The Cambridge Academy of English (CAE) offers a choice of residential courses for international children and teenagers between the ages of 8 and 17 years. We encourage all students to use English as a common means of communication and to make new friends from all over the world.
Our young learners can join us from any country and any continent – and while some are confident using English; others may find this a real daily challenge. Many children and teenagers are travelling alone and are travelling abroad for the first time. This situation can be difficult for adults, and is even more so for children and teenagers.
CAE has well-established strategies to make the experience of living away from home, and in a new country, easier for all children and teenagers on our courses. One of these strategies is to ensure that all students face a similar situation and do not have advantages over others. This is particularly important when planning residential and homestay accommodation and sleeping arrangements.
Residential Summer Course students at MH @ BedfordSchool, OBH @ Bedford School and Bedford School are accommodated in a range of twin or single rooms and dormitories for between 3 and 5 children depending on the course and the school.
All young learner room allocations are arranged before the course starts and planned in accordance with the following general principles of the CAE courses –
encourage students to make new friends with their roommates
encourage students to practise their English with their roommates
ensure that students travelling alone do not feel isolated
ensure that students who are the only representative of their country do not feel isolated
ensure that whatever their mother tongue, they will be able to talk to another student in English
encourage students who have travelled to the course together to develop new friendships alongside their existing ones and expand their horizons
where possible, students in each dormitory or homestay will not speak the same first language.
consider student accommodation preferences (as indicated on the YL Enrolment Form), but all decisions are made at the discretion of CAE, and are made in line with the above principles
Please note that many of the residential rooms and dormitories are located near to each other, so friends and siblings may be quite close together even if they are allocated to different bedrooms. Students can spend free time with whomever they choose and there is plenty of opportunity for friends who travel together to see each other and share experiences during the day.
CAE has run young learner programmes for many years and it has always been our policy not to allow family or friends travelling together to share the same room. Exceptions will only be made in cases of medical necessity. In our experience, this may be difficult for students at first, but the end result is much more rewarding. It increases the harmony on the course, at the school and is better for everyone involved. We always see many more tears at the end of our courses when new friends are reluctant to say goodbye and travel home to the four corners of the world.
Please feel free to contact CAE cae@cambridgeacademy.co.uk if you wish to discuss this policy in more detail.