Sunday | Welcome to London

Welcome to our English + Economics and Finance Pre-University Program. Today, we transfer you from one of London's airports. We will take you to our dorm in the city centre or our Richmond neighbourhood close to the world-famous Thames River. After a short break, we will start exploring both neighbourhoods with our introduction to bus stops, supermarkets, pharmacies and other important local points. This is what you need when you visit a new place. A light welcome meal is served for tonight.

Depending on your choice your accommodation will be either provided in English families or in the school's dorm.

Monday's English Activity Programme : Westminster City and Buckingham Palace

Your lesson starts at 9 am and our program aims to prepare our students for their upcoming university career while improving their communication skills in English. University taste programs extensively offer grammar, related vocabulary, reading, writing, listening and speaking in the context of an academic, career-focused subject. Lessons also focus on study skills and introduce our students to life as a student. Here is today's curriculum: Introducing Economics - A basic introduction to Economics and Finance Speaking and Listening: - Giving a personal presentation Lessons finish by 12 pm. After lessons, hot buffet lunch will be offered in our school's refectory.

Today's afternoon exploration program starts with some of London's highlights. The Houses of Parliament, known also as the Palace of Westminster is where the two Houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (the House of Lords and the House of Commons) conduct their sittings. They lie on the north bank of the River Thames in the London borough of the City of Westminster, close by other government buildings in Whitehall. The oldest part of the building is still in existence, Westminster Hall, which dates from 1097. The palace originally served as a royal residence, but no monarch has lived in it since the 16th century. Most of the present Houses of Parliament structure dates from the 19th century when the Palace was rebuilt after it was almost entirely destroyed by a fire in 1834. The architects responsible for rebuilding the Palace was Sir Charles Barry and Augustus Welby Pugin, and the building is an example of the Gothic revival.

Westminster Abbey is a Church, burial ground, coronation site and much more, Westminster Abbey continues to attract visitors over 900 years after its founding. In many respects the architecture is common. There's the traditional cross-shaped floor plan with a nave, north and south transepts and several round side areas. But both its execution and use raise The Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster (the official name) to among the highest examples of church construction. Here at Westminster Abbey lie buried kings and poets, scientists and philosophers who have themselves raised humankind to the highest levels. Isaac Newton and James Clerk Maxwell (discoverer of electromagnetic theory, which later lead to radio and TV), Chaucer and Kipling, Dr. Samuel Johnson (creator of the first English dictionary) and many other justly famous names are interred here.

Buckingham Palace is still the official residence of Britain's monarchy, as it has been since Queen Victoria's designation in 1837. Much of the Buckingham Palace was constructed as early as 1703 for the Duke of Buckingham. Buckingham House (as it was then known) was purchased in 1762 by George III, who used it as a private residence. Over the following 75 years the house was expanded to form three wings around a central courtyard. When Queen Victoria discovered Buckingham Palace lacked several 'necessary' rooms - such as a formal ballroom, a nursery, visitor's bedrooms and others - major additions were undertaken, including adding an entire wing to form a quadrangle. Buckingham Palace is the home of the Changing Guard Ceremony in London. The Changing of the Guard has been a tradition for hundreds of years whereby the Household Regiment, the Queen’s Guards at Buckingham Palace, change shift in a fascinating show of pomp and circumstance.

Depending on your choice your accommodation will be either provided in English families or in the school's dorm.

Tuesday's English Activity Programme - Visiting St Mary's University (Or similar)

Today's lessons will be scheduled between 9 am and 12 pm and your curriculum will be: Microeconomics vs. Macroeconomics Reading and Speaking: - Talking about Supply and demand Speaking and Listening: - Discussing the cause and effect of economic situations in different countries Reading: - Looking at case studies

In the afternoon, we'll visit one of London's well-known universities to learn about UK student life, majors, degrees and academic searches. For our students, it will be questions and answers based on an interactive visit.

Depending on your choice your accommodation will be either provided in English families or in the school's dorm.

Wednesday's English Activity Programme - Mail Rail at The Postal Museum

Today's lessons will be scheduled between 9 am and 12 pm and your curriculum will be: Accounting Language: - Using and understanding vocabulary related to Bookkeeping Reading and Speaking: - Understanding Profit and Loss

Today we will take you on a 100 year journey of mail delivery. Journey back in time through the original tunnels and station platforms of London's 100-year-old postal railway. We will travel to the 100-year-old Mail Rail Post office railway engineering repository and enter the original tunnel with a miniature train. An award winning audio-visual gallery will provide you with a stage experience back in time to the vibrant heyday of the railway in the 1930’s. In the interactive gallery the museum's fun-filled displays will take you even closer to the action of sorting mails out in a travelling Post Office. Bottom line, motorbikes, mailboxes, machinery - and stamps which we still rely on. The Postal Museum collections reveal the colourful history of communication through the post and everything related to postal service comes alive here in this museum. Follow us.

Depending on your choice your accommodation will be either provided in English families or in the school's dorm.

Thursday's English Activity Programme - Museum of London Docklands

Today's lessons will be scheduled between 9 am and 12 pm and your curriculum will be: Describing charts and graphs Language: - Using and understanding language to describe increases and decreases, trends and rate and size of the change

Today we will take you to the commercial heart of the city, the entry point and the old port of London. The Museum of London Docklands is a museum on the Isle of Dogs in east London that tells the history of London's greatest asset River Thames and the development of Docklands. This is a very interesting story of a gentrification process of the very important trade area of London. We will explore Canary Wharf and hear how the neglected West India Docks were transformed into a thriving multimillion pound business hub. Our exploration will start right at the Museum’s 1802 warehouse building that was built by the brick builders of Docklands. We will learn about the fascinating history of London’s docks, their recent regeneration, and the development of Crossrail, London’s newest railway, on a walk around the areas surrounding East London’s famous and fancy Canary Wharf. See how tall ships left their spaces to the tall buildings because 200 years before Docklands was the busiest port in the world. This place was the trade centre of a huge Empire. Imagine that 60000 ships unload 80 million tonnes of cargo every year here in this place. Can you imagine what kind of wealth was provided through this trade? Literally, Docks were totally filled with exotic goods and products from the colonies across the British Empire. The world’s first industrialized area apparently was Docklands. It was the hub of an incredible empire of trade. The facilities which were laid out in Elizabethan times simply couldn’t cope with the forests of mass. Therefore, London’s merchants had no choice. They decided to build new docking facilities. In the next hundred years, nine new giant docks were built over an eight-mile stretch of land. You can imagine how phenomenal expansion it was. The solution was so clever. Vast areas behind the river were excavated to create giant mooring bays for the ships. The physical manpower and hard labour required for this project as we are talking about 20 million bricks just for the walls and docks, another 20 million bricks for the warehouses to build this massive industrial area of the world’s capital. This massive project immediately created perfect opportunities for work. Therefore, thousands of people poured into the Docklands to work in cargo handling, as well as in factories that grew alongside the docks. The docks served very well for 170 years. But in the 1960s their time had passed as modern techniques of container shipping meant the docks became redundant. What had taken a hundred years to build was sadly dismantled in just a decade and a half. But the Docklands were to live again. In the 1980s a massive redevelopment designed for both homes and businesses brought new life to London's historical East End. It's now one of the most modern high-tech areas of the city and this is exactly where we take you today. Join us!

Depending on your choice your accommodation will be either provided in English families or in the school's dorm.

Friday's English Activity Programme - Shopping in London

Today's lessons will be scheduled between 9 am and 12 pm and your curriculum will be: Presentation Reading, listening and Speaking: - Understanding and giving a presentation based on visual information

Oxford Street is one of London’s stretching between Tottenham Court Road and Marble Arch. It’s also Oxford Street is one of London’s artery stretching between Tottenham Court Road and Marble Arch. It’s also Europe’s busiest shopping street hosting around half million visitors daily. Today, there are more than 300 shops, cafes, restaurants, language schools, department stores and many more. It’s the heart of daily business, fun, leisure and of course shopping in London. Like everywhere in London, Oxford Street has its history. The street route used to be part of the Via Trinobantina, a Roman route that passes through London between Hampshire and Essex. It was known as the Tyburn Road during the Middle Ages when Tyburn Gallows was also known for its public hangings. It became known as Oxford Road and then Oxford Street in the 18th century and began to change from residential to commercial and retail use by the late 19th century, attracting street traders, confidence tricksters and prostitution. The first department stores in the UK opened in the early 20th century, including Selfridges, John Lewis & Partners and HMV. Unlike nearby shopping streets such as Bond Street, it has retained an element of downmarket trading alongside more prestigious retail stores. The street suffered heavy bombing during World War II, and several longstanding stores including John Lewis were completely destroyed and rebuilt from scratch. Oxford Street, with several chain stores on the street and a number of buildings listed, remains in demand as a retail place amid competition of other shopping malls, including Westfield Stratford City and the Brent Cross Shopping Centre. Because shopping is simply a tradition on this street and especially tourists love this experience during their stay in London.

Welcome to the heart and soul of the fashion industry in the city. Carnaby Street is a pedestrian shopping street in Soho City and its colourful history stemmed from when the street was built in 1682, taking its name from Karnaby House to the first men's boutique, being the epicentre of the Swinging 60s, home to the punks of the 80s and up to today. It is an iconic London area. Between Oxford and Regent Streets, fashion and lifestyle retailers are just located here, including a large quantity of independent fashion shops. In the heart of London's shopping scene, Carnaby Street brings you over 100 foreign and British fashion brands, independent boutiques, one off concepts, trendy beauty emporiums, grooming salons and custom jewellery specialists together. From brand-new flagships and UK firsts to presenting one-off and unique designers, Carnaby's 14 streets are lined up with women's wear, men's clothing, cosmetics and accessories like no other. Not just for shopping of course, more than 60 independent restaurants, bars, cafes and pubs selling cheap à la carte and late-night drinks, even yummy breakfasts bedazzle the tourists and Londoners alike. Now it’s your turn to explore this lovely district with us.

Depending on your choice your accommodation will be either provided in English families or in the school's dorm.

Saturday's English Activity Programme - Full Day Trip to Greenwich

Greenwich is a town, now part of the south eastern urban sprawl of London, on the south bank of the River Thames in the London Borough of Greenwich. The Royal Greenwich Observatory is located in Greenwich and the Prime Meridian passes through the building. Greenwich Mean Time was at one time based on the time observations made at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, before being superseded by Coordinated Universal Time. While Greenwich no longer hosts a working astronomical observatory, a ball still drops daily to mark the exact moment of 1 p.m. (13:00), and there is a good museum of astronomical and navigational tools. The Greenwich observatory is situated in Greenwich Park, which used to be the grounds of the Royal Palace of Placentia. At the bottom of the park is the National Maritime Museum which also includes the Queen's House, designed by Inigo Jones. It is free to visit all these buildings. Greenwich also features the world's only museum dedicated to fans, the Fan Museum, in a Georgian townhouse at 10–12 Croom's Hill (fee payable). Also on Croom's Hill, on the corner of the junction with Nevada Street is Greenwich Theatre, formerly Crowder's Music Hall. The Cutty Sark (a clipper ship) is moored in a dry dock by the river. Nearby for many years was also displayed Gipsy Moth IV, the 54ft yacht sailed by Sir Francis Chichester in his single-handed, 226-day circumnavigation of the globe during 1966–67. In 2004, Gypsy Moth IV was removed from Greenwich for extensive restoration work to be followed by a return to the sea and a second sailing career. By the Cutty Sark, there is a pedestrian tunnel, the Greenwich foot tunnel, to the Isle of Dogs. This comes out in Island Gardens, from where the famous view of Greenwich Hospital painted by Canaletto can be seen. On the riverside in front of the north-east corner of the Hospital is an obelisk erected in memory of Arctic explorer Joseph René Bellot. The Millennium Dome was built on a disused British Gas site here. It is next to North Greenwich tube station, about three miles from Greenwich town centre, north of Charlton. The Greenwich Millennium Village is a new development nearby. The church dominating the western side of the town centre is St Alfege's Church, designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor in 1714, and marks the place where Archbishop of Canterbury Alfege (also spelt 'Alphege') was murdered in 1012. The town centre features Greenwich Market, a covered market popular with tourists at the weekends. In 1997, maritime Greenwich was added to the list of World Heritage Sites, and in recognition of the suburb's astronomical links, Asteroid 2830 has been named Greenwich

Since the middle ages, all stalls have constantly been trading in the historic district of Greenwich where you can find a wide range of goods including street foods, books, vinyl, CD’s, DVD’s, vintage clothes, beads, crocheted and knitted items, jewellery, antiquity, fruits, vegetables, olives, freshly prepared products such as bread, cakes, cookies, scones, health foods, meat products, fish and dairy products, any type of second-hand goods including bikes, garden plants, flowers, electronic gadgets, mobile phone accessories, typical English art and craft stands, hand made things, yarns, embellishments, totes, bags, suitcases, simply beyond your imagination. The Greenwich Market also offers to showcase local street food, arts and crafts market on scheduled days selling organic produce from local farmers and work from some of the region's most talented artists, craftsmen, potters, sculptors and photographers. To feel the soul of this vibrant district, historic Greenwich Market would the best place in this historic naval town. For art & craft lovers, do visit market on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and weekends; for antique and collectable buffs don't forget to pop in on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. We bet you will love this lovely market.

Now that you know the history of Docklands, it's time to pass beneath the River Thames. Greenwich Tunnel is one of the marvels of the late Victorian period in England. The project began in June 1899 and the tunnel opened on August 4, 1902. The tunnel actually replaced an expensive and often unreliable ferry service enabling staff living south of the Thames to access their workplaces in the London docks and shipyards in or around Isle of Dogs. It’s the only pedestrian tunnel beneath the River Thames that allows walkers and cyclists. The tunnel was restored after destruction during World War II. The entrance shafts at both ends are under glazed domes. Built-in 1904, lifts were upgraded in 1992 and again in 2012, and helical staircases allow pedestrians to enter this sloping, tiled tunnel. This cast-iron tunnel is 1,215 feet (370.2 m) wide, 50 feet (15.2 m) deep and about 9 feet (2.74 m) in diameter. The cast-iron rings are coated with some 200,000 white glazed tiles. Bombs weakened the northern end during World War II, and repairs required thick steel and concrete inner lining that significantly reduces diameter for a short span. The North Tower has 87 steps, the South Tower has 100 steps. Greenwich Foot Tunnel is actually one of the best examples to understand London’s subway system because cast iron tunnelling is the main principle of building the tunnels in the late Victorian eras.

Depending on your choice your accommodation will be either provided in English families or in the school's dorm.

Sunday | Transferring to the Airport

Today is the last day in London unless you continue our program. Well, all good things must come to an end. We provide your transfer service back to the airport with a private vehicle. This is the end of our service and we hope to see you in our various programs here in London.