What is Summer School like at Summer Boarding Courses? Week 2
Summer School Week 2
Week 2 of our 6 weeks of Summer School across 5 campuses has just come to an end and what a fantastic and varied week it has been! Both SBC Oxford and Headington Oxford opened its doors whilst SBC at Eton College wrapped up. We also had plenty of exciting excursions, lessons and activities happening throughout the week.
Read on to discover the highlights of Week 2 across Summer Boarding Courses!
To give you a deeper insight into what happens across our 5 campuses each Summer, we will be highlighting our favourite moments across our 6 weeks with weekly roundups.
This week SBC Oxford and Headington Oxford opened its doors to its first cycle of students. Want to know a little more about each Summer School? Here’s a quick summary for you.
SBC Oxford is at the world-renowned Dragon School in Oxford; one of the UK’s top Prep Schools
Ideal for young learners aged 8-12 years old, students receive 15 hours of tuition per week and have a choice between two academic courses, General English or Junior Summer Study.
In the afternoons and evenings, students enjoy a varied and fun multi-activity programme, with a range of exciting activities. Students can also choose English Plus+ options, to replace the multi-activity programme, on two afternoons per week for an additional cost.
Located at Headington School; one of the UK’s top boarding schools, Headington Oxford Summer School is open for students aged 13-16.
Students receive 15 hours of English tuition per week and can choose between our General English, Summer Study, Global Young Leaders or SBC Coding courses.
Social and wellbeing time is just as important in the afternoons and evenings too.
Students enjoy a varied and fun multi-activity programme and can also choose English Plus+ options, to replace the multi-activity programme, on two afternoons per week for an additional cost.
As always, plenty of fantastic lessons, activities and excursions have been happening across our 5 campuses. Let’s take a look at the highlights of this week.
Medicine and Natural Sciences students from Oxford College took an excursion into London on Monday to visit The Centre of the Cell on the Whitechapel Campus of Queen Mary University of London.
This science education centre is the first in the world located within working biomedical research laboratories. Students were thrilled to take a peek down into the laboratories to see real scientists at work before stepping into ‘The Pod’!
Did you know we have around 260 different cells in our bodies and are made up of 70,000,000,000,000 of them?
Students learnt this and many more amazing facts in The Pod; a really fascinating and funky learning space suspended above the laboratories. Inside, there’s many interactive games (based on the current ongoing research here) that the students immersed themselves in.
Amongst the games you can explore a cell, the ethical issues related to cloning technology and work on helping to solve problems that affect cells including cancer, HIV and tuberculosis.
You’ll also find real body parts here to learn more about how disease can affect us; including half a brain, half a human heart and a pair of kidneys!
After spending time in The Pod, students took part in an interactive workshop to learn more about DNA, genes and diseases. It was a really informative and active day.
This Summer, we are very happy to welcome Eton College to our choice of campuses across the UK. Students have been enjoying their time at SBC at Eton College very much. On Thursday students presented their Time to Shine presentations and showcased a wonderful variety of learning and skills!
At SBC at Eton College you have the choice to study 4 different subjects:
Students presented some excellent ideas in conjunction with their subject of study! Maths taught us about codes and riddles and how to solve them. General English created an app for friendship and made an excellent short film about it. Science taught us about volcanoes and rockets! Last but not least, Humanities presented an excellent trial with the audience watching as a jury to solve the mysterious murder of Bob Bobson!
This week we are putting our spotlight on Alex; a teacher who is passionate about Humanities and being able to teach such a varied and exciting syllabus at SBC at Eton College this year.
This is what he had to say…
‘The wonderful thing about the Humanities course is that we have a taste of different subjects throughout the 2 weeks. We start studying Philosophy and Ethics then go straight into History. These two subjects help us shape the direction of the rest of the course. We go on to look at Literature, Law and we’re now just finishing Politics.
This course is a bridge for students to pursue their interests in the fields that appeal the most to them and it is a very satisfying course to teach!
The moment that stands out to me from this course was the very first day. We were looking at some lateral thinking puzzles and what I consider to be the hardest of them was solved by the youngest member of our class. She very casually suggested the answer and everyone was stunned into silence. It was a magical moment!’
We caught up with two of our students to find out how they feel about their two weeks studying at Eton College with Summer Boarding Courses.
‘Summer School has been brilliant! I have always wanted to see what Eton is really like, but I was slightly dreading it because I thought it would be boring. However, the teachers are really nice and patient with us and we have learnt a lot.
I have particularly enjoyed studying the Philosophy module in SBC Humanities. I’m interested in studying it further.
My advice is to be friendly to everybody and speak to as many people as you can to make friends.
SBC in one word to me is: fantastic!’
‘I came to Eton College because I wanted to see what Boarding Courses in the UK are really like. Eton College is an obvious choice as it’s so reputable. I really recommend coming here if you want to see what studying in the UK is like.
I really enjoyed the Law element of Humanities. I was able to find out the structure of the British Law system and how the courtroom works. It can be different from country to country. In the future I think I want to be a lawyer. If I had to describe SBC in one word it would be – rewarding!’
My advice is to bring two carry-ons instead of one suitcase when you come here to make your transfer as smooth and as easy as possible’.
Our youngest students have been settling into their Summer School this week and what better way than with some fun and games in the afternoon?
Students have plenty of activities to choose from including art, football, outside party games, badminton and drama workshops to name just a few!
Students were also able to see an excellent performance of The Wizard of Oz in the evening put on by a professional theatre group. A lot of fun was had with plenty of opportunities to learn more English and practice it together.
Have you played Ninja? It requires quick thinking and reflexes and is an excellent game for students to get to know and have fun with each other.
To play, you have to avoid your hand being touched by the ‘ninjas’ around you. If a ninja touches you, you’re out! If you are the last one standing, you win.
Everybody starts in a tight circle to begin with. Then, the activity leader counts to three and everybody jumps back into a ninja pose. Be creative and create your own ninja persona!
Going counter-clockwise, one-by-one, students take a turn to ‘attack’ and try and touch the opponent’s hand next to them in one ninja move. The person next to them must react to avoid this attack by doing one ninja move too. Whether missing, successfully hitting or avoiding, only a single Ninja move is permitted and both must stay frozen in that pose.
Have fun!
Dancing a traditional cèilidh is always something our students are a little unsure of first. They usually ask, ‘What is a cèilidh?’ You might be asking the same thing too!
A cèilidh in its simplest form is a Scottish or Irish social gathering. These days, it can also involve lots of fantastic dancing along to Gaelic folk music! We bring in the live band and dance instructor, and our students get to learn the routines so that they can dance together.
It is a lot of traditional fun and opens up even more cultural experiences to our students.
Oh we do like to be beside the seaside, but in true British fashion this week, it just so happened to be windy and raining on our excursion day to the beach.
As you can see below, we didn’t let it put us off. Despite the wind and rain, we persevered and made it on to the seafront!
We also enjoyed some free time shopping and buying some souvenirs to take home, as well as spending an afternoon indoors playing adventure golf!
If you haven’t played ‘crazy golf’ before, we recommend you give it a try! You play different holes throughout a themed course and naturally, being indoors, the course is a lot smaller than if you were outside.
We ventured our way through futuristic lands and retro scenes to appear triumphant at the end. What a game!
‘Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world’
Harriet Tubman
