Junior Homestay Courses
Junior Course with Homestay
for 14-17 year old Groups (10 or more)
Newcastle upon Tyne is famous for its friendly welcome. It is a university city with a great tradition and long history. It has lots of excellent interactive museums, galleries and theatres as well as excellent cinemas.
Getting Here
The transfer from Newcastle International Airport takes about 15 minutes and the train from London Kings Cross under 3 hours. Accommodation is arranged in host families. Direct flights from many European cities, including; Barcelona, Rome, Prague, Berlin, Malaga, Geneva, Budapest, Paris, Nice, Amsterdam, and now even Dubai.
Course Programme
Start dates - throughout the year.
Courses can be arranged at any time through the year for groups of students ( minimum normally 10) accompanied by group leaders.
Fees
£360 pounds per week - including full board homestay, local travel passes, social programme, 15 hours per week tuition and airport transfers. Fees for larger groups are negotiable.
Lessons
15 hours per week plus educational social programme activities. Our courses are communicative and skills based, so the student gets plenty of practice in real life English. The students will also work in groups on projects designed around their stay in Newcastle. The classes take place every morning, with the afternoons and evenings free for social programme activities. Whatever your talents and interests, you will be able to develop your skills from the wide choice of exciting and educational social activities which are available every afternoon and 2 evenings each week. There is one full day excursion each Saturday. The programme is supervised at all times by our staff.
Accommodation and Welfare
Host families are chosen for the cleanliness and comfort of their home and the welcome they can offer our students. A host family can be a married couple or a woman living on her own with or without children, or an elderly retired couple, or a widow. They accept students in their home partly because they enjoy hosting foreign students and partly because hosting students provides a useful additional income. Our accommodation staff visit all families before accepting their application and standards are monitored through student feedback questionnaires and periodic re-visits. All families are given special guidelines listing our expectations for dealing with students. (A copy of these guidelines will be sent on request). Our host families will encourage students to participate in normal family life and give them an opportunity to practise their English in a relaxed environment. Families are not expected to give any specialised language help.
International House arranges accommodation with private families as an intermediary and acts solely as a paying agent to the families on behalf of the participants.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Minimum age
The minimum age for young learners in homestay is 14 years.
Airport arrivals and departures
Host families are asked to meet students on arrival and take them back again on departure. For groups of 15 students or more the school will send a member of staff to meet the group on arrival to supervise the allocation of students to the host families. The families will bring the students to school on the first day.
Airport meeting service
Our representative or the home stay host will be waiting at the Arrivals Hall, after passport control and customs, holding an International House sign. The representative will accompany students to the accommodation.
If the student fails to see the representative they should go to the Information Desk in the Arrivals Hall and ask them to put out a call for the International House representative and wait there. In the event of further difficulties, the emergency number should be called
Contacting students
Families will allow the student to make a reverse charge phone call to their family soon after arrival to say they have arrived safely. Students can be contacted at their host families after school hours. Parents are requested not to ring after 22.00 hours English time.
Some host families will allow students to use their phone but others may expect their student to use a public phone. The student will have to pay the host family directly for all calls made from their phone. It is a good idea to purchase a telephone charge card in order to avoid possible disagreement over phone charges.
What students should bring
Warm clothes, rainwear, sportswear, swimsuit, towels and suitable footwear.
Parents are asked to mark items of clothing clearly. Students should carry a list of their belongings in their suitcase to make sure they do not forget anything when packing for their departure. International House cannot accept responsibility for loss of belongings, so it is not a good idea for students to carry with them very valuable items.
Transport to and from school
All young learner students are paired in homestay accommodation with another student and each pair will use a supplied travel pass to travel to and from the school each day.
Supervision by staff
Students are expected to attend all lessons and activities according to a timetable given to the students on the first day of their course. IH leaders accompany the students at all times on excursions and activities.
Our junior courses provide a high ratio of supervisors to students. On excursions, the ratio is one member of staff to each ten students. On the first day of the junior courses our staff explain all matters affecting their personal safety. Please note that International House will send home, at the expense of the parents, students who refuse to abide by the regulations or whose behaviour is found to be seriously disruptive. All fees for the remainder of the course not taken will be forfeited.