 100. This means that students are able to get to know each other much better and the staff to student ratio is usually higher offering our students more opportunities to interact and practise their spoken English. We believe that the opportunity to participate in English conversation with staff is the best way to learn English. As well as offering our students the chance to speak English fluently and confidently, it also helps them to develop their social skills and broaden their minds (and ours) through the conversations that they are having.
4. The overall level of English is higher
Most students who attend our Spring Course are bi-lingual and already speak English fluently. This is because we usually have students from bi-lingual schools in Bangkok, Thailand and from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates where the first language is English. This means that English is very much the common language of the course.
5. There are less tourists in London and other cities that we will visit
What does this mean? It means that there is less traffic on the roads so we can get to places faster. It means that there are less people getting in the way on the streets so we can move faster and spend more time sightseeing. It means that there are very few people at tourist attractions such as the London Eye, the Tower of London or Christ Church College in Oxford, so since the queues are small we have fast track entry. Basically, we can be more relaxed and take our time!
So, can’t wait for summer? Then don’t! Join us in the spring when our Spring Course will run from the 31st March to the 20th April in 2019 with arrival days on the 31st March and the 7th April.
This blog post was written by Neil McLoughin, Director of Buckswood Overseas Summer School (BOSS). BOSS is a British Council accredited language school for students aged 8 to 17 from across the globe. To find out more, please visit www.buckswoodsummerschool.com or contact us here.