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Guy Fawkes and Autumn
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Hi Everybody!
The long wet summer is behind us and we’re now sliding towards winter. Last weekend the clocks went back by 1 hour which means we’re back on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and it gets dark earlier. Soon it will be dark at 4pm – horrible!
Autumn “Cultural” Events
Yesterday, October 31st, was Hallowe’en. This festival has become very popular in the last 20 years or so and is now a multi-million pound industry. Children dress up as witches, ghosts or “creatures of the night” and knock on people’s doors asking for money! When I was a child Hallowe’en was unimportant – the big event for us was a few days later on November 5th: Bonfire Night (also known as Guy Fawkes Night) Children used to make a life-sized figure (a “Guy”) out of old clothes stuffed with newspaper which was then burnt on a bonfire whilst fireworks were set off.
To find out the origins of these “celebrations” and learn some new language have a look at the following links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween
http://www.bonefire.org/guy/index.php
Kingsway in November
Kingsway continues to be busy but with fewer students. At this time of year a lot of people choose to take 1:1 and combination courses which means that we get full with a smaller number of students. This week we only have 14 students in but we need 9 teachers working full time to deliver the courses. And there are 8 different nationalities in that small group of students!
Kingsway Staff Present at Conferences
This year Kingsway personnel have been invited to speak at a variety of events. This is good a way of raising the school’s profile but it’s also good for the professional development of the speakers. Recently we’ve been at the following events:
English UK Studyworld Fair – September 3rd 2007
I gave a presentation to language travel agents in London on the subject:
“What should clients expect from a Business English course?” www.studyworldfair.com/london07/prog...
English-in-the-North Teachers’ Conference – October 13th 2007
Then I was at Melton College in York a few weeks ago to speak on the subject: “Working with Continuous Enrolment on General and Business English courses” http://www.englishuk.com/news/wp-con...
English UK Teachers’ Conference – November 17th 2007
Rich is now preparing to speak in London at this conference and his presentation is entitled “What do I know about giving presentations?” I hope he can answer his own question!
http://www.englishuk.com/training/co...
More news soon!
Sue
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241 day ago
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Hi Everyone!
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Extreme Weather
In my previous blog I wrote about the dreadful weather this summer and the floods. Well things managed to get even worse until the subject made national and international news!
Whilst Rick and I were on holiday in Crete (basking in temperatures between 30 and 38 degrees) the rest of the Kingsway team were coping with the consequences of the extreme weather conditions. Hundreds of flights into and out of the UK were cancelled so we had to re-arrange student arrivals/departures and the drivers’ schedules.
(I say “we” but I should say “they” in this particular situation). Then the students who were living on the west side of the river Severn (St Johns) were cut off from the city as both the road and foot bridges were closed. Anne had to arrange for one of our drivers to reach them via the nearest road bridge that was open – 10 km north of Worcester! And Kingsway’s favourite restaurant, Browns, suffered such severe flood damage that it may not open again until about Christmas.
Teachers
We have been busy enough this summer to have 11 classrooms in almost constant use and to have a team of 11 teachers working flat out. Richard is still Director of Studies and leading the teaching team who this summer comprises: Heidi, Tony, Annette, Debbie, Dani, Dan, Susan, Ben, Catherine, Lea and Sally.
Admin Staff
Anne is now Student Services Manager based at reception, solving everyone’s problems day in, day out. Many of you know that Emma is on maternity leave until next year. She had a baby boy, Charlie, in June and whilst she is off her sister, Laura, is doing her job.
Social Programme
Big Bob continues to ensure that “Everybody’s happy?!” and take the students to pubs, restaurants, concerts etc. He now has a large flat screen TV and DVD player in the kitchen area for showing his photos. It’s always interesting to see how relaxed students become when they are out with Bob – dancing, laughing, making silly faces for the camera. Speaking English whilst enjoying yourself is a great way to build confidence in using the language.
Study World Fair in London
At the beginning of September Rick and I will be attending the Study World Fair in London. This gives us an opportunity to meet language travel agents from all over the world and find new sources of students for Kingsway. On the first day of the fair I will be giving a talk on behalf Business English UK (BEUK) – a group of schools specializing in Business English. The title is “What should clients expect from a Business English course?” I think it’s about time I started writing it!
More news soon
Sue
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318 day ago
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Hello all you Kingpins!
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This is Sue writing from our latest, funkiest networking site. I’m going to write a regular update with news from Kingsway and Worcester plus you will all be able to keep in contact with each other. And I’ll probably get some of the staff to contribute too. Watch this space as it grows and develops.
So far this year the British summer has been the worst I can ever remember. We’ve had an unbelievable amount of rainfall and serious flooding in parts of the UK. The River Severn flooded in Worcester as usual and covered the race-course and cricket pitch. But what was unusual was the fact that, when the water subsided, thousands of fish were left stranded! There was a clean-up operation which saved about 10,000 but the rest died and rotted on the grass and/or made easy pickings for the seagulls! The smell was a bit unpleasant for a few days.
At Kingsway we are just entering the period of “summer madness”. This is when students try to make last minute bookings for courses involving 1:1 lessons (impossible!) and they also ask to stay with executive homestays close to the school (impossible!). These courses and homestays are booked up well in advance during the summer months so we have to try and persuade potential students to take different courses in different weeks.
Down in the admin offices Anne is “tearing her hair out” (you can probably guess what that idiom means) trying to please everyone with the best possible homestays available. When I hear her scream I know that it’s probably a booking from a vegetarian with a dust allergy asking for an executive homestay with children but without pets, within 5 minutes of school (oh yes and they want to be able to smoke there too!)
Big Bob loves the summer months because he is able to include some extra activities like: evening walks on the Malvern Hills, evenings in Stratford-on-Avon or Tewkesbury. But he always has a “back-up plan” in case the rain means the activity has to be cancelled. This plan normally involves playing skittles or 10-pin bowling as the rain can’t ruin those activities.
Rick and I are off on holiday soon – leaving Kingsway in the capable hands of Richard and Anne. Rich will ensure that everyone is happy with their lessons and Anne will do her best to deal with all the “out-of-class” requests for doctors, car-hire, mosque times, umbrellas etc
Meanwhile we’ll be sunbathing in Crete. I can feel the sun and hear the sea already………
Bye for now. More news soon
Sue
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344 day ago
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