September 2005

Welcome

With September already upon us, we are starting to wind down from an incredibly busy and successful summer season at Embassy CES. Following record student enrolments in many of our year-round schools and junior vacation centres, we've been delighted to receive your messages of encouragement, positive student feedback and excellent suggestions regarding our courses and facilities. Thank you all for your wonderful support this summer, especially those of you who've visited us in New York, Brighton and Sydney.

In the USA and England, there are significant enhancements planned for our range of residential offerings for 2006, while our revamped range of Study Tours has been a big hit in Australia, as you'll see below. In England we bring you news of our new university business access programme and all the latest from our new Oxford centre and accompanying residential facilities. This month, our staff worldwide are busy preparing for enrolment of the Diploma Class of 2006, who will be arriving at our schools on October 3rd; they will represent our largest and most diverse registration so far. The new Diplomas - combined with our custom designed course offering for graduate students – will provide an excellent range of options for your university-bound customers.

I hope you find the information below useful and informative. Please contact me online at shale@studygroup.com of you have any comments or questions.

Happy reading,
Sean Hale
USA

UK

Diploma for University Entrance

You will have seen from our new 2006 brochure, Learn English*, that Embassy CES is introducing an exciting new university business access programme from January called the Diploma for University Entrance. Successful completion of this course will allow students to articulate directly into the first year of an undergraduate business related course at one of our partner universities. Sales of this course began early in the Chinese market and as a result the first intake for this course will actually be in October 2005 for selected UK schools.

*Order the Learn English 2006 brochure (requires login)

Download a pdf of the Learn English 2006 brochure

Excellent feedback on our new Oxford centre

Having read our agent mail-out on our new Oxford centre (Boswell House) on 16th May, you will know what a wonderful new facility we think it is, situated as it is right in the heart of the city opposite Balliol College and a stone's throw from famous Oxford buildings such as the Sheldonian Theatre and Blackwells Bookshop. The school opened in late June and is already receiving excellent feedback from both staff and students.

One Polish student praises the school's location:

"The location of the school is wonderful; it is very close to the historical centre of Oxford so I can enjoy beautiful colleges during breaks."

While a Swiss student said:

"From the first day I felt completely at home at Embassy, this might be partly because of the friendly and great staff, partly because of the comfortable building, the opportunity for using internet and books ….. I just can't imagine anything that would make this school better. Every single morning when I woke up I was already looking forward to going to school."

Finally, a Taiwanese student was impressed by the school's convenience:

"The best thing is that the school is located in the City Centre, since transportation is very convenient."

Our Oxford school has long been famous for its friendly staff and excellent customer service, now it has wonderful facilities to offer too and is the perfect place for your students to study English.

We should leave the last word to the Principal of the school, Julia Southby:

"Students were greatly impressed by the haven of peace that is our study centre with the best views out across the rooftops of the city and were thrilled at the comfort of our new classrooms. I am delighted with the new building - a centre to be proud of."

New Oxford residence

To complement the excellent facilities of the new school we are opening from October a brand-new student residence next to our existing residence. The Penson Gardens residence was completed this month and boasts 20 en-suite single rooms within fifteen minutes' walk of our new Boswell House building. All rooms come with internet connections. There are also three kitchenettes, one on each floor, laundry facilities and a small outdoor terrace. It is a great location next to a park and close to shops, cafes and bars. The addition of this new residence means that the school now has nearly 50 residential beds available.

USA

New US residences for 2006
As of January 2006, students heading for Fort Lauderdale, San Diego and San Francisco will be able to enjoy new Embassy CES student residences, offering a more comfortable and better equipped environment for your students. What's more, 2006 residential rates are either the same or lower than this year (2005), offering students better value and higher quality.

Fort Lauderdale
Students can now opt to stay in the beautiful Green Island Inn - a beachfront residence in Fort Lauderdale - offering good quality single and shared rooms, each equipped with private bathrooms, cooking facilities and fully air-conditioned. This lovely property also features a swimming pool and barbeque area for after class recreation.

San Diego
This new, modern Californian residence is ideally situated at the J Street Inn, just a short walk from the school and right in the centre of the city. It offers easy access to Horton Plaza for the shopping, restaurants and cafes of the Gaslamp Quarter. There's also a street car stop right opposite for easy exploration further afield. All rooms have private bathrooms and are equipped with cooking facilities, TV and air conditioning. There's a 24-hour help desk on site, and students have full access to a rooftop deck, a quiet reading room and workout area.

San Francisco
The Kenmore Residence Club is situated in a classic, 1880s Victorian building in the beautiful Pacific Heights district. It has a magnificent view of the city, both toward the Pacific Ocean and downtown, and is close to the many shops and restaurants on Fillmore Street. It is only fifteen minutes to Embassy CES. The Kenmore is easily accessed by public transportation, and a very short bus or taxi ride will take you to many of San Francisco's best attractions. All single or shared rooms have private bathrooms, and there is a convenient lounge, small library, games room and laundry facilities on site. Students can choose either self-catering, or a convenient breakfast and dinner meal plan.

First mainland Chinese groups

Embassy CES USA recently welcomed our first-ever mainland Chinese groups.

Group Programme Manager, Natalia Salvato:

"Our partner Miao-Ling Xu has organized the first Chinese group to the USA! Country Garden - one of the most prestigious private high schools in Guangdong - sent 35 students to Boston Lasell in July - led by their School Principal and one of their teachers. They stayed for six weeks! It was a fantastic experience both for them and for us. They stayed in our campus residence and took an intensive programme. They were very impressed with the quality of our facilities, the high academic standards and the professionalism of our staff. The Principal said that it would be the first of many groups to Embassy CES!

"While in San Diego, our partner, CITIC organized a group of 10 students from the Middle School Attached to Xi An University of Communications (Xi An Jiao Da Fu Zhong) to our San Diego Centre in August. It was a great success! It was a real pleasure for ECES Staff to welcome this group. The students were very respectful and thoroughly enjoyed everything about their stay: their host families, the school, their classes, their teachers and their classmates. They especially liked the city and the activities and we'd love to have them back!"

Australia and New Zealand

Brisbane

Study Tour Success!
The months of June, July and August have been an action-packed, Study Tour success for Embassy CES, Brisbane! Around 150 high school and university students chose Brisbane for their educational experience abroad. Groups came from Italy, mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Oman and Japan for periods of one to seven weeks. Embassy CES is delighted to welcome the groups from Oman, Hong Kong and Japan back to Brisbane, and we look forward to continuing our relationship with them in the future.

One of our Study Tour groups enjoying themselves at Movieworld.

The Omani group from Sultan Qaboos University, which stayed for seven weeks, followed an interesting programme of English classes as well as educational technology, video production and visits to high school and universities.

It was the first visit by the groups from Italy and China, and they are planning to bring more groups next year. All the students made the most of Brisbane's warm winter weather and seemed to thoroughly enjoy their classes as well as their excursions to local places of interest.

Darlinghurst, Sydney

Sydney Study Tour Season - another roaring success!
The Sydney campus recently played host to five very successful Study Tours: one from Vietnam, one from China and three from Hong Kong - with each group varied in size, needs and language level.

All groups had fun in their intensive English lessons for three hours in the morning, with a wide range of fun social activities and interesting excursions in the afternoon. The groups participated in a range of activities, including:

• Vietnam - one of the highlights was their ferry trip to Manly for fun in the sun! They played beach volleyball and enjoyed the surf - a great way to enjoy that special Sydney lifestyle.
• Hong Kong IELTS - this was a small group of five students who enjoyed intensive IELTS preparation and were able to visit some of Sydney's famous universities.
• CITIC China - a large (37 students) but lovely group who were able to visit Canberra and actually see hundreds of Kangaroos in the wild - something you can't do anywhere else in the world!
• AECL Hong Kong - a delightful and charming group of girls with a strong English level who were able to hunt down some of the best shopping bargains in Sydney.
• HKST Hong Kong - After visiting Cairns and Brisbane this group was finally able to enjoy a great Aussie BBQ by the sea - a quintessential Sydney experience.

All students and staff enjoyed themselves immensely - with improved English and an increased knowledge of Australia.

Download the Study Tours brochure

Perth

The Taylors College & Embassy CES Annual Ball
This gala event in early August, combining staff and students from both Embassy CES and sister organisation, Taylors College, saw around 200 students and staff in attendance. The venue was the Parmelia Hilton and by all accounts it proved to be a great night for everyone there. The food was sumptuous and the music fantastic. A source close to the event described the men present as ‘dashing' and the females ‘ravishing'. Students and staff unlucky enough to miss this one were strongly advised to put a note in their diary for next year.

And finally...

Name changes for Diploma for University Entrance and Diploma of English

In Australia and New Zealand, two of our courses have now been renamed in order to make it easier for students to access visas. The Diploma for University Entrance will now be known as the English for Academic Purposes Programme, and the Diploma of English will become known as the Academic Year Abroad Programme.
Both these courses are identical to their UK and USA counterparts.