At the end of this week we’ll have a party in Glasgow School of English to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the School opening to students.  There will be cake, soft drinks, possibly some champagne, a balloon or two – and some guests who have been great friends to us over the years.  We’ll have some photos and an interview with Andrew Lennox, the School’s President and founder as well as a surprise or two!

The fact the School has been so successful is due to the hard work of everyone concerned, from Andrew himself to Vicki, the Director of Studies, all the admin staff and, of course, our fantastic teachers.  How do we know they are fantastic?  Simple, our students tell us!

We conduct interviews with students at the end of each term to ask them what they think of the classes and the School in general.  Last term (April – June), the results were even better than usual.  100% of the students who responded said they would recommend the  School, while 97% either agreed or agreed strongly that the lessons met their needs and 96% believed their English has improved as a result of studying here.  We think that, as well as our 20th anniversary, is something to celebrate!

This is definitely one of the most peculiar Scottish activities! Tossing the caber is one of the sports that take place at a Highland Games event. If you come to study here during our summer you may be able to go to a Highland Games. Highland Games, which originated in the Scottish Highlands and are now celebrated all over the world, are a wonderful day out, involving Highland dancing, bagpipe music and various athletic events. We’ll write about Highland Games in another blog soon.

Tossing the caber is a ‘heavyweight’ sport. It’s for large, very strong men, who have to pick up and then ‘toss’ a long, very heavy wooden pole, called a caber. In fact, it’s a tree trunk that has been cut and had the branches trimmed off it. The length of the caber can be from 16 feet to 22 feet (about 4.8 – 6.7 metres). One end is trimmed so that it’s slightly smaller than the other.

The caber is held upright and the thrower cups his hands under the end and lifts it up vertically, before ‘tossing’ it forwards. It’s not a question of throwing it as far as you can: you also have to try to ‘toss’ it so it goes in a straight line in front of you (imagine it going straight out like 12.00 on a clock). Marks are awarded for how straight you toss it. The distance it goes is not actually important and no marks are awarded for this.

It’s also very difficult, as this YouTube video, from a Highland Games in Nova Scotia in Canada, shows!

 

 

 

 

 

There is a BIG anniversary coming up soon!  Glasgow School of English will be 20 years old very soon.

It was around this time, back in 1997, that our first students, who were from China, began their classes at Glasgow School.  Since then, we’ve grown into a truly international school, helping thousands of students from all around the world to improve their English language skills.  Every year, we teach hundreds of students and improve their English language skills and help them achieve their academic or career goals.

This year is special though, because, it’s our 2oth anniversary and to celebrate we’re holding a party in the School on  the 1st of September. If you are one of our current students, watch out in the School for more information.  If you are considering coming to study in Scotland, keep an eye on this blog, our Facebook page and our Twitter account for more information about what’s going to happen!

 

 

A warm welcome to Jocelyn Lin
– our new Agent from Taiwan!

Although we know that a lot of our students Google us and find out more information about the School from our website, we also know that a lot of our students come to us from agents in their  home countries.   That’s why we are always pleased when we start to work with a new agent.

Andrew Lennox, the School’s President, recently met with Jocelyn Lin, our latest agent in Taiwan, in our Edinburgh office.

Jocelyn told Andrew, “Please accept my great gratitude for all your kind help. I do appreciate it and am very much looking forward to co-operating with you and your Schools.”

Thank you Jocelyn – we are really looking forward to working with you and we hope that we’ll see some students arriving from Taiwan to study at our Schools in Scotland in the very near future.