British Study Centres News January - March 2010
Easter Programme at Ardingly College
Students from a wide range of countries including Germany, Thailand, Switzerland, Ukraine, Japan, Luxembourg, Belgium, Russia and France have arrived for BSC's Easter programme at Ardingly College in Sussex.
Over three weeks, youngsters will study English in the mornings and enjoy an exciting mix of sporting and creative activities in the afternoon, including canoeing, raft-building and tennis, as well as a fun-packed evening schedule including quizzes, fashion shows and talent contests. Students will have the chance to discover other parts of the UK on Wednesday and Saturday excursions and are sure to go home tired but happy, with great memories and new friends from every corner of the planet.
Whistlestop Tour for Junior Agents
Last week was a busy week for the Marketing and Junior Vacations teams with trips to the junior centres at Ardingly, Ascot and Cheltenham. Matt, June, Tim, Charles & Ayfer were joined by representatives from Business Communications Center (Uzbekistan), English for Life (Russia), LIBRA (Georgia), CILING (Portugal) and DUSE (Turkey).
In the midst of glorious sunshine (Ardingly and Ascot) and Gold Cup racing fever (Cheltenham) agents viewed the schools' excellent teaching, accommodation, dining and sporting facilities and got the opportunity to see for themselves the first-rate amenities on offer to their students, before rounding off a successful and jam-packed trip by enjoying a meal with the BSC Marketing Team.
BSC Staff at House of Commons Lobby
British Study Centres' Managing Director, Andrew Roper, Charles Pizzey and Paul Kimm from BSC Oxford (pictured above) and Roland Sharp from BSC Bournemouth, formed part of a 100-strong lobby group from English UK member schools who met with British Members of Parliament at the House of Commons today. The principal concern for British Study Centres and other UK schools is the recent decision by the UK government to raise the minimum entry level of English language for visa national students on long-term courses from A1 to B1 on the Common European Framework of Reference.
'This decision makes no sense at all,' commented Andrew Roper. 'The government is effectively telling visa national students that in order to study in the UK, they must already have a good standard of English. This is patently absurd. Students on long-term courses enter this country at a variety of levels from beginner to intermediate and they should be allowed to continue to do so. The government has put forward no logical or coherent argument for this new policy and we shall fight this until they reverse the decision.'
Member schools made a passionate plea at the meeting for the government to see sense on this matter. MP’s promised to request an urgent meeting with government Immigration Minister, Phil Woolas, to put forward the arguments made at today's lobby meeting and to try to get the decision overturned. We will keep you abreast of developments as they happen.
Happy Birthday, London!
BSC London celebrated its birthday in February and it's hard to believe we are now 6 years old! The changes have been incredible - we began with 2 floors and around 3 or 4 classes. We now operate over 4 floors, soon to be five, and when the fifth floor is finished in April the school will boast 24 English classrooms year round.
A big thank you to our wonderful teachers and student services teams, our marketing team, our international agents who represent us around the world and most importantly, you, the students. It is our pleasure to teach you and provide you with the best experience possible at BSC London. We hope to see you here in the future to join the fun. Here is our customary photograph of some of our team celebrating our birthday with a glass of wine and our usual pose. We need two hands now for 6 fingers!!!
BSC Students Make the Small Screen
British Study Centres made an appearance on TV last week. The BBC world service, Turkey visited the school to meet some of our students and to report on the recent changes made to visas for students studying in the UK. The report was shown in Turkey and can be viewed here.
The report is in Turkish but basically focuses on the new visa system in the UK.
New Face for Marketing
We are delighted to welcome Adrian Liley who joins our marketing department as Market Development Manager. Adrian has over 30 years experience of the English language teaching industry and is a well-known figure in the sector and popular and regular speaker on the conference circuit.
In a varied career Adrian has taught English in Japan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UK for the British Council, various governments and private language schools; and marketed for schools such as Embassy, Regent, Regency and more recently, International House London. For the last 7 years Adrian has run his own company, Asiaquest, based in Suzhou, China, successfully promoting over 50 universities, colleges and schools worldwide to agents in Asia. Adrian will spearhead our marketing activities in Asia.
Brighton School Rule Raises £72 for Charity
The students at British Study Centres in Brighton have collected a grand total of £72 for human rights charity Amnesty International! There is a school rule that English must be spoken at all times both in class and around the school. If students are heard speaking in any other language they are given a 'yellow card'. If they are heard again, they are given a 'red card', and have to donate at least 50p to charity.
Students voted and have chosen 'Save the Children' as the new charity for 2010. Let's hope we raise even more money this year!
Head Office & Marketing: 2nd Floor, 37 Duke Street, London W1U 1LN Tel: +44 (0)207 487 9030 Fax: +44 (0)207 487 9051 Email: send us a message
British Study Centres School of English is a member of British Study Centres Group, which, in addition to the Schools of English, consists of two vocational colleges: West London College and Hove College.
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