2011 is turning out to be another good year for Wimbledon School of English. This year we have welcomed students from 68 different countries onto a wide range of daytime and evening courses including English for Business, Law, Finance and preparation for the popular University of Cambridge and IELTS examinations, and have been full for most of the year. We have had a lot of wonderful student studying here this year – here are some of their comments on the school:

“I arrived at WSE in September 2011, I chose to take part in an exam class (FCE) and I don’t regret it! The school is situated in a very beautiful and old building in central Wimbledon. It’s really easy to get there and there are a lot of facilities close to the school. The teachers are really helpful and try to make the lessons as interesting as possible with different type of activities. Moreover, you get the opportunity to have a personal relationship with them so that you can speak easily about any difficulties and get the chance to do excursions. I found the course too intensive at the beginning but then I get used to it and saw a real improvement. I speak more fluently and have learnt a lot of new vocabulary.”“Taking part in a course at WSE gives the opportunity to make new friends from different countries. I spend most of my time with a Swedish, a Dutch and a German student. A really good way to broaden your view of the world and to practice your English of course!!! Although I chose at the beginning of my stay accommodation from the school (Host-family), I decided to rent a flat with a classmate to become more independent. So I changed my plans and I’m going to stay until April instead of December! In the End, if you need to improve your English quickly and want to discover London, WSE is a good way to do it!”Esther- 20 Years Old- French.

“When I first arrived in London I thought I was going to die, it really felt like that. However, after few weeks everything changed, I was having the best experience ever in my life. Being in The UK was nice, being in London was really nice, being in Wimbledon was really really nice but being in Wimbledon School of English was like a dream, it was absolutely perfect. I have spent 6 months in the best school of English I know, I have learned, I have known people from everywhere in the world, I have laughed and I have cried (I cried when I cut open my leg and lost my passport) I have done many things in WSE, and it is something that I will never forget, I think no one after being here even for 3 weeks can forget the experience. Now when it’s time to leave I think I am going to die again but this time is because I am leaving WSE!!” Juan- 17 years – Colombia.

“Wimbledon School of English is an excellent place to study English; the teachers are very kind and friendly. The school has a lot of activities such as football, tennis, squash which is very nice because I met a lot of people trough this activities. It was a wonderful experience studying here. If you have the change to study at Wimbledon School of English, you should take it.” Rafael-31 year-Argentina.

“I took the opportunity to study at Wimbledon School of English for 3 months. During this period of time I gained many useful insights into the English language and culture. As far as I am concerned my English improved significantly. It took a special course to prepare for the CAE, which at the time of writing this I am going to take next week and I feel very positive about it. Our teachers supported us with a wide knowledge and they really put an effect into preparing us. During my FCE time I made use at the social programme the school offered us. There are many musicals (I can recommend We Will Rock You) or one city trips to other cities or places (Stonehenge and Oxford for example). Furthermore, there are many sport activities. If you have any questions you can always ask the reception staff , they are always friendly and supportive in many ways. To sum up I really enjoyed my time although it flew by very quickly. I am sure that I will always remember the valuable experience I gained here.” Janine -19-Switzerland.

“Wimbledon School of English is a lovely school. Everybody tries to make you feel comfortable and they are always keen to help. The teachers pay a lot of attention to our progress and in my case they supported me in my preparation for Cambridge exam. Concerning the accommodation I can say that I experienced both of the options: Home stay- in which I was able to improve my English with native speakers- and student house where I met friends who I definitely expect us to keep in touch with. The social programme is something that always amused me and allows the students to get together and have fun while practicing their speaking. In general I can say it was a rewarding experience and hopefully I will have the chance to come back some day”. Luna-21-Brazil.

Wimbledon School of English staff and students proudly wore their jeans on 6th of October in support of Jeans for Genes Day in the UK. Jeans for Genes is a charity that aims to change the world for children with genetic disorders. Genetic disorders affect 1 in 25 children born in the UK-that’s more than 30,000 babies each year. Their associated health problems mean that genetic disorders are the biggest killer of children aged 14 years and under. Everybody wearing jeans made a donation and sales of an extremely popular English cream tea with scones freshly baked by some of the academic staff brought in extra cash.
The total amount that the students and staff collected was £470.43.

Would you like to try making scones?:
- 225g/2 cups self raising flour
- 55g/½ stick cold butter
- 1 level tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 150 ml/¼ pint milk
- 1 egg beaten with a little milk

Preparation:
1. Heat the oven to 400°F/205°C/Gas 6
2. Grease and flour a baking sheet.
3. Sieve the flour into a large bowl then add the butter, baking powder and salt. Quickly rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
4. Make a well in the center and using a dinner knife, stir in enough milk to make a soft, pliable dough.
5. Turn the mixture on to a floured board and knead very lightly until just smooth then lightly roll out to 2cm / 3/4″ thick.
6. Cut rounds with a 7.5cm/3″ cutter or cut into triangles with a sharp knife.
7. Place on the baking tray and brush with the beaten egg and milk mixture. Bake near the top of the oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown and well risen.
8. Cool on a wire rack before eating.
9. Serve with butter, or lashings of jam and cream.

By Angela Haisma

The school organized a trip to this musical, so we all met at Wimbledon tube station and after a short trip we arrived at the Her Majesty’s Theatre. Not only was the outside impressively beautiful, the inside was even prettier. Our tickets were really close to the stage, so we had a perfect view.

When the music started I had goose bumps all over, the feeling of the music was really unbelievable.
From the very beginning the story is so interesting and stunning that you have the feeling that you are on stage as well. Partly because of the incredible costumes and also because of the set, which changed all the time.
Being a musical with a lot of songs that I recognised, I was interested until the end of the story. The story about a young gentleman behind a mask, that falls in love.

At the end of the musical, I must admit, my eyes were a little moist.

If you have to opportunity to see this musical, do not hesitate, just go!

The 12 week term will begin on 13th September and finish 30th November.Classes will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings 18.30-20.30 The following courses are available;

- IELTS Preparation
- Certificate of Proficiency in English
- General English with First Certificate preparation

Please see the part time classes information on the website for further information or contact us on 0208 947 1921

There are so many Canadians living here in the UK, that 6 years ago, they organized a special celebration so other people from around the world could experience what it means to be Canadian.

Sports, music, food, entertainment, and fun – Canada Day in London
2011 had it all. From the Trafalgar Cup street hockey tournament to the free evening concerts, there were a range of exciting events to enjoy.

Some of the highlights included trying some famous TIM HORTONS coffee and donuts (a Canadian favourite), and trying out some wheelchair basketball with the Canadian Women’s Paraolympic team.
Happy 144th Birthday Canada!!

Lots and lots of creative ideas and some very original individual performance pieces. After some fun memory games, we played around with changing our names and nationality in order to try and understand other students and think about their backgrounds. So, we had Jinok from Korea acting Chris from Switzeralnd and Sergey from Russia being Bob from Mexico. There was A-ticha from Thailand being Andy from Finland and then Josue from Venezueala acting out Maunel from Portugal. People’s reactions were very interesting and we have decided that this playing around with different nationalities other than our own is the way forward for our final devised performance. And….is it just me, or is everyone’s English improving??!!:0 See you Monday .Tim
Hi everyone – well, it’s week 4 and we had session 7 of our THEATRE PROJECT today! We started with some fun miming games before another fun game about lying and telling the truth…hmmm, some of the student’s lies were a bit too convincing!! But it’s amazing what we learned about each other. We continued on with our theme of ‘Being a Foreigner’ but today we worked as a whole group. This we thought would help us in ‘performing something together’. We made a space that faced towards an imaginary audience and experimented with how this felt and how it changed what we did. Then the students took it in turns to verbalise their very first experiences of London while the others stood behind representing their feelings in physical movements and sound… it was GREAT!!! It reminded me of a Greek chorus! Something very moving and genuine was created. I’m really pleased and encouraged!! We will continue on Wednesday.

Hi everyone. Well today in the THEATRE PROJECT it was much less structured!! We decided to go outside and explore creating in a new environment. Some students said they felt embarrassed being in ‘public’ but others said it was more condusive to being creative and liked the ‘freedom of outside’!! The students worked on ideas of their own with me doing very little. The short pieces they came up with were very original and some came out of the ideas in past workshops….NEWS…
We’ve postponed the performance… for three reasons:
i) we’re having too much fun
ii) we need more time
iii) everyone is staying in the UK… just!!
Performance is now Wednesday July 13th!!
See you Monday. Tim :0

Hi everyone! We are now in week 5 and session 9 of the THEATRE PROJECT…things are going really well. Drama workshops have been replaced by much freer devising sessions and loads of creative ideas. Today was all about how different cultures use their bodies and we decided to focus on ”greetings’ – we looked at the level of formality and the level of physicality, touch, positions of the back, head, hands, knees, feet etc. What do our bodies say?? It was fascinating. We made up new greetings and discussed them. We wondered how these original ideas could translate into our performance and had some new thoughts for the piece we are devising!! So much fun today…and I am really looking forward to Wednesday. Tim

Hi everyone ! Well, we had a fun ending to this THEATRE PROJECT. Everyone actually went a little bit crazy in the rehearsals. But what a great audience and what a great performance…you guys totally ROCKED!!! We ended up with five short pieces that reflected the different sorts of things we had discussed and dramatised related to ‘Being a Foreigner’.
1. A series of greetings from around the world!
2. A mime and movement about the feelings of The First Day in London.
3. A powerfully enacted piece about the internal questions the foreigner asks themself
4. A comic conversation about trying to cope when you don’t understand the language around you
5. A difficult but hilarious telephone conversation between a naughty student and her host family
Well done Jinook, Jihee, Ge Seung, Sandy, Mesfer, A-Ticha and Stefan!! And well done everyone else who came along and participated at some stage. I LOVED working with you guys. You gave so much and we really became a team!! Have a great summer. Keep in touch. All the BEST. Tim :0

The aim of this project is to create a piece of theatre about the experiences of being a foreigner in London.

We’re going to perform the theatre piece to the school at the end of June! 

On Monday afternoon we had our first drama workshop with 24 participants from 8 different countries. It was so much fun. 

After a few games and lots of opportunities to chat about the theme, the students created original dramatic dialogues of both their positive and negative experiences. We had unfriendly bus drivers, rude bank tellers and hysterical host mothers….but thankfully there was also some kind strangers assisting lost students on the undeground, helpful host families and generous new friends! This Wednesday afternoon, we’re going to do some more! Come and join in if you want :) Tim

Hi everyone! Tim here again. We just had drama workshop number 2 for the THEATRE PROJECT!

Guys, I am really impressed with the talent and the enthusiasm! We started with doing different walking styles and had fun playing mirroring games. Someone said they were doing things with their body they had never done before! Isn’t it interesting how we rarely stop to think about the way we move or how or why!

Today’s focus was on expressing different FEELINGS about being a foreign student in London. Some of the words that came up were:

ISOLATED / INDEPENDENT / ALERT / CONFUSED /  PLEASED / UNFAMILIARITY / HOMESICK  /  ASTONISHED / EMBARRASSSED /

Students were demonstrating how they experienced these feelings in their body. We worked in pairs quite a lot of the time today and I think that made people a little braver when performing the work they had created!! We had 22 people….it’s great to have so many coming along. See you on Monday Tim

Hi there! Well, Monday was session three of our theatre project. We started by chanting consonants and consonant clusters that are sometimes hard in English! That was fun! Then we played around with ways of using different word stress and intonation to see how that changes what we communicate before acting out different intepretations of dialogues. Wow! I was so impressed with the variety – lots of creative ideas about characters and ages and contexts. We had a worried mum, a tired old man, a flirtatious friend, angry partners, arrogant shop assistants, drug dealers…you name it! Everyone really got into it. We ended with a big discussion about feelings towards foreigners – at home and abroad – and there were some really interesting things people said!! You need to come along to find out what they were! Looking forward to continuing the discussion on Wednesday’s session. Tim  :0

Hi guys! Tim here again reporting back on the THEATRE PROJECT. This Wednesday in session 4 we played a game called gibberish…which bascially meant we were talking nonsense! But…there was a reason for this! We shared what it’s like to not understand the language that is being spoken around you. VERY interesting responses and some VERY funny stories! Our acting focussed on talking and moving at the same time and strategies to engage an audience! We have some budding actors in our now smaller group… and we are starting to get together some really nice ideas for the devised theatre piece – VERY exciting! I’ll keep you posted. Until Monday. Tim :0

“The huge garden is absolutely fantastic. In my view the garden is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen, it is magical like a fairytale and truly impressive. In addition, I think the terrific palace would be of interest to big History fans. To sum up, I would say that it brought me happiness to be able to see the magnificent Hampton Court – it is the treasure of Britain!”     

Jirastorn Pueksakorn, Thailand

“Today we had an absolutely wonderful day at Hampton Court Palace with a lovely lady who is a teacher and a tour guide; she explained everything in order to help us understand more of Britain’s history.”

Hye Wan Mo, South Korea

“The palace allows you to be in touch and close to the past and discover something new! The atmosphere around was incredibly realistic because I even saw Henry VIII! As a result it helped me to get a better understanding of exactly how the Tudors lived. I was really relaxed by the visit and I acquired harmony and balance.”

                                                                                    Alina Razgonova, Ukraine