Groups of happy Japanese teacher trainees spent the evening in Canterbury restaurants on Wednesday and Thursday as  the classes explored the wide range of delicious food available to them in the city. They have had a busy week improving their communcative skills, learning about the British Education system and preparing for the school visits around Kent next week. Look out London, they are coming to visit this weekend!

This week our Canterbury campus welcomes another 192 teacher trainees from Shumei University in Japan. On this specially designed four week course, they experience the education systems in Britain and in Europe, visiting schools in the UK and in France, Germany, Holland or Poland. In the schools, they observe lessons as well as teaching Japanese culture in the form of origami, calligraphy and language.

The last four week Junior Intensive English course for the Shumei High Schools’ winter programme has ended at our Canterbury campus. These very successful courses ran from September to February at both our Canterbury and Broadstairs campuses. The students improved their communicative English skills in their morning lessons  as well as enjoying an exciting programme of full day excursions and afternoon and evening activities.

Today Chaucer College Canterbury held the graduation ceremony to mark the end of the five month second year Shumei University programme. This redesigned course with its emphasis on communication skills and visits to local businesses to prepare students for the world of work, along with opportunities to experience British culture through a wide range of visits and volunteering, has been very successful.

A second group of children from Azerbaijan are in the college this week and are enjoying their English course and trips. At the weekend they visited London and saw the sights on a boat trip along the river from Greenwich, as well as visiting the British Museum and spending some time shopping. We will be welcoming other Azerbaijani groups later in the year.