English Summer School in Brighton, UK

ECHO Residential Language School:
Echo specialises in courses for small numbers of international students (maximum 25) aged 12 - 17. We offer highly individualised English language courses: our limited numbers allow us to get to know our students well and help them develop their language skills where they most need in order to accomplish their goals. We have a strict English-Only rule, in class and out. This helps students gain confidence and speak English more fluently, and also make good friends from other countries.

Founded by Charles and Estrid Cope in 1988, Echo is run by their son Alex and his wife Carmen, who live at the school with their family. Students live and learn in an informal, friendly atmosphere where they quickly lose inhibitions to express themselves in English. Our courses, held in the summer holidays, provide a fully residential opportunity to learn quickly and effectively in a warm and friendly environment. Over 95% of students have been before or come on recommendation from past students!

ECHO Language School is in a privileged location: an elegant fit-for-purpose country house with large garden in the South Downs National Park just outside the beautiful historic castle town of Arundel, and within easy reach of London as well as important towns in the South East such as Brighton, Portsmouth, Winchester and Southampton, which gives us plenty of choice for excursions. 

The house has 11 bedrooms, all with en-suite bathroom: 5 are in one corridor, 4 are in another and 2 are downstairs. Boys and girls are allocated rooms in different areas of the house and nobody needs to leave their room to go to the bathroom at night.  Alex and Carmen and another two members of staff also sleep at the house. Rooms are spacious, and students often share with one to four others. This helps to build good relationships around the school. Where possible we try to ensure that speakers of different native languages share, and often this is the situation when their English is most useful. Of course, our 'English Only' rule applies throughout the course, and students are expected to speak English at all times, even in their bedrooms.

Downstairs we have a large dining room where we can all have meals together - students, teachers, the directors and their family - although on a sunny day everybody prefers our wonderful veranda and garden! Additionally, we have a large entrance hall and two light and spacious reception rooms which are used for classes in the morning and areas to relax, study, play, read and socialise during free-time.  We have a large collection of games, both indoor and outdoor, including a table tennis table, volleyball/badminton equipment, and dozens of board games. One of the rooms even has a grand piano which sometimes inspires impromptu concerts from musically talented students!

We have a maximum of 25 students, and offer three different courses. This means that we can tailor our courses very well to the needs of our students. All of the courses include three hours of class in the morning. Groups are formed according to age and level, with an absolute maximum of 8 per group.  Classes focus on grammar, text and vocabulary and communication skills.

We do not use formal classrooms. Rather, we use the more welcoming, comfortable and relaxed rooms of the house . This is so the students feel less inhibited and more willing to participate, to work collaboratively with their peers, to experiment, make mistakes and learn.  All our teachers are fully qualified, and chosen taking into account their experience with and ability to relate to teenagers.

In the afternoons, the students participate in activities according to their course: Junior (aged 12-14), Senior (aged 15-17) or Intensive (aged 15-17). The programmes are age specific and cater to the different goals of the students.  Therefore students who are over 14 can choose a very academic programme or one with a greater variety of activities.

Arundel, a 15-minute walk into town along the a path next to the river Arun (with no roads to cross!), has a lot to offer.  The town's skyline is dominated by it's magnificent castle and cathedral, but there is plenty more to see and do:  swimming at the famous Lido outdoor heated pool, boating on the lake, sports in Arundel Park ,tennis, mini-golf, Murder Mystery and Ghost Tours, the Arundel Treasure Hunt, the Wetlands Centre, shops and plenty of cafes offering typical Cream Teas.

About 20 minutes away from Arundel, we can get to Chichester, Littlehampton, Worthing, Bognor Regis or Horsham.  Between them, these places offer a wide variety of afternoon and evening activity venues, including sports centres, bowling alleys, indoor swimming pools, discos for under-18s, amusement parks or the beach on a hot day.

The learning doesn't stop with the classes:

We have a strict English All Day Policy. 
ECHO Language School has an 'English All Day' rule so our students practise their English language in real situations, inside and outside class and study times. We believe in learning through doing, and applying their knowledge to real situations Students sleep and eat at the school with students from other nationalities, and are supervised throughout the day. We insist on speaking English all the time because:
-it helps them learn English
-it helps them make friends with students from other countries
-it prevents 'cliques' of students from one countru
-even the shy students need to speak, and they all do in the end!
-it means everyone can understand everyone else and nobody is excluded

Every Saturday, all the students take part in an excursion to a place of interest:  London, Brighton, Portsmouth, Winchester, Southampton, Lewes...
Because many students have been with us before, sometimes two or three times, we try our best to organise our excursions so that they visit places and do things they haven't done yet.  London has so much to offer, and we try to go there every other week, but other places are also worth visiting more than once. 
Portsmouth is perhaps most famous for its historic ships like the HMS Victory, but it also has the Spinnaker Tower with amazing views (and a glass floor not for those suffering from vertigo!) or a tour of a submarine just across the bay.
Brighton is famous for it's Pier and the Royal Pavilion, but it also has the largest boating marina in England, the South Lanes encloses the original fishing village and the independent shops, cafes and bohemian atmosphere of the North Laine is well worth a visit.