EC London English Language School

Each year in Britain, we throw away 28 million tonnes of rubbish from our homes. This weighs the same as three and a half million double decker buses. A queue of buses that long would go around the world one and a half times.

Contact your local council about recycling in your area.

The farm was set up as a community project 20 years ago on a site that had originally been market gardens in the early 1800’s. Later a brewery was built on the site but then other industrial buildings were added until finally it became an abandoned eyesore. The community saw this as a great opportunity to reclaim the site to show local people what life was like outside the City.

The farmyard houses a busy mix of chicken, pigs, ducks, geese, guinea pigs, goats, sheep, cows and farm dogs. A riot of noise, colour and movement that kept us all entranced. For 2 of our group it was the first time they had seen pigs as they are not kept as livestock in their own country. We were also able to watch some of the animals being fed and one of the farm workers gave us an impromptu briefing on all the work going on and patiently answered lots of questions. There were also many display boards and so a lot of new words were learnt. We also found out from one of our group that in Iranian there is no word for ‘mule’. It is called ‘a donkey in sports clothes’. What a great description!

A visit to the vegetable and herb garden completed our visit and then after much washing of hands we found somewhere for some hot drinks and a chance to chat. This was a very full and good fun afternoon with lots of laughs, lots of photographs being taken and our spirits being raised in readiness for the weekend.

As it was a bright afternoon on the 16th February we decided when we met outside the School that we would take in some sights and walk along to the Thames Embankment. Our route took us through the back areas of Holborn, skirting Covent Garden along to the Aldwych and past Somerset House where we cut through the gardens through to the Thames. There we boarded the Clipper and set off down the Thames towards London Bridge.
The views from the river are just great and this part of the Thames had plenty to keep the photographers in our group very busy. The historic buildings share prominence with sleek new buildings and all the famous landmarks kept us busy until we arrived at London Bridge. We walked through the market, which is equally as renowned for its food stalls as it is as a film location (Harry Potter, Bridget Jones Diary and Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels).
Finally we arrived at Roxy’s Bar which has an enormous screen that specialises in showing events. The football match being shown was Arsenal v Barcelona. A European match that promised lots of action. We found some chairs, ordered drinks and snacks and the atmosphere was really lively and exciting. The match lived up to expectations and kept everybody on the edge of their seats. We were all a bit hoarse from cheering and at the end of the match we felt exhausted.

A great night out.

We need your help! EC wants to be an environmentally friendly school, so we are looking at ways to become greener. To help us do this, we need some information from our students…

If you follow the link below, it will take you to our ‘green survey’ – it only takes about a minute to complete, but it will really help us to make EC a greener school!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CX2DK8B

Thanks for your help…

We recently asked for suggestions about the type of places people would like to visit as part of our Social Programme…and a visit to Westminster Abbey was proposed by a number of people together with a perennial favourite, Covent Garden.

So on Friday 11th we combined both venues and on a clear afternoon set out from the School via the colour and buzz of Covent Garden. Some of the group couldn’t quite resist a visit to the shops and we also had time for a quick stop to enjoy the street entertainers. We then walked on through Trafalgar Square and having been surrounded by tourists, it was such a contrast to see the office workers going in and out of the Government buildings as we walked down Whitehall and past the famous Lifeguards Barracks. Our next stop was Parliament Square where lots of photographs were taken of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. We even saw some MP’s going in to their building.

By then we were ready to visit Westminster Abbey and for those who had never been before, the age, history and architecture of the Abbey were enough to reduce us all to hushed tones. There was so much to see. The tombs of kings, queens and many famous people…as well as contemporary displays and exhibitions. The architecture spanning a thousand years of existence made a deep impression. It seemed only a matter of minutes before we realised that an hour and a half had passed and as time was getting on we all joined up for a coffee and to chat over our reactions and experiences and to speculate on the royal wedding that would take place there in April.

What a great way to start the weekend.

Did you know 2,500 TONS of CDs are thrown into landfills each year? Did you know it takes 200 to 500 YEARS for one CD to decompose?

Check out the website below for free CD recycling…

http://www.cdrecyclingforfree.com/

The average dinner in the UK has travelled 25,000 miles to get to your plate and used 52 megajoules of energy (the equivalent of boiling a kettle for 700 cups of tea!) Buying seasonal produce from a farmers market clocks up only 376 miles and the eqvialent of 1 megajoule (13 cups of tea) So find your local farmers market at www.lfm.org.uk

We set off from EC London on Saturday 5th February prepared for rain but we were in luck. The weather stayed bright and warm and our group of students walked through some of the quieter streets down to the Embankment where we caught a Thames Clipper riverboat for the journey to Greenwich.
Seeing London from the river is a rare treat and we enjoyed the rich variety of architecture enhanced by glimpses of St Pauls, a full view of the Tower of London, passing under Tower Bridge and then the houses and flats on the former dockland areas all the way down to the skyscraper centre of Canary Wharf.
The boat dropped us close to where the Cutty Sark is being restored, and we walked through the centre of Greenwich to the National Maritime Museum which is set in the grounds of the old Royal Naval College. The site was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and the buildings are renowned for their architecture and setting.
The museum covers maritime history from the 16th century and kept us busy for a good while. When we finished we walked up the hill in Greenwich Park and for a long time we sat on the grass looking back at the views of Greenwich with record numbers of photos being taken of each other against the backdrop of the Naval College and the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf.
We then walked across to visit the Royal Observatory, the home of the famous Greenwich Meridian where cameras again were very evident!
Time had pressed on so we sauntered back through the centre of Greenwich stopping at The Queens House before looking around the food market and taking a coffee by the Thames.
It was a lovely way to enjoy the City and a lot of fun.