Classes
Students generally study English from Monday to Friday* in classes with a maximum of 16 students. Lessons generally run on the following timetable**:
| Morning (Standard) |
Afternoon (zig-zag only) |
| 09.00 – 10.30 |
14.00 – 15.30 |
| 11.00 – 12.30 |
16.00 – 17.30 |
* - some centres have Saturday classes.
** - classes at our Greenwich Home-stay centre start at 09.30. Classes at Greenwich Maritime and Avery Hill start at 08.50 and 13.50..
Afternoon classes run in our larger centres and students will be required to follow the ‘Zig-zag’ programme – a group staying for two weeks would have lessons in the morning for one week and lessons in the afternoon for one week..
Note: some centres may vary slightly in start times but length of class does not change..
Academic Staff
All teachers are appointed in accordance with British Council Accreditation UK guidelines and have been chosen by ISIS for their qualification, commitment, attitude and communicative ability.
In each centre there is a Director of Studies (DoS) who manages the teachers and guarantees that the ISIS Syllabus is maintained. All DoS’s are ELT professionals, recruited for their higher qualifications, extensive experience and suitability to managing large vacation programmes. All queries or requests concerning classes during the stay should be addressed to the DoS.
Our Peripatetic Academic Managers move around the country to support the academic setup and maintain academic standards in all our centres. They are senior ELT professionals who work with ISIS year-round to perfect the Syllabus and train staff in preparation for the summer centres.
ISIS Syllabus
We have a unique syllabus and accompanying materials to ensure that students learn about topics that are interesting for them and relevant to their lives.
The ISIS Syllabus is tied to the European Union’s Common European Framework to help identify the levels of the syllabus more clearly:
| ISIS English Framework |
CEF |
| Elementary |
A1 |
| Pre-intermediate |
A2 |
| Intermediate |
B1 |
| Upper Intermediate |
B2 |
| Advanced |
C1 |
| Proficiency |
C2 |
The ISIS Syllabus focuses on effective English for international communication. As such it includes work on speaking, reading, writing and listening skills, and covers lexical, grammatical and functional content. Every lesson leads to a task which allows students to use the newly learned language in a communicative and more personalised way. This provides continuous assessment of their abilities and a strong source of confidence for the learner.
A normal lesson would consist of the following process (the example shows an Elementary lesson):
Lexis
|
Holiday/Adjectives |
|
| Skill: |
Main Learning Objective:
To write a holiday postcard Subsidiary Learning Objective:
To increase/consolidate knowledge of holiday lexis and use of adjectives. |
Task Assessment:
By teacher
• Students work individually to write a postcard using the target lexis. |
Pronunciation
|
Word stress |
|
Study in the UK
The ISIS Syllabus makes the most of the student’s time in the UK with native speaker teachers.
It also aims to integrate the activity programme into the classroom through Link Lessons which provide the students with the language necessary to participate in the activity programme..
The benefit of working with a native speaker is something we try to exploit in every lesson, particularly in the areas of pronunciation and fluency. These aspects are built into the syllabus for regular attention each lesson.
Finally we try to encourage students to continue their English studies outside the classroom: the ISIS Workbook contains English-language games which provide fun activities that allow the students to use their English skills in a creative and playful way and further more provides information about language study opportunities after their course at ISIS.
Assessment and Certification
On arrival in the centre all students are tested through written and oral tests. They are placed carefully into levels that are designed to challenge them with purposeful material.
Students are assessed continuously throughout their stay and this assessment forms the basis for the ISIS Report Card and Certificate that is given to each student at the end of their course.
All students have the chance of taking a Trinity College London Spoken Examination during their stay – see the Trinity section of our website for more details or contact John at johnc@isisgroup.co.uk for booking an exam.
