If a student’s standard of English is not high enough for direct entry into the main school at St. Bees, a year may be spent concentrating fully on improving English language skills. Two small classes of approximately ten students follow a special programme which although it develops and advances a pupil’s English language skills, is supplemented with additional lessons in Art, ICT, Mathematics, Science and Sport. All the pupils on these EAL courses are accommodated with main school pupils on one of the junior or senior boarding houses.

At the end of their first term in the Centre, pupils take the Cambridge ESOL KET (Key English Test) and then the PET (Preliminary English Test). Successful students then start preparing for the Cambridge First Certificate Examination. At the end of the year, the majority of students transfer into the Fourth (Year 10) or Sixth Form either here at St. Bees or at other leading independent schools.

EAL support is also available in the main school either on an individual or small group basis from the First Form (Year 7) right up to the Upper Sixth. Overseas pupils entering the Sixth Form often study three subjects at AS level and will follow in the time released by not studying a fourth subject, an intensive course preparing for the IELTS qualification in English