Who is it for?
What do we hear most often from parents who come to us?
"They have English at school, but I don't see any results…"
"They've been learning the Present Simple for five years…"
"On holiday they can't say a thing…"
We focus on learning the language in practice, so children aren't afraid to speak from the very beginning.
Let's get started – warm-up time!
We start our classes with a warm-up. There are two kinds of warm-ups. We call them "block-breaking" warm-ups and "developing" warm-ups.
Many children are afraid to speak English at first, so we give them space to open up. These warm-ups include games based on repetition, e.g. Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza, where children repeat the same English words over and over, or Fish Bump, where – depending on the pictures turned over – you have to fist-bump, swap a card or do a gorilla move.
The words keep coming back, the teacher comments on everything in English, so at some point the children simply join in, saying "Oh no!", "It's your turn!", "Next!". The game is an excuse to have fun, and the language comes along with it. Children associate these games with English – sometimes they're surprised there's a Polish version too, and say it's "kind of weird".
The second type is the "developing" warm-ups – the ones meant to build vocabulary. We deliberately choose games where some of the words are already familiar to the children and some are new vocabulary that we introduce gradually. That way the children aren't put off by the feeling that "everything is new and I don't understand anything" – we add new words a little at a time.
The lesson topic and personal notebooks
After the warm-up we move on to the topic of the lesson – for example "Pets", "What do we do in the morning before school?" or "Supermarket". For younger children we prepare "stick-ins", and older ones have their own personal folders, which we personalise in the first classes – with stickers and colourful lettering – and which stay with us for the whole school year. This way children have their own original materials. They can write in different colours, add stickers, cross things out, underline and do whatever they like. The notebooks can be collected year after year, so you can go back to what we've learned.
We make our own worksheets. They cover topics such as:
- playground
- after-school club
- Tooth Fairy
- birthday parties
- card games & board games
in other words, things children know from their own lives and have around them.
A large part of the materials is a section marked "dialogues". Here we use drama and theatre improv to practise newly learned material straight away. When we're learning birthday party vocabulary, at the end of the lesson we bring out a cake, choose the birthday child and act out the party. If we're talking about pets – we take them to the vet and talk about what's wrong with them.
Children get really involved in these scenes. They absolutely love the cash register and the toy dishwasher (shame it's not the same at home 😄). We put a lot of emphasis on repetition – learning makes sense when we keep adding new vocabulary to what we know, not when we go through one topic after another and forget the previous one.
Small groups, big results
Our groups have 3–4 people. It's the ideal number for the right interactions to happen, while giving everyone a chance to speak, ask questions and feel at ease.
In a small group like this there's room for questions, we can play the games the group loves, or tailor the lesson topic just for them. We put the groups together at the start of the year based on aptitude, personality and expectations.
Creativity is great
As teachers we laugh a lot and show that creativity is welcome – that you can have a dog called Cat at home, and that's great. That you can sell chips one by one, £1 each. Then children stop worrying about saying something silly or wrong. It helps them take mistakes less seriously – mistakes need a hug, not a telling-off. We teach children that everyone makes mistakes – and that making them means we're still learning, which shows we're growing. If you stand still you won't fall, but you won't move forward either!
Results
"My child ordered ice cream all by themselves on holiday",
"You take the fear out of grammar",
"What Basia knows is only thanks to coming here".
It warms our hearts that we're raising brave people who aren't afraid of language challenges.
If reading this makes you feel this is the place for your child – send us a message. You'll find the contact form below.