BLC Blog

We’ve just said farewell to our first group of juniors and the Summer season is flying by as we are being kept so busy!

They participated well in the morning lessons and continued the active social programme in the afternoons. In their last week they sampled The Lanes – an American-style bowling centre and had a trip to a traditional English seaside resort of Weston-super-Mare where they saw the pier, a sand sculpture competition and tried some lovely fish and chips. They took part in crazy golf and shopping at the popular Cabot Circus and learnt about Welsh life in Cardiff at the Castle, as well as seeing the famous Millennium Stadium.

We were really pleased to see the positive feedback from the juniors, with many saying they would like to come back next year. As Miguel Martinez Aransay, (aged 17 from Spain) commented: “The classes were very good. I learnt a lot of English. The teacher was perfect - he taught us a lot. The afternoon activities were good too.” See you next summer!

Our Junior Summer Programme is now in full swing as we reach the end of week two. Students have shown great progress with their English language learning, particularly with grammar and vocabulary, they have made lots of new friends and enjoyed exciting local projects such learning about the infamous Banksy.

Junior Summer Programme

The busy social programme kicked off with a trip to our local city museum, which has a diverse range of exhibitions – students took part in a workshop of Egyptian artefacts, learnt about Bristol at war and saw some 20^th Century art. On Tuesday it was off to the fantastic Cabot Circus shopping centre – home to the exclusive Harvey Nicholls as well as all the typical high street shops. The MShed was on the itinerary for Wednesday: a brand new museum by the river which tells the stories of Bristol. The next day the S.S. Great Britain was our destination as no trip to Bristol is complete without seeing this famous ship, which is part of our maritime history and has been turned into an interactive museum. A visit to the eclectic St Nicholas Market was on the cards on Friday, then a trip to London brought the week to a close, taking in all the major sights. A good week had by all.

The Bristol Language Centre opened its doors for the summer season last Monday, when over 100 students arrived in one day! They were all tested to be placed in classes according to their level and lessons began at the local City of Bristol College campus.

The week so far has included a visit to @Bristol: a state of the art science centre, a tour of the world-famous Brunel Suspension Bridge, a trip to the UNESCO world heritage site of Bath, sports and a Barbecue in the park and a Pirate-themed day where the students dressed up and saw where Treasure Island was written.

And if that’s not all, tomorrow they are off to Cheddar Gorge – one of the West country’s true gems, with stunning scenery and history, world famous caves and a museum. Let’s hope the staff get some rest on Sunday whilst the students enjoy a day with their host families, ready for the next fun-packed week of the programme!

The next phase of changes to the Tier 4 student visas began on the 4^th July 2011, as outlined in our earlier blog from March. From now on the UKBA are going to make the following changes which will affect English language schools:

• restrict work entitlements to migrants studying at higher educational institutions (HEIs) and publicly funded further education colleges only;
• restrict the sponsorship of dependants to those studying at postgraduate level at HEIs on courses lasting at least 12 months, and government-sponsored students on courses lasting at least 6 months;
• require education providers to vouch that a new course represents genuine academic progression;
• ensure that maintenance funds are genuinely available to the applicant, by introducing a declaration on the visa application form;
• commit to publish a list of financial institutions that they consider, on the basis of experience, do not verify financial statements to their satisfaction;
• introduce a streamlined application process for low-risk nationals applying to attend courses with Highly Trusted Sponsors.

The Bristol Language Centre is classed as a Highly Trusted Sponsor by the UKBA. We work hard to ensure that students obtain the correct visa and are able to study with us. We issue CAS statements and visa letters for students’ visa applications and we can demonstrate genuine academic progression for students on our English language courses. For more information or to make an application for one of our courses please contact enq@thebristollanguagecentre.co.uk

For more information about visas please check the following links:

UKBA

English UK