Vacational Studies International English Summer Schools
 

4 week, multinational residential English Language Summer School: a Course for 10-17 year-olds during the school summer holidays in 2011 - a camp every summer since 1972...

The Mary Hare School

13 July - 10 August 2011

   
 

Latest News: Updated: 03/09/2010 by Ian Mucklejohn - Director, Vacational Studies)

  • 2011 dates are Wednesday 13 July - Wednesday 10 August 2011.  The Course comprises 4 Houses of ±50 students per House.  The Houses are Cheam, Mary Hare, Hawtreys and Douai, all on The Mary Hare campus.  The Course Fee is £3100.  For provisional information about 2011 which will be updated, please see 2011 on IGM's Page.  The 2011 web site will be launched on 8 September with full details of changes for 2011.  Until then, this 2010 site is now just a building site - under construction.  We have a provisional 2011 application form at http://www.vacstuds.com/application_form.htm for those who wish to ensure a place at the House of their choice by applying now before full details are published.
  • 'Vacational Studies 2010 All Over Again' DVDs for Mary Hare and Cheam will be available from 15 September.  Click for the memo to order a copy.

  • Reports and leaving certificates for both Schools have been posted.  Please let me know if yours does not arrive.
  • Mary Hare class videos and Cheam class videos are ready for viewing.
  • Students from 2010 are going to VacStuds on Facebook and leaving their messages there.
  • The winners of the 'Making an ideal student process' ipads were Juanpe Serna from Spain and Alice Stål from Sweden.  Please see Making the ideal international student on IGM's Page for a rationale about this new part of the Vacational Studies experience, introduced in 2010, which will be continued in 2011.
  • Photos and video clips of Mary Hare and Cheam can be seen by clicking 'Photos 2010' above or by clicking here.

  • The £:€ rate today is £1 = €1.2308.

  • I have written about the very different way we teach English on our Courses.  Take a look at Teaching English the VacStuds Way on IGM's Page.  We use English as a working language to complete a task (the creation of a class video), so coming to this summer school is not going from school back to school.
  • Applications for 'Staff Helper' posts in 2011 are invited.
  • For 2010, we introduced a new Teacher Development Programme for those teachers who wished to participate.  To ensure that our senior staff are well-qualified and to keep up-to-date with the latest developments in English teaching, Vacational Studies has financed two more teachers on DELTA courses.  Karen Damianou and Emma Whitehouse have their DELTA qualification and were Senior Teachers at Mary Hare and Cheam.  Chloe Huelamo will be on a DELTA course in 2011.  Joe Wallis (who was Senior Teacher at Mary Hare last summer) completed his DELTA in 2009 was the Director of Studies.  Tom Goodwin was Course Manager at Mary Hare again.  Mike Sutton (new to VacStuds) was CM at Cheam.
  • We have a few spare copies of the DVD 'VacStuds 2009 All Over Again'.

  • The Mary Hare and Cheam class films and movie clips and photos of Summer 2009 have not disappeared.  They can be viewed by clicking here.

  • In 2007 we passed our four-yearly British Council Inspection and our Accreditation continues for another four years. Read the 'Publishable Statement' online ('Publishable Statements L-Z').

 

 

 

 

 
English Language Course - Apply Now! On 8 September our new site is set to be launched.  A provisional 2011 application form exists on this current site.
  What life is like on our Courses:
Go Two videos: one on social life; one on our new teaching style.
Click here to view the videos.
Children Summer School Video
Go2 All you need to know about VacStuds
Go3 VacStuds on Facebook
Go4 Follow VacStuds on Twitter

Fun at Vacational Studies

Swimming at Vacational Studies

English Summer School

Sports day  at VacStuds

 

English UK member Accredited by the British Council
   
 
  © Copyright 2010 Vacational Studies | Written by Ian Mucklejohn | Developed by InForm | Design by Lillington Green
   
 


Vacational Studies Residential English Language Summer Courses 2011

4 week Summer Boarding Schools in England in 2010 for Boys and Girls aged 10-17.  Hereunder the text for 2010:-

Residential UK English Language Courses - Holiday Summer Course in Great Britain

In 1972, Ian Mucklejohn founded Vacational Studies Residential Junior Vacation Courses which have been running for 37 years under his aegis for teenagers and those a little younger. Vacational Studies combines a great holiday with plenty of sports and activities with a task-based English teaching programme to make this 'the investment that can never devalue'. Here is our British Council Accredited Residential English Language Course (Summer School) programme in the United Kingdom for Summer 2010.

English Language Summer School Accredited by The British Council

Vacational Studies is a UK English Language Course Accredited by The British Council. It is a residential Summer School in England in which young people have an enjoyable time both learning the world's language - English - and growing up. For children, a residential English Summer Course is a developmental experience and it is important to make an informed choice. As Vacational Studies is ‘Accredited by The British Council’, it qualifies as for membership of English UK - formerly ARELS (The Association of Recognised English Language Services) - a professional body, membership of which is granted only after rigorous inspection by The British Council and re-inspection every four years. Vacational Studies was last inspected in 2007 and is Accredited as an English Language School until March 2012. Vacational Studies is an Educational Establishment on the UK Government's DfES (Department for Education and Science) Education Providers' Register.  It is also authorised by the UK Borders Agency to request student visas.

About this website

On this site we describe our English Language Course; our English Boarding Summer School; our United Kingdom 'summer camp' for 10 to 17 year-olds. The photos show many of the summer activities, fun, friendship, sports and enjoyable learning experiences that are part of our Summer English Course for youngsters. There is an overview of the work we do, in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, so you can decide if our English Language Course in Great Britain is right for your child. We also include a description of what happened in the summer of 2009. It is written in a different style so you have an idea of the Director, Ian Mucklejohn, and his personality which necessarily influences the atmosphere on the Courses. It gives a more detailed rationale of the 2010 Courses and what has shaped them, so you and your son or daughter will be fully informed and can prepare for the experience. If your application is accepted, both sections are essential reading. Our Courses at The Mary Hare School are English Language Courses for teenagers from all over the world so the later section ('Unrealisable Expectations') is important as it deals with fundamental issues.  Take a look at 'IGM's page', too.

What we try to do

More than a respected, accredited and well-established Junior Vacation Summer English Course for youngsters to learn the English language, Vacational Studies tries to create a totally international Summer School with young people from as many different countries as possible. We avoid accepting a large number from any particular country. In this way we try to ensure that English is the main medium of communication among the students. The teaching is special, too.  It is designed to be quite different from the teaching in the student's own school.  Our 2010 teaching programme exploits the international nature of the Course.  We use a 'task-based' system in which students and their teacher create a film script. This is the basis for the written work. The students then take parts as actors and film crew and film the script. They then work as a team to edit the film and upload it onto Shutterfly. By working together in English and using English as a living language, we hope our students will realise better its importance and value. Our students want to use English to make friends. This element of self-motivation greatly increases their fluency. To learn English, summer activities, sports, social events and fun happen all the time. The emphasis on the practical use of English is combined with a full sports, entertainment and excursion programme helping youngsters to learn English internationally in an exciting and lively English Summer School.

Residence

Our English Language Summer Courses for young people are fully residential. Students eat, sleep and have classes in the Schools.  We use The Mary Hare School, Chieveley, near Newbury.  Newbury is about one hour from London and 30 minutes from Oxford in the centre of the south of England. We do not use host families. All our staff are checked for suitability.

The Students

We accept boys and girls near-beginners, intermediate and more advanced students aged 10 to 17 worldwide. Complete beginners are not accepted because they cannot participate in an international community. The Courses are sports-orientated and encourage good social development for teenagers in a community situation.

Students who will benefit from our Summer School

The information on this site will help you make sure that our special English Language Course is suitable for your child. Those who will benefit and we enjoy having with us will be internationally-minded, interested in English, outgoing, gregarious and able to function independently. They will also be willing to accept the constraints of community living.

How they will benefit

We hope that our students will learn a great deal of English, make good friendships and develop a positive international feeling. As well as formal study, we concentrate on the holiday aspect of the Course. While we try to involve students in all activities, we naturally respect the wishes of those who like to read quietly or be with friends. Over the years, we have built up an excellent reputation with parents and young people all over the world. We have a list of parental references. Many boys and girls spend several summers with us renewing old friendships and making new ones. Most students come to us on personal recommendation. The numbers on each of our English Language Courses are deliberately kept quite small so that the staff can get to know everybody and treat each young person as an individual. Many of the children who came to us in the 1970s are now sending their own children so they can have the same international experience with the feeling of independence in a safe and secure environment. Former students of any age can keep in contact via 'Giotto' or our Facebook site. Those aged 19-22 may consider becoming a 'Staff Helper' in the summer of 2011.  Staff Helper places will be allocated on 1 March 2011.