Summer English Courses for Primary

Our course incorporates the best of two popular phonics systems: Letters and Sounds and Jolly Phonics. Children are taught through a range of fun and multi-sensory activities that help them remember the sounds and combine them to make age-appropriate words. We also focus on pronunciation and intonation with the use of chants, rhymes and songs. After completing our series of Phonics courses, your child will acquire the phonics skills to read and write and be able to build a vast bank of vocabulary. Your child will

• learn the 42 letter sounds
• learn handwriting skills and letter formation
• learn how to combine sounds to make words
• identify sounds in words and segment them to spell
• learn tricky words – words that cannot be decoded using phonics
• learn about alternative spelling – different spellings that are pronounced the same way
• learn to write what they can say.

Our course is taught by highly experienced British Council teachers trained in teaching Phonics.

A phonics assessment before registration is required if this is the first time your child has registered for a British Council course.

Your child will develop their English and life skills as they work together to complete a fun and interactive project. They will learn how to form and express opinions and discuss and compare ideas as they participate in activities based on engaging real-life situations. As well as building confidence and developing all-round English skills, they will develop important 21st century skills, such as leadership, critical thinking and communication to help them succeed in the future. Your child will

• co-operate with other classmates to work on and present a communicative project that encourages higher-order thinking with measurable outcomes
• learn to build accurate sentences and write creatively
• develop and refine their presentation skills and pronunciation to express themselves confidently in English
• complete interactive exercises that relate to the theme
• build a significant bank of new vocabulary and phrases related to various topics and real-life situations.

There are a series of exciting topics available for each level, specifically selected to pique their interest and reflect the topics that they will be learning about at school:

Learn more about the course content (projects and language skills) and 21st century skills by downloading the details at the bottom of this page.

Maximise your child’s success with the internationally recognised examinations Cambridge English: A1 Movers, A2 Flyers, A2 Key for Schools and B1 Preliminary for Schools. We use materials that are specially designed to focus on different aspects of the exam, providing students with valuable practice and exam strategies. Our courses complement your child’s existing English language learning programme and make preparing for examinations both fun and effective by using challenging and engaging activities.

For entry requirements and special offers* on Cambridge English examinations, please call our Customer Services staff on 2913 5100 for details.

*The special offers are only applicable to existing British Council students or students who have completed a British Council course within the last six months. Terms and conditions apply.

Based on a range of classic children’s literature, our Reading Skills courses will help your child to develop a sense of reading for pleasure through engaging activities. They will learn skills and techniques to improve their understanding of stories, respond personally to the stories they read and communicate their opinions with their classmates. 

P1 Reading Skills 

The course is based on three classic stories. You child will learn skills and techniques to improve their reading comprehension and build their confidence. Students will interact with a different story in each lesson, moving from whole-group reading for overall comprehension to close individual reading, learning to identify literary features such as rhyme, rhythm and alliteration. Your child will 

• develop their reading comprehension in each lesson through macro and micro reading activities
• identify literary features used in stories, such as rhyme, rhythm and alliteration
• practise reading aloud.

P2 Reading Skills 

This is a theme-based course that uses modern classic storybooks about various animals to encourage an enjoyment of reading.  Your child will learn skills and techniques that will improve their reading comprehension and their ability to identify different literary techniques used in English stories. They will develop their confidence when reading alone as well as when reading aloud to a group. Your child will

• develop their reading comprehension skills
• improve their vocabulary through reading stories 
• develop their knowledge and awareness of literary techniques used in stories,  such as rhyme, and onomatopoeia like ‘slam’, ‘splash’, ‘drizzle’ and ‘woof’.

P3–P4 Reading Skills

This course will focus on three popular children’s classics. Your child will develop their listening and reading comprehension abilities by completing a range of interactive and audio-visual activities related to the content of the stories. Your child will

• use their creativity and critical thinking skills to design new characters or elements of the stories
• learn about the different parts of speech. 
• participate in short writing activities such as creating alternate endings and retelling a story.

P5–P6 Reading Skills

This course will focus on some popular pieces of children’s literature supplemented by a range of enjoyable activities to promote your child’s understanding of and ability to engage with a text. Your child will

• develop their reading and listening comprehension skills and their ability to analyse and interpret stories
• learn about the different parts of speech 
• develop their critical thinking and leadership skills, and their creativity.

Our Writing Skills courses are designed to help your child think creatively, express their ideas with clear purpose and understand the process of writing. Depending on their age group, they will explore a variety of text types, including stories, letters, procedures, descriptions, reviews and reports.

P3 Writing Skills

This writing course uses engaging children’s stories to help children develop their knowledge of and ability to write different text types. By writing texts inspired by the stories, your child will become familiar with the features of text types such as letters, narratives, book reviews, instructions, poems and descriptions. By the end of the course, they will create a portfolio of their written work. Your child will

• understand the purpose of different text types, such as letters, narratives, book reviews, instructions, poems and descriptions
• learn how to make their writing more interesting by using adjectives
• have planned, practised, corrected and redrafted their written work.

P4 Writing Skills

This is a writing course that uses an adventure story about a dog to help children develop their knowledge of and ability to write different text types. By writing texts inspired by the story, your child will become familiar with the features of letters, biographies, descriptions, informal emails, newspaper articles and formal letters. By the end of the course, they will create a portfolio of their written work. Your child will

• understand the purpose of different text types  
• have examined the features of different text types
• have planned, practised, corrected and redrafted their written work.

P5–P6 Writing Skills

This course uses a classic children’s story to help your child develop their knowledge of and ability to write different text types. By writing texts inspired by the story, your child will become familiar with the features of narratives, expositions, procedures, information reports, recounts and formal letters. By the end of the course, they will create a portfolio of their written work. Your child will 

• identify features of different text types
• write procedures
• write an information report
• be exposed to technical language related to text features and grammatical terminology such as ‘noun’, ‘verb’, ‘tense’.

P3–P4　Speech and Drama

Your child will put on a play with their classmates! They will identify key features of a play and dramatic performance, study character development and learn how to portray different emotions with their voice, actions and language. Together with their classmates, they will also develop their creativity by designing and making props to support their final performance. Your child will:

• develop their knowledge of plays and dramatic performance
• improve their voice projectionimprove acting ability and confidence when using English
• develop creativity and collaboration skills by working with classmates

P5–P6　Debating Skills

Your child will learn how to confidently participate in a debate. They will think about the affirmative and negative positions, plan and write the opening statement, structure arguments that are supported by evidence, carry out a final debate and participate in a debating award ceremony. Your child will

• learn the skills of notetaking, listening and responding to arguments
• work together with their classmates and learn how to think logically and creatively when responding to others
• speak with confidence when presenting their opinions.

This course makes coding easy and fun for your child. Your child will learn to program their own interactive stories and playful animations. Through working on coding projects, your child will develop computational thinking, problem-solving and design skills. In these activities, students will build exciting projects and learn basic coding concepts. Linguistic objectives such as functional language for working together, language used to describe family and school life, and future plans have been integrated into the course by British Council experts to help your child improve their language competency. Your child will

• Learn to program by connecting blocks of code
• Improve problem-solving and creative thinking
• Develop presentation and storytelling skills in English by creating digital projects and digital books

Using LEGO® and play, this course opens up the world of STEM and English for your child. Your child will explore core STEM concepts linked to real-life phenomena, which will ignite their natural curiosity. Through using LEGO® bricks and working with LEGO® Education tools to complete activities and challenges, your child will develop their computational-thinking, problem-solving and communication skills, and their creativity, in a fun and exciting way. In these activities, students will learn to predict outcomes, test outcomes and describe them.

Linguistic objectives such as functional language for working with a partner and describing different component parts of machines have been integrated into these courses by British Council experts to help your child improve their language competency.

About LEGO® Education In order to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow, the LEGO Group has dedicated more than 80 years to understand how students play and learn. Learning has always been at the very core of the company’s most heartfelt values. Being part of the LEGO Group, LEGO Education plays a decisive role in igniting student engagement in learning by giving them a hands-on experience that encourages learning through physical and digital creation.

Your child will build up their programming skills using micro:bit, a handheld, programmable micro-computer. Your child will have the opportunity to demonstrate and apply what they have learned through working on fun projects and tasks. Linguistic objectives have been integrated into these courses by British Council experts to help your child improve their language competency. Your child will

• explore programming concepts for the real world, which will fuel their imagination
• develop their problem-solving and communication skills, and their creativity, by using micro:bit to complete problem solving projects such as making a virtual pet, interactive name badges and reaction games
• produce a written report about their project and practise their speaking skills by presenting to the class.