Young Learners Summer Course

A two-week introduction to British boarding-school life for 40 boys and 40 girls aged 8–12, run by Charterhouse itself. Mornings are four academic lessons — Language and Literature, Science, History and Geography — and afternoons are art, drama, music and sport, taught by experienced prep-school teachers, many of whom have taught on the course for several years.

Lessons are hands-on: poetry from four-line comic verse to epic poems; science investigations such as making slime and testing crumple zones; 1066 and the Norman Conquest or the Spanish Armada, castles and the story of Charterhouse itself; and a virtual tour of the rivers, mountains, caves and cities of the UK and Europe.

All teaching is in English and students need at least a B1 (intermediate) level — this is not an English-language course. Applicants take an online English test and an interview before an offer is made, and are placed in classes by ability.

Students live in single-sex boarding houses, each with a House Parent and a team of house assistants, in a mix of single, twin and quad rooms with en-suite or shared bathrooms. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are cooked on site, with a mid-morning snack and a packed lunch on trip days, and laundry is done three times during the course.

Each week includes an excursion day — recent trips have included London, Arundel Castle, the Natural History and Science Museums, RHS Garden Wisley and a historic dockyard — plus a Saturday sports day and an activity every evening, from a treasure hunt and fashion show to quiz night and capture the flag.

A nurse holds a surgery every morning and all staff are first-aid trained; the Royal Surrey hospital in Guildford, with a 24-hour A&E, is about 20 minutes away. Phones, tablets and smartwatches are collected on arrival and handed back after mid-morning lessons and after dinner, but not on trips. Parents receive a newsletter three times during the course and can email the course director. Children arrive between 15:00 and 20:00 on 18 July, are collected before 12:00 on 1 August, and are released only to a named adult with ID.