Here’s a short video on who we are and what we do at Echo. We hope you enjoy it!
Here’s a short video on who we are and what we do at Echo. We hope you enjoy it!
Excursions are always very popular with our students. Not only do they learn about English history and culture, but they also get a chance to shop for souvenirs. Excursions help the students bond as a group through shared experiences.
Here are some photos from Portsmouth last Saturday, when they visited HMS Victory and enjoyed the delights of Gunwharf Quays, with over 90 designer outlet shops.
The weekly projects at Echo are designed to promote a creative use of language in fun contexts and break down inhibitions when speaking English. Here are some photos taken during the theatre project…
and here is the winner of the crazy company preposterous product project:
The dogcow guards your property, keeps you company and provides you with milk!
Here are all the contenders:
‘Dreats’ (drink & eat) dietary products, ‘No Time Limits’ hotel, where each floor is a visit to a different era, the ‘Speak Easier’ automatic translator, and the ‘Famous Life’ life-style enhancer! Congratulations to all our students on their ideas, work and very funny and eloquent project presentations.
Groups are made up of students from different nationalities and ages; non-academic skills and facets such as acting, drawing and social skills come into their own; and the social fabric of the school is strengthened by providing a vehicle and objective for cross-nationality, cross-age, cross-gender, cross-cultural interaction, collaboration and friendship.
This week, students are making films, so we are looking forward to the Echo Oscars 2016 on Friday evening!
On our varied programme schedule, we have visited Chichester, staged a very competitive ‘pub quiz’, gone boating on a lake, gone on a ‘Ghost and Murder Mystery Tour’ of Arundel, visited the wetlands centre, watched the semi-finals and final of Euro 2016, and played plenty of indoor and outdoor games. Last weeks creative group project – the writing and acting of a theatre sketch – will have a post of its own!
The Wetlands Centre
Students at Echo don’t only learn in class. The exclusive use of English at all times – activities, excursions, meals, around the house – forces them to experiment, to leave their comfort zone, and to use English communicatively and creatively in relevant contexts. Thus they learn at a deeper, more experiential level involving a greater variety of cognitive and emotional stimuli and processes, often without even being aware of it, while at the same time having a great deal of fun!
With Euro2016 well under way in France, those students who like football are in for an exciting first week at Echo: the last quarter final on Sunday 3rd July, semi-finals on Wednesday 6th and Thursday 7th, and the final on Sunday 10th.
But why are all the teams male? – Whatever happened to the ladies? Click on the picture to find out!
Arundel – the11th century castle & gardens, the gothic cathedral, open-air Shakespeare, the Lido pools, Arundel Park and Swanbourne lake, boating, the Wetlands Centre, Arundel Festival, food festival, restaurants, independent shops, Arundel Jailhouse & Ghost Experience, Arun river cruises, the farmers’ market, history, art & culture, the South Downs National Park, all at a stone’s throw from the South Coast and in easy reach of London, Brighton, Portsmouth, Chichester and other places of interest …absolutely fabulous!!
May 2nd 2016 – Bank Holiday Monday and the birthday of Charles, who started Echo with Estrid in 1988:
A forty-minute ride on my mountain bike, past cows and ponies and sheep, takes me from my house in Spain to the top of a hill, just above the village of Següenco.
To the South, the melting snows on the Picos de Europa under a high sun – spring is well underway and in a liitle over a month we’ll be saying goodbye to this ‘paraíso natural’…
…and to the North, the Sierra del Sueve, beyond which lies the Cantabrian Coast, the Atlantic Ocean and further still the South of England, where an exciting new season at ECHO awaits us!
Click on the picture for the March/April edition of the Title Sussex Magazine. It includes an interesting feature on Arundel (pages 35 – 39), including my sister Elisabeth’s restaurant The Parson’s Table !(also advertised on page 59)
Most would agree that a full-immerison in the language is extremely important. But what does that mean?
In an immersion environment, will a learner learn more:
1) if surrounded by people of their own age group?
2) if they need the language in a wide range of situations?
3) if they need to use the language creatively?
4) if the situations they encounter are motivating and relevant?
5) if the language they learn is related to experiences they undergo?
5) if as wide a range as possible of their cognitive abilities are challenged?
We believe that the answer is a very clear ‘YES’!
Because of this, we aim to challenge our student, whos need to use their English all the time, socially, academically, creatively and in all the everday situations they encounter, from morning til night. They are mainly with people of their own age-group, and the situations they encounter are relevant, fun, challenging, varied and very memorable!
6) Are all learners the same?
7) Do all learners capture and retain infomation in the same way?
8) Do all learners have the same skills?
9) Do all learners want or need to learn the same thing?
We believe that the answer is a very clear ‘NO’!
Because of this, we provide stimulation to different ‘intelligences’ (see below), and our students can benefit from all of them according to their individual abilities. Our high teacher to student ratio, our informal environment, our professional approach, our small groups and different class types, our differentiated range of learning programmes and the variety of our activities and creative projects all allow each individual to maximise their potential as learners and as members of our small, friendly, collaborative learning community!