Staff at Embassy

Meet some students from Embassy Oxford

Students from Embassy Oxford have been writing about their experiences learning English! Read on to find out how they are getting on.

Javier Gonzalez

 
Hello, I’m going to tell you quickly about me. My name is Javier Gonzalez, I’m an 18 years old foreign student from Mexico, learning English in Oxford, specifically at Embassy.

I’m learning this language because nowadays it is absolutely necessary whether you want to be a successful man, or even if you just want to travel around the world you will need English in every new country because it is the global language. Now I’m going to tell you why I chose this city and why I’m so happy for having done it.

If you are looking for a place where you can find the perfect balance between having a great time and learning real English you should chose Oxford, which is the place you are looking for. But, why Oxford?

This is a small city with many things to do.If you are interested in culture and history, there is no better place in the world to learn about it as the university’s campus or the museums (most of them are free, everybody loves free things). The buildings are really amazing, most of them have got gorgeous gardens and you can go to spend an evening with your friends, or your partner if you are lucky.

On the other hand, if you like nightlife, in Oxford you can find busy nightclubs with good music for everyone and very good DJ’s from the typical European danceclub to the most latin “disco”. We can not forget the pubs, which are the perfect place to go with friends and have a chat or drink some beer, even eat traditional food. In a pub you won’t feel  time passing; it is really magical.

Believe it or not, people here are warm and nice, the ambience is student orientated, and you will find and be in touch with people from all over the entire globe, different cultures from yours which will teach you a lot of things and knowledge, and as I said you will find plenty of young people to talk with.

Another of Oxford’s advantages is the easy going way of life, you won’t get lost easily. The bus service is perfect. Oxford is really close to London and you can spend a weekend  there easily and cheaply.
It’s up to you, but trust me, if you choose Oxford you will have the best time in your life as I am doing now.

Eiko Kono

 

In September, 2010, I went to Belgium with my friends. The reason we went there was visiting my friend, Philippe. He was my classmate of afternoon class. We were lucky because he invited us to Belgium and provided his grandmother's house as an accommodation. It was... my first time to travel in Europe except the UK so everything was new. Getting on the Eurostar, speaking to people who speak French, eating Belgian traditional food etc. It was full of exciting experiences. Furthermore, he was as a local guide in Brussels, Brugge and Antwerp so I could know lots of things about Belgium, such as culture, traditional food and behaviour so on.

I think the scenery was totally different between Brussels and Tokyo but I could find a lots of similar things. For example, both senior citizen are vigorous. I saw some of the senior citizen were dancing in the Sunday market. I also met other senior citizen in front of a church. They were very friendly and cheerful. In addition, there were a lot of attractive shops, such as chocolate shops, tea shops and local markets. I enjoyed all of them during the trip. I had a great time with my friends, Philippe and his grandmother. I want to visit to Belgium again.

 

 

News from Embassy London

Lisa, the new Activities Leader at Embassy London, has these updates from the school. it certainly sounds like it's been an exciting few weeks.

New staff starting at Embassy

Four new members of staff join the school. Welcome to all of them!

Amanda Mackmurdie: Welfare Officer
 Sheila Clewley: Assistant to the Principal
Ian Claridge: Head of Security
and me, Lisa Evripidou: Activities Leader and Librarian

Celebrity Sightings at Embassy London!
Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides, the new sequel to be released in Summer 2011, is currently being filmed at The University of Greenwich. It's a ten minute walk from Embassy London.

Some very lucky students have seen Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz and Ian McShane. The filming has been going on for over a month and does not seem to be leaving any time soon!

The University of Greenwich is a popular filming location and has hosted feature films such as The Duchess (2007) starring Kiera Knightly, National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007) starring Nicholas Cage, and Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix (2005).

 
Riz Ahmed, a British actor and musician who has starred in The Road to Guantanamo, Shifty and Four Lions was spotted at The Nikey Running Club in Shoreditch, London, where students had the chance to meet with the celebrity.

In 2008, Riz won Best Actor at the Geneva Cinema Tout Ecran and was nominated for Best Actor at the British Independent Film Award for his role in Shifty.

 

 

 

 

Upcoming events on the Social Programme:

Legally Blonde in the West End
London Eye visit
Halloween Party on a boat
Lion King in the West End
Phantom of the Opera in the West End
England vs France football game
Gorillaz (music band) perform live at the 02 arena
Chicago in the West End
Madame Tussauds visit
Wicked in the West End
39 Steps in the West End
Westlife (music band) perform live at the 02 arena
Maroon 5 (music band) perform live at the 02 arena
... and lots of visits to museums, sporting events, night clubs, galleries and exhibitions.

Building futures

You may not know that Embassy language schools are one branch of a large global education company named Study Group. Study Group has many schools and colleges, including Bellerbys, Taylors College, and International Study Centres in the UK and USA - so it is a big company!

And big companies can achieve big things... which got us to thinking. We recognise that, as our students are benefiting from a great education, and in turn, our company is benefiting from your investments, that we should share that good fortune with those who need it most.

So we set up a company-wide charity initiative.

Charitable contributions

Education is our business, so when we were deciding which charity to support, Plan International was a natural choice. With Plan International's help, Study Group build schools for developing communities around the world.

You may have noticed references in our blogs and school news pages to charity events. Every school has regular money-raising activities; in addition, staff in all our offices often run marathons, jump out of aeroplanes, or (less energetically!) put on cake or book sales to raise money. For every penny that is raised, Study Group donate an equal amount, meaning staff efforts are doubled.

All the staff here at Embassy love to hear about the new schools as they are built. We enjoy looking at the photos and learning a bit more about the region.

Our achievements

To date, we have built schools in:

• Aceh, Indonesia
• Zounzounkanme, Benin
• Codó Nova, Brazil
• Liu Shu, China
• Van Han Commune, Vietnam

Schools benefit not only children, but the community as a whole, because educated kids grow up to become skilled adults.

The projects often also bring water and sanitation to the region; and as well as the building works, the charity provides educational materials, computers and teaching staff.

The latest school

Here are some images from our latest completed school, in Van Han Commune, Vietnam:

Study Group staff and children from Van Han Commune crowd around the foundation stone.

 

The new school in the background, with the kids who will benefit.

It's so great to see images like this, and realise that our small actions and donations are actually making a massive difference to children and their families across the world.

Melbourne teachers share their Smart Express experience at a conference

Embassy teachers Gareth Hughes and Neil McRudden made a presentation about Study Smart, our online study environment, at a recent Moodle conference in Australia, with over 450 people in attendance.

Gareth and Neil teach on Embassy's Smart Express course – an integrated and innovative face-to-face English language course (officially launched this year), where the learning outcomes are supported by the use of Interactive whiteboard, networked student laptops and Study Smart (run on the popular learning management system Moodle).

Their Study Smart course site has evolved over the past eight months from a blank canvas to a popular resource for students. Students use Study Smart both in class on their laptops and netbooks, and for homework activities; and the site includes various games, quizzes, blogs, assignments and web-quests.

They also have used programmes such as Hot Potatoes and Wix to further enhance the functionality and appeal of their site. "Overall, teaching with and developing Study Smart for Smart Express has been an incredibly rewarding learning experience," says Neil.

Find out more about Smart Express or meet Melbourne staff including Neil.

Student-centered lessons

Staff and students at Embassy Oxford enjoyed a training session on lessons with a student-centred approach, using the technology of interactive whiteboards (which are now found in all Embassy schools). Andrea Paschoal, Head of Teaching writes:

The workshop was very hands-on and using the laptops was a great idea. Thankfully, everything worked well without any technical hiccups and teachers were engaged and motivated.

Interactive whiteboards are a big part of most teachers' lessons nowadays and it's not often we get an opportunity to reflect on how efficient they actually are as a tool, and how to use them in order to make our lessons more student-centred.

Not sure what an interactive whiteboard is? This video should make everything clear.

Aga's last cake sale

Peter Madams, ICT teacher at Embassy Oxford, writes:

A special mention must go to our departing Accomodation Manager, Aga Kaleka, who has been our most active fundraiser in her time at Embassy Oxford - her speciality has been fantastic cake sales.

Aga is leaving us to study to become a teacher, and so this was her last cake sale. She is pictured here, in the middle, flanked by summer student activity leaders Ruth Otiotio and Romas Sostakas.

£60.80 was raised, which will be doubled by the company, and this goes towards the charity Building Futures via Plan International.

We'll miss Aga, her cakes and her good spirit. Good luck.

New location for Embassy Fort Lauderdale

Fort Lauderdale’s new centre location was unveiled for its first day of classes on Tuesday, July 6th, 2010.  Our brand new, state of the art facility is a welcome neighbour to movie theatres, the Modern Art Museum, historic downtown, restaurants, outdoor cafes, jazz and night-clubs, trendy shops, and beautiful waterways.  

Camilo Fontecilla, Centre Director, is excited about the move and shares, ”students love the current school, but everyone is thrilled to be moving into our brand new facility, with cutting-edge technology in all of the classrooms and sleek interior design throughout the space.”  

The facility features interactive whiteboards in all 13 classrooms, free wireless internet access, a large media centre, and a comfortable, spacious student lounge. Current students are enjoying classes at the new location, only a short five minute walk from the previous Las Olas Blvd site.  All new and upcoming students will be directed to the new address:

Embassy Fort Lauderdale
Las Olas Circle
200 SW 1st Avenue
Suite 108

Ft Lauderdale, FL 33301

View Larger Map

Read more about the Fort Lauderdale school on our main website.

International Students' Day at Embassy Brisbane

Anne Azano, the Student Activities Co-ordinator at Embassy Brisbane, writes:


Last Friday's International Student Day was a wonderful celebration of different nationalities and cultures. Students shared their cuisine, culture, dancing and information about their countries.

Some of the culinary highlights were: coffee and dates from Saudi Arabia, Turkish Delight, Brazilian Brigadeiros and Coxina, Venezulan desserts, Japanese sushi and traditional clothing, Korean kim chi and spicy octopus, delicacies from Thailand, Vietnam, Sri Lanka,Taiwan and China, Vegemite sandwiches and homemade American choc chip cookies! 

The displays were great, as were the performances. The entertainment consisted of Russian dancing, Turkish belly dancing, French love messages, guitar music from Colombia and a chop stick competition!

So many students participated and it was a huge success! To quote one student "It was awesome!"

See more photos from this event in our Embassy Brisbane Facebook photo gallery.

Embassy Cambridge starts A Level taster courses this summer

In July and August, Embassy Cambridge and our sister college Bellerbys will be working together to provide a number of A Level taster courses in July and August. These taster sessions follow a successful trial of the programme in 2009, and will provide students with English tuition in the mornings, followed by sample A Level lessons in the afternoons.

Frank Pinner, the Centre Director for Embassy Cambridge explains more about the courses: ‘We have two A Level taster groups coming this summer. The students will do 20 50-minute lessons of English tuition and 10 hours of A level subjects per week. They will sample a wide range of A Level subjects including Politics, Art, Psychology, Physics, Business Studies, Sociology and Chemistry’.

The taster courses are based at our beautiful and historic Queens Campus, where the students’ lessons will be between 9am and 3:15pm. In addition to their English tuition and sample A Level lessons, the students will learn more about universities in the UK.

Moreover, the students will have plenty of things to do after class, as Frank Pinner explains: ‘After class, the students will be able to explore Cambridge and visit many different attractions including museums and the Cambridge Botanic Gardens. At the weekends, there will be organised excursions to other fun and exciting places in the UK such as London, Stratford and Warwick’.

Finally, at the end of the taster courses, the students will be able to enjoy a leaving ceremony and take photos with all of their new friends.

To find out more about Embassy Cambridge, visit the Embassy website to see our photos, read the local information and find out what our current students and staff think about the school. Also, you can join us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for more news, photos and updates.

Beat Oxford traffic on your bike

Peter Madams, ICT teacher at Embassy Oxford, writes:

 

Oxford's traffic can get pretty congested, as you can see here on one of the main entry roads to the city. Despite having a very good public transport system (lots of buses), as yet there is no charging system for cars to enter the centre of town and so every morning there is a crawl to get through.

What does this mean for visiting students? Get on your bike to get to Embassy for your classes! You'll save money, get some exercise and be able to get to school on time.

Bikes are quite cheap here as lots of people come and go, buying and selling as they do. Make sure you get a helmet and a lock and lights, and a map to find the cycle routes around and through the city. There are some really pretty cycle routes, free of cars, which are a joy to use. 

Oxford prides itself on being bike-friendly - so come and join in.

Peter also provides a link to a really excellent photo blog post, showing some of the many people around Oxford who use bikes in their day-to-day life; it also gives a very good impression of what Oxford is like. Take a look - it might inspire you!

“About 20,000 cycle commuters steam into Oxford city centre each day, negotiating more than 36,000 cars, lorries and kamikaze buses, potholes, cobble stones and disoriented tourists en route.”