• 1. The teaching body: Teaching issues.
• 2. Organisation: The coordination group supervises and provides continuous support.

• 1. Courses of 3 hours per week (for all levels except Beginners and Adults): 1½ hours twice a week on alternate days.
• 2. Courses of 2 hours per week: For Beginners there are 2 classes a week of 1 hour, 1 class of 2 hours.

During class new content will be worked on, exercises will be corrected and speaking practice fully employed. Textbook activities shall be complemented with games or reinforcement, according to the needs of the group.

At the weekends (and not during the week) homework will be set to revise the material studied during the week and, in external examination groups, further practice exercises and essays are to be expected.

When necessary, the student shall be set extra or specific work to reinforce the areas which may require attention, under the supervision of the coordinators.

Festivals and traditional annual celebrations will be taken advantage of to work on specific vocabulary, to get to know English culture and, in the case of the little ones, even to do some art activities to better understand the traditions in question.

All of our courses are planned in detail according to daily planning laid out from day one of the course until the very last day. This scheduling is reviewed and supervised by the academic coordinator to ensure the content at all levels.

Thanks to the use of textbooks the syllabus of each is level is worked on to try and ensure that the student is ready in all areas of the language both by section and overall.

All our teachers have university degrees in English language and literature, or a similar equivalent in their country of origen. Furthermore, they possess a language teaching qualification like the CAP, CELTA, DELTA, TEFL and other similar ones.

All students take regular tests to verify their level.

In the case of new students, they need to firstly do a level test, without obligation, both written and speaking, in order to place them in the group suitable to their level and age. This level test is administered completely free of charge.

In addition, a Cambridge qualification may be presented so as to certify their current level and to be able to gain access to the next.

Should a student progress more rapidly than usual or, conversely, they struggle to follow the usual pace of the class, there is the opportunity to change level. These changes must be agreed to by the teachers and management and shall only be granted if considered strictly necessary.

The school offers the option to obtain the books in-house.

Although all teachers are the tutors of their groups during the academic year, should a teacher need to be absent for reasons of illness or for reasons, they shall be substituted by another teacher.

All the courses follow the annual syllabus with daily targets and, when the teacher is absent, the substitute teacher will continue with the set syllabus.

Attendance at class is obligatory and is required for the student´s correct progress.

When a student is absent, their family is asked to inform the teacher of the reason for the absence in order to help the work of the teachers.

The progress of each student is monitored by way of continuous attendance assessment, work, homework and term tests. The term tests are in October, December, March and June.

At these exams different areas of the language are assessed: Reading and listening comprehension, writing and speaking, grammar, vocabulary and essay-writing.

For those students who are preparing to sit an official Cambridge exam (KET, PET, FCE, CAE and CPE) an extra test shall be set in February (a mock exam) and take place during two or three days of class for the KET and PET levels and one Saturday in the case of advanced students taking FCE, CAE and CPE due to the length of these exams.

The reason to conduct the exams on a Saturday is to be able to provide the student with practice of the official exam in exam conditions (duration, examiners, marking, etc.).

One of the aims of our school is to prepare our students for the official University of Cambridge exams. It is for this reason that starting with beginners’ courses we place emphasis on the different exam areas and insist on a mark equivalent to those required by Cambridge in each of the different areas.

The report´s marks correspond to the term tests and class work, which may differ from the mark required at the Cambridge exam. In the first courses all areas are worked on generally with the help of the textbooks, exercise and reading books, as well as other methods available to us.

The classes are carried out 100% in English in order to maximise the opportunities the student has to use the language. The teachers are trained to use different resources (mimickery, examples, diagrams, etc.) in order to teach the language through that language, without the need for translation.

When the students attain the first level at Cambridge (the KET), further to that previously mentioned a specific exam-preparation book is used with which the student may practise techniques and try model exercises.

As a participating school with Cambridge, we offer all our experience and training to the teachers to continue to obtain good results at all the official exams.

Basic user

• – Level A1: Beginner
• – Level A2: Basic/KET
• – Independent User
• – Level B1: Intermediate/PET
• – Level B2: Advanced/FCE

Proficiency user

• – Level C1: Efficient user mastery/CAE
• – Level C2: Native-speaker/CPE

Once in possession of the end-of-course results, the teachers and coordinators hold a meeting to decide which is the best path to follow for each student: To move on to the next level, move on to the next exam qualification, do an intensive summer course or undertake further support work.

In October, the students shall be examined with a test more specific to the group in which they find themselves. This test will allow for the determination of the level of those students who have done extra work during the summer, have taken part on courses or been on stays abroad.

The school offers different options to continue using English during the summer at Princess Margaret School:

• – Games-based short summer course (the language is practised orally and games activities are carried out, like swimming, bouncy castles, ponies, etc.)
• – Intensive English in conventional classes.
• Outside Princess Margaret School:
  – Stays in the United Kingdom.
• – Summer camp in Catalonia or Menorca.

After-school English for other schools

Princess Margaret School offers after-school English to other educational establishments. The teaching methodology itself is based on 50 years of experience as an English school focussed on the provision of after-school English and allows us to achieve our aims with substantiated results.

Princess Margaret School´s mission is to work together with other educational establishments and to mould to the particular needs of each school.