Sunday | Welcome to London

Welcome to our English + Medicine 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. The Body Vocabulary: Parts of the body Language: - Understanding and using verbs related to different body parts Speaking and Listening: - Talking about and understanding Mental Health

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 residential.

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: Medical Jobs Language: - Different jobs within the medical profession Language and Reading: - Using adjectives to describe necessary qualities within different roles Writing: - a job application

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 - Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret

Today's lessons will be scheduled between 9 am and 12 pm and your curriculum will be: Illnesses and Treatments Language and Listening: - Signs, symptoms and treatment - Grammar: Modal verbs- Explaining side-effects (may/can) Writing: - Patient case notes

Today we will discover a milestone of the British medical history. The Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret on St Thomas Street is a museum of surgical history and one of the oldest surviving operating theatres. It stands on the original site of St Thomas's House, in the garret of St Thomas' Church, Southwark, in London. This architectural museum is in the attic of the old St Thomas' Hospital's Church in the early 18th century. It provides an unprecedented glimpse into medical history and the past of surgery. Formerly used to dry and prepare herbs for the medication of patients, the first timber-framed Herb Garret was placed in the operating theatre in 1822. It is the oldest remaining surgical theatre in Europe with its anaesthetics and antiseptics. There is a short 52-stroke revolving staircase to the attic.In this shrine of medicine, our students can enjoy vibrant activities and demonstrations such as an autopsy of a Victorian murder, Victorian surgery demonstration as well as diseased flesh in the early modern era and many more. The collection holds various items of eighteenth and nineteenth-century hospital furniture, surgical instruments, pathology, pharmaceutical objects and medical material. We will all discover today.

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

Thursday's English Activity Programme - Natural History Museum

Today's lessons will be scheduled between 9 am and 12 pm and your curriculum will be: Patient Care and communication - Speaking and Listening: Role- plays/dialogues between the patient and medical professional Speaking and Listening: - Dealing with complaints, offering solutions and making suggestions Writing - A referral email/ letter

The Natural History Museum tour is a day of science and fun activities for all the family. Housing a staggering 70 million items, there are five main collections: Botany, Entomology, Mineralogy, Palaeontology and Zoology. The Museum is renowned for its exhibition of dinosaur skeletons in a particularly large gallery of Dinosaurs, including a spectacular Diplodocus and Tyrannosaurus Rex. You can find the answers to such questions as who lived when and where who were predators and prey and what happened to them. You will be guided throughout the museum by our APTG qualified blue badge tourist guides who can answer all your questions. You will begin with the Blue Zone proceeding through the Dinosaur Gallery to the fish, amphibians and reptiles before heading to Human biology with images of nature and mammals. You will be able to take a photograph of a blue whale model and then see specimens of marine invertebrates. After a break in the cafe, you will proceed to Green Zone where Creepy Crawlies, Fossil Marine Reptiles, Fossils from Britain and birds can be seen. Then you will head to Red Zone through the Earth sculpture via an escalator for magnificent Volcanoes and Earthquakes, Restless Surface galleries. One floor up, you will visit Minerals, Treasures, The Vault and the oldest tree in the world, Grand Sequoia. After visiting the Darwin Centre, you can enjoy excellent Wildlife Garden with its tranquil habitat for its visitors here in the Natural History Museum in London today.

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: Working in a team Speaking: - Being polite - Asking for and offering help Pronunciation: - Rising and falling intonation in questions Listening and Speaking: - Responding appropriately

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 Cambridge

What could be better than gliding slowly along the river which takes you right in the middle of the medieval architecture, the backyards of the world’s famous colleges, green lawns and the famous Bridge of Sighs? Now that you’re in Cambridge, this is one of the must-do activities in this lovely city. Meet with local punting guys that will take you to this tranquil journey. You won’t be alone. You will be accompanied by the swans and ducks along the river. Your journey will take approximately 45 minutes.

The Mathematical Bridge is the popular name of a wooden footbridge in the southwest of central Cambridge. It bridges the River Cam about one hundred feet northwest of Silver Street Bridge and connects two parts of Queens' College. Local legend says Isaac Newton built this footbridge without any screws, bolts, or nails. You will view the bridge for free from the nearby bridge on Silver Street. In fact, our guided punting tour will take you underneath the bridge and you will have the chance to take as many as pictures you like. It not the original wooden and timber structure at all. First built in 1749 it appears to be an arch yet is composed entirely of straight timbers to sophisticated engineering design.

King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city with its splendid grounds and buildings stretching to the River Cam and beyond. Dating from the mid-15th century and one of the finest examples of medieval architect, this college’s main draw is its chapel that houses Rubens’ Adoration of the Magi. College stands in the centre of Cambridge City. Listen to the story of the King’s College starting with Henry VI in 1446 and goes with the very first Tudor king Henry VII and his famous son Henry VIII up to 1544. Learn how College is disrupted by the Wars of the Roses.

This cosy market names its city as “A market City”. Since the middle ages, all stalls have constantly been trading in historic district of Cambridge, market square where you can find 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 breads, cakes, cookies, scones, healthy foods, meat products, fish and dairy products, any type of second-hand goods including bikes, garden plans, 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 market square also offers a flourishing local food, arts and crafts market on Sundays 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 city, historic Market Square would the best hit in Cambridge.

Overlooking the marketplace in the centre of Cambridge, this beautiful church dates to 1205 - even older than the University of Cambridge. Great St Mary's was built, rebuilt, burned and built again over the centuries. The current building is largely Tudor. King Henry VII donated 100 oak trees to build its roof and Queen Elizabeth I visited the church in 1564 and gave an impressive Latin speech to the assembled scholars. Interactive touchscreens and a short film about royal Cambridge offer a perfect introduction to the history of Cambridge. Visitors can climb the tower for stunning views of King's College Chapel and the city. Great St Mary’s Church also offers brass rubbing and children's activities during busier times of the year. Great St Mary's is the church at the heart of Cambridge and hosts regular services, concerts, debates and community events in Cambridge. Here in this shrine, our qualified APTG guides will tell you all about Tudors and the milestones of the English and Scottish history.

The Fitzwilliam Museum is literally the British Museum of Cambridge. It’s the art - antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge and a must-see attraction in Cambridge. This lovely museum houses vast collections of antiquities from ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, including exhibits of English and European pottery and glass, furniture, clocks, Chinese jades, and ceramics from Japan and Korea. From antiquity to the present day, the Fitzwilliam houses a world-renowned collection of over half a million beautiful works of art, masterpiece paintings and historical artefacts. This museum gives us an opportunity to mention world and British history and culture under the same roof. The museum's history doesn't go very far. In 1816, Richard, VII Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion bequeathed his works of art and library to the University of Cambridge and today, we, the culture hunters thank him for this lovely art and culture shrine.

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.