What is Summer School like at Summer Boarding Courses? Week 6
Week 6 Summer School
This is it! Week 6 has come to an end and this final round-up post is concluding six weeks of amazing Summer experiences this year at Summer Boarding Courses. What is Summer School really like at SBC? Join us for the final highlights of Summer 2019 right here.
This final week was full of mixed feelings! Our students have been absolutely amazing this year. it is always so rewarding for us to see students, who can arrive homesick and nervous, leave feeling confident and thriving in their English abilities.
Whether students decide to stay with us for 2, 4, 5 or 6 weeks, we see transformations within a couple of days. We’re proud of all of you!
This week’s highlights include excursions in London, Oxford and Thorpe Park, a special afternoon with world-class freestyle footballer Jamie Knight and of course, Oxford College’s Time to Shine and graduation ceremony.
Time to Shine is a unique time that we cherish at Summer Boarding Courses. Every Sunday at Oxford College, Headington Oxford, Canford School and SBC at Eton College, students have the chance to accumulate their knowledge and lessons from the week and present them to their peers.
Time to Shine is so beneficial because it allows the students to practice teamwork, build upon their speaking skills, learn how to deliver an excellent presentation and also find out what their peers have been up to in other subjects.
Students spend time each week preparing for their special moment on Sundays. Find out how the presentations went this final week further down in the article.
We love showing our capital city to our international students. For quite a few of our students, their time with us throughout Summer is their first time in Europe, let alone it being their first time in the UK!
We make sure to provide various experiences in London. This can include visiting some of our most world-famous museums, venturing through our beautiful parks, experiencing the best shopping streets, eating fun food and sometimes seeing a show in the theatre in the West End.
This week, Oxford College students had the opportunity to visit the Natural History Museum.
Completed in 1881 after 8 years of construction, there is plenty to see in what is one of London’s most iconic landmarks. It has 70 million botanical items, 55 million animal exhibits, nine million archaeological relics and 500,000 rocks and minerals. If only we could have stayed there all day!
Alas, we made the most of our time and ventured on to Oxford Street for shopping, and ate in Hyde Park soaking up the sun for lunch. In the evening, we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe and finished our day watching Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in the West End.
Whilst Oxford College were in London, Headington Oxford were exploring their new home! Oxford is such a beautiful and prestigious place to be. We love to make the most of our time in between studying to explore its history, architecture and hidden gems.
This week, our students had the chance to try punting along the river starting from Magdalen Bridge built in 1790. As they walked down to the waters they passed the Magdalen College tower. Magdalen College was founded in 1458 and it’s one of the oldest and wealthiest colleges in Oxford.
Students punted through Christchuch College Meadows and Oxford University Botanical gardens and saw plenty of swans along the way!
Afterwards, students had free time to explore the city themselves then finished a great day out on top of Carfax Tower where you can grab a birds eye view of the city.
We love riding roller coasters and experiencing adventure in the UK. We have plenty of theme parks to choose from: one of our favourites is Thorpe Park! Thorpe Park is home to Stealth; the UK’s fastest roller coaster launching riders to 205ft at 80mph in just 2.5 seconds! The theme park also includes the UK’s only winged coaster.
We had lots of fun on the rides and got quite wet on one of them! The students had a great day out here and we will definitely be back in 2020 to face the rides again.
How do you like to relax, unwind and let off steam? Our students always have a variety of activities to choose from in the afternoons. This week our Headington Oxford students were able to choose from volcano making, postcard making, dodgeball and dance in one of our afternoon activity sessions. Here are a few of our favourite moments…
Just when we thought we couldn’t go any higher on the fun scale, we arranged an afternoon full of inflatables at Headington Oxford and had an absolute blast! Students had plenty of fun and games to choose from and we even had an ice cream van come along to provide us with some much needed refreshments and sweets!
Last but very much not least, Oxford College presented the final Time to Shine’s of Summer 2019! We were so impressed with all of the presentations we saw this week. The topics were very varied and informative.
One set of students presented a balanced talk on whaling and what reasons for and against the Japanese argue for it.
There were many presentations which focused on climate change and how we can help and contribute to stop climate change in its tracks.
Our History of Art class made an excellent interactive art quiz for everyone which was really enjoyable! Did you know that Van Gogh only ever sold 17 paintings in his entire lifetime? It wasn’t until after his death that he became truly famous.
Our Medicine students also acted out 5 scenarios to show us what to do in different medical emergencies. The acting was brilliant and equally humourous, and we learnt a lot throughout!
After attending Oxford College all of our students get to experience a classic graduation ceremony with delicious food, music and a formal handing over of their certificates. Oxford College celebrated in the beautiful Oxford Town Hall. Well done class of 2019! You were fantastic. We wish you the absolute best with your future plans and studies.
