At EC Cambridge, we think it is important to be as environmentally friendly as we can. So what better way to do some recycling than a trash fashion show? This week  our junior students got into teams to make fancy new clothes out of rubbish. Recycling everything from cardboard boxes, to newspapers and even the odd carrier bag! The students were healthily competitive and we discovered that we may have some fashion designers of the future in our midst! After some careful planning, hard work and plenty of sticky tape, the funky new garments were ready….. But it didn’t end there. After all the hard work of designing and creating these fantastic new threads, there was of course only one way to show them off! On the Catwalk!   A crowd of students, staff and designers on the edge of their seats, waited in excitement to see all of their hard work paraded on the mother of all fashion stages. Even the social leaders had a go. It was a fantastic evening! The junior students learnt some great life skills, such as team building and communication and of course had a bit of fun at the same time! If your interested in a English course at EC Cambridge, why not check out our main website.

Last Friday our Junior students at EC Cambridge had their annual talent show! Its great to see so many students at such a young age, with such amazing skills. We had all sorts of acts from Violinists to Dancers. Even our Social Leaders had a go! As with any talent show there was a panel made up of judges, including our Junior Programme Co-ordinator Ed. The students had a great time and there will be some more pictures to follow so keeping checking this blog. If your interested in sending your child to one of our Junior Programmes, why not check out our main website for more details. The Programme is full of great activities and excursions as well as fantastic English Lessons!

Last week we took some of our junior students to Castle Hill. Its the highest natural peak in Cambridge although it only stands at about 30ft. Many students expect there to be a Castle on Castle Hill, however this was taken down many years ago so only the mound remains. The Castle was built in 1068 by the Normans as a defence. Whilst our students are studying on their Junior English Courses in Cambridge, we think it is important to offer them some cultural activities. As well as having fun they learn a little more about English History and Culture. as you can see from the picture above it looks like they had a lot of fun! This week they are visiting Ely, a town just North of Cambridge, also full of History! Photos to follow in a future blog!

A huge well done to our fantastic students studying in the FCE, CAE and CPE courses from March to June! We had some fantastic results. We had 100% non fail rate for the FCE and CPE and 90% non fail rate for CAE. These results are amazing. Remember our Cambridge ESOL exam courses start again in September and run through to the week before the exam in December. So if you are interested in taking one of the prestigious Cambridge exams, why not check out our website!

When you are looking for an English language course, there are so many options to choose from, so where do you start? General English, Intensive English, Exam Courses etc. And then there is choosing the exam, IELTS, TOEIC, TOEFL, the list goes on. So how about Cambridge ESOL? What sets these exams apart from other English Language tests? Well first of all, you are tested on all the skills involved in learning a Language, speaking, reading, listening, writing vocabulary and grammar. The exam will not only give you a qualification, but the course leading up to it will provide you with more proficiency in these skills. Secondly, the Cambridge ESOL exams are split into individual levels. There is the Preliminary English Test (PET), First Certificate (FCE,) Advanced Certificate (CAE), Proficiency Certificate (CPE) to name a few. Each one set for the level of the person taking the exam. Unlike some other English exams, the certificates never expire, so the qualification is valid for life. Some of the other exams you have to re-take every couple of years. Finally, these qualifications are recognised across the world. Thousands of employers, universities and government departments recognise Cambridge ESOL as a valuable qualification. Therefore if you need to prove your level of English, its a great place to start! At EC Cambridge, our next term of Cambridge ESOL courses start from September, so why not join us and take your fist step to success.  

Week 1 of our Junior Programme brought us our first 40 students of our Junior Summer Programme! We all know that being somewhere for the first time especially if you are on your own, can be a bit scary! So to help our young learners settle in, we gave them an welcome party.   The students played games and had the chance to win some great prizes! A great start to what will be an exciting and helpful summer for them. Students made new friends straight away and all settled in well!  

As a parent, sending your young child abroad for a few weeks on their own can be a daunting prospect! Sometimes you can’t help but wander what your children are getting up too!   Fortunately the junior programme at EC Cambridge is fully supervised. In the evenings students have a range of fun and sometimes slightly strange activities to keep them busy, which are of course supervised by our fully trained Social Leaders. This week they had a tropical disco which was very relevant as Cambridge experienced its hottest day of the year so far! Lots of Tropical soft drinks, dancing and photos followed!   If you want to know what else are students get up to, keep checking this blog for updates, or visit our young learners Facebook page!

We like to keep our younger students busy, especially our 13-17 year old Junior students studying English in Cambridge!   Week 2 saw our first trip bowling of the Summer! The first chance for some of students to show their competitive streak! Whatever age you they are, all our students seem to enjoy Bowling! Maybe its the cool shoes!   So plenty of activities to keep our students going over the Summer and a great environment to make some new friends and learn about other countries cultures! Why not check out our Facebook page to see whatever activities are on offer over the coming weeks!  

Our main aim at EC is to Help Students Succeed In A Global Community and our Junior Programme is no different! An important part of all cultures is the food. As part of Junior English Programmes students are provided with lunch at a variety of different restaurants in Cambridge from different cultures all over the world!   Today the students visited Hong Kong Fusion for lunch to try some oriental cuisine! The result was lots of empty plates, happy tums and smiling students. Although oriental cuisine is a big part of English Culture, for some of our students, this was the first time that they had tried this type of food!   Tomorrow they are off to Nana Mexico for a taste of Mexican cuisine and I’m sure they will enjoy the food just as much as they enjoyed there Chinese experience!

So our Junior Programme for 2013 is now in its fourth week. As well as our Junior English lessons in Cambridge, we like to offer our students a fantastic activity programme. Friends are made for life, English is spoken and they get to have lots of fun.   On week one of the junior programme we took our students to see the fantastic sights of London! As well as a tour of the capital city, including Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge and the London eye they got some free time to visit the famous shops on Oxford Street to buy some souvenirs.   All in all a great day!