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Summer schools in the UK
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izzy272



Joined: 16 Jul 2004
Posts: 29
Location: Shanghai

PostPosted: Sun Nov 14, 2004 2:14 pm    Post subject: Summer schools in the UK Reply with quote

Can someone please fill me in about the summer schools(ESL) in the UK. I will be in London this summer,and may want to give it a go.
Any links would be great.

Thanks
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nickyoung



Joined: 15 Dec 2004
Posts: 8

PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 4:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

hi there i have a similar query,

i was going to ask if anyone could recomend any good efl summer school organizations in the uk that i could find work with.

i'm bristol based so anything around there would be great but i'd be prepared to travel just about anywhere.. also, the longer the summer contract the better.

any suggestions?

cheers

nick
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SandyM



Joined: 05 Feb 2005
Posts: 114
Location: Here, there, and everywhere...

PostPosted: Sun Feb 27, 2005 4:20 pm    Post subject: Summer School Slavery Reply with quote

In response to the two queries above about working on summer schools this year, my advice is - FORGET IT! I must have done around a dozen before I saw the light - but then, I am an EFL teacher!

You'll be a virtual slave, working for 200 quid a week after tax (and just everybody has to pay some tax), and expected to work a 14-hour day for 6 days a week. Your hourly rate will work out at something very similar to the minimum wage, believe me!

You must be seriously desperate to consider that. There has to be something better you could do with your time - like getting proper work, for instance.

Sandy
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SueH



Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Posts: 1022
Location: Northern Italy

PostPosted: Mon Feb 28, 2005 9:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Although SandyM gives a pretty good and accurate summary you can be lucky.

Try EJO as they often have French groups over in the South of England who bring their own 'animateurs' who are basically responsible for the supervision and welfare of their 'colonie de vacance'. I struck lucky for a couple of years (indeed my first ever teaching exeperience!).

Apart from that I'd agree with Sandy, and last year I turned down two offers local to me where the vagueness of the job description told me all I needed to know.

Sue
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Will.



Joined: 02 May 2003
Posts: 783
Location: London Uk

PostPosted: Mon Feb 28, 2005 9:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Try the link to The Guardian's jobs web page.


http://jobs.guardian.co.uk/browse/education/academic/index.jsp?
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SandyM



Joined: 05 Feb 2005
Posts: 114
Location: Here, there, and everywhere...

PostPosted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 10:53 am    Post subject: Summer Schools - Bonded Labour for the C21 Reply with quote

I'm not too sure if I would agree with SueH's assessment of EJO. Some years ago I applied for a post with them, and the money they were offering was the worst I'd experienced up till then. Of course, things might have changed since the late 1990s.

The 'best' offers will probably come from Bell, but they prefer teachers and activity staff who are properly qualified and well-experienced. Even so, what they offer is still relative - only the best of a bad bunch.

Either way, Summer Schools represent the modern equivalent of bonded labour. You'll be signing away your rights for several weeks - and remember, there's no such thing as a Work Directive or a 48-hour week on a Summer School!

SandyM
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dyak



Joined: 25 Jun 2003
Posts: 630

PostPosted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 11:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

There's a ton of jobs on www.tefl.com if you really really want to work in a summer school.

Remember, the fact that they say, 'EFL Teacher Required', is a tad misleading. Other duties will include:

Excursions.
Sport. Shocked
Crowd control.
Stopping randy 15 year old students shagging each other.
Mother.
Father.

The wages aren't too bad if you neither drink nor smoke nor eat, but you'll really need to.
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Chris_Crossley



Joined: 26 Jun 2004
Posts: 1797
Location: Still in the centre of Furnace City, PRC, after eight years!!!

PostPosted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 1:25 pm    Post subject: Sign your rights away and get slave wages - HA! Reply with quote

I remember reading some time ago some clause in an applicant's notes for a summer school that there is no such thing as a regular 40-hour per week, 9-5 sort of thing when it comes to what one is expected to do at a summer school. In fact, the application form asked people to sign a waiver, which basically meant that the school was (legally?) asking for applicants to sign away their rights to a reasonable workload, which meant that they would have no redress whatsoever if they complained about being overworked.

I actually applied for one of these summer schools (having gone through two reasonable ones four years ago with a different organisation) and had a telephone interview on May 19th, during which I was specifically asked if I had any real objections to this. I said "no", given that I already had 3 1/2 years' TEFL experience, including two summer schools in England and one year full-time at a public-sector primary school in China. (As any old China hand will tell you, Chinese kids can be draining.)

Since then, I have heard NOTHING. Clearly, they were not remotely serious about employing me, but I have found some other teaching work for the summer, only it will be adults only. I am still in China, BTW, so I would have had to have paid my own air fare and other travel expenses even if I had been offered the UK summer job. Thanks to the total silence from what must be a cowboy outfit (even if it did advertise on TEFL.com), I can be comforted by the thought that I have saved both a lot of money and, more importantly, a lot of hassle and stress!

BTW, my previous summer school experience four years ago was a non-residential post, paying newbies the utterly laughable "wage" of 180 quid a week, a considerable proportion of which went towards my renting a room at the local university - exorbitant in one case. I was shocked to discover that, four years on, that wage remains unchanged for newbies. They must be making a mint on the backs of poor newbies. Never again will I do any non-residential post for a summer school (unless I happen to be local, of course), even if I ultimately did enjoy the experience (just about, since I did not have to take the students for any extra-curricular activities whatsoever).
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dyak



Joined: 25 Jun 2003
Posts: 630

PostPosted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 2:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Chris_Crossley wrote:
In fact, the application form asked people to sign a waiver, which basically meant that the school was (legally?) asking for applicants to sign away their rights to a reasonable workload, which meant that they would have no redress whatsoever if they complained about being overworked.

Amazingly it's legal if you sign the waiver. It's illegal in the rest of the EU but the UK opted out of a lot of 'laws', including this one.
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sprightly



Joined: 07 May 2003
Posts: 136
Location: England

PostPosted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 12:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

i'm starting one today.
three wks, 9-1 each day. non-residential. two afternoons a wk (90min), no evenings, no wkends.
we have nothing to do with the kids outside of class.
the pay is not fab (500 for 60 hours, create own syllabus), but since it's near my home, it works out for me.

and i need the practice. Very Happy
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lastmanineurope



Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Posts: 22
Location: HK

PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 10:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Summer is the busiest time for teaching English in the UK. I have taught on summer programmes every year here since 1999 - in Glasgow, Sunderland, Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire.

Some schools are very professional, some less so. You can find adverts on eslcafe.com and tefl.com, as well as in the Guardian newspaper on Tuesdays from the spring onwards. All schools these days request a TEFL certificate. Not all require teaching experience and summer courses can be a good way for a new teacher to get some experience.

You probably won't save that much - I was getting between �800-1200 for a 4 week course (before tax) though accomodation and food are usually included. Some schools are in private colleges and have great facilities - tennis courts, swimming pools, internet etc. Others are less good, but all have been at least ok for a few weeks. Courses tend to be 4 weeks long, but some are 6 weeks long. Sometimes it is possible to do 2 or 3 courses in a row and make it last the whole summer.

The students are often teenagers from rich backgrounds. Sometimes you have to help with the social programme in the afternoon and evening as well as teaching in the morning. Sometimes there are extra staff to do the social side. Depends on the programme you are on. The social programme can be a good chance to see castles, museums and new areas of Britain for free.

Hours can be long and the money is not amazing, but overall I'd recommend doing a summer school course if you want to save up a bit of money, get some teaching experience and want to live and visit new areas of the UK. Good luck.
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kerrilee



Joined: 22 Jan 2006
Posts: 59
Location: Dalian, China

PostPosted: Mon Jan 30, 2006 1:14 pm    Post subject: English Summer School Reply with quote

All I will say is just teach!!! I did one straight from my TESOL course, and spent a month travelling 1 1/2 hours across London to teach Italian brats who did not want to be there and then taking them out in the afternoons and Saturdays. Because of the London bombing which happened in the first week, the kids got stuck on campus and then confined to south-west London, and so were unbearable - what should have been fun looking round London turned into a fest of shopping in various places and generally other walking activities as the teachers did not feel safe on transport. So keeping control of 70 Italian kids and makin g them walk was a challenge to say the least! Luckily it was only a four week contract! So if you go for it, try and just teach as much as you can and avoid the activites like some of the other teachers did! They were sensible!
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John Hamilton



Joined: 17 Apr 2006
Posts: 45
Location: France

PostPosted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 1:47 pm    Post subject: Summer Schools Reply with quote

There's a little truth in all the postings. The majority of Summer Schools are nightmarish horror stories but not all. Apply in good time, probably not from ads on tefl.com but directly to the schools and you might just get lucky.
The posting about waiving your rights away sounds appalling if true. Anyone else heard of this?
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Will.



Joined: 02 May 2003
Posts: 783
Location: London Uk

PostPosted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 12:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yep!
I signed that contract.
I also worked much much more than the 40 'nominal' hours I rose att 05:45 and retired after midnight for 6 weeks.
I also got quality accommodation, some damn fine cooking and a swimming pool on site. Crap money but good expereience

The waiver one signs on these contracts allows the employer to employ you to work outside the 'normal' hours of employment and not get paid overtime rates. In a residential situation it is quite common to find certain 'activities' in progress at strange hours of the night and be obliged to don dressing gown and boots to deal with it. In this way the job gets done and the employer is assured that it will be done as part and parcel of the contractual agreement. One reason DOS's are *beep* on certain courses...it encourages the brats to behave and we all get some undisturbed sleep at night

One suggestion for summer school is too use the list below and mail a CV to the schools that interest you rather than to the schools who are advertising... this means that there are teachers who are not returning this year....or the school only operates in the summer

http://www.englishforum.com/00/schools/uk/
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ZUL



Joined: 14 Jul 2004
Posts: 1

PostPosted: Mon May 01, 2006 5:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm curious if an American is able to goto the UK and work as a teacher with just a bachelor degree. It seems to me that there are such tight requirements on teaching in the UK as a Yank.
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