Vick
- 2016-01-11
BE CAREFUL WITH SAXONCOURT IN LONDON!!!
I’d like to alert people who are thinking about enrolling at Saxoncourt in London. They have a terrible reputation, I didn’t believe because the complaints are old, so I thought: well, things must have changed. Biggest mistake!!!
In their website (Saxoncourt and Shane Global) they show pictures of a modern and clean place. So I paid in advanced before I arrived in England to secure my place. But the reality is far from that. It is an old, dirty, stinky place, they lack structure, old building, badly cared, our classroom was equipped with old furniture and nothing more than a board, and we had to chase for some trashy CD player to give our classes, they have a dozen books they call “library”, only ONE computer reserved for CELTA trainees (look at the pictures in my blog). I was so shocked when I arrived that I couldn't concentrate on my studies. I tried to calm down and thought: as long as the learning experience is good... Unfortunately it was not the case.
The teacher was very rude, impatient, not approachable. Just to give an example: when I gave my first class, she stayed at the back of the classroom making faces of displeasure and shaking her head in disapproval as she took notes. I felt terrible. After that, to give me my feedback, she said: I CAN SEE YOU ARE AN EXPERIENCED TEACHER, BUT UNFORTUNATELY YOU DON'T FOLLOW THE CELTA CRITERIA. I tried to justify what I did, she didn't give me a chance to talk, she raised her hand on my face to "block" me and said arrogantly: I AM SORRY IF YOU ARE NOT HAPPY WITH WHAT I AM SAYING, BUT THIS IS MY JOB.
I thought many of her attitudes were unacceptable and offensive. I wasn't able to study anymore and decided to leave and ask for a refund. Of course they refused to give me. I lost all my money. I decided to give students a paper with the link of Cambridge website where they can complain about the school in case they have problems. The school called the police to get me out of there. It was a total nightmare.
Please, if you know someone who will take Celta in London, let them know about this. I wish someone had told me about this school before.
HireEd
- 2009-07-29
Good measure of negative posts regarding Shane English on this forum and other ESL-related websites, over the past few years. Keep looking, but in general, Shane is NOT recommended; or at least, based on what I've read, I certainly wouldn't sign a contract with them.
I was wondering if anyone in this forum has any positive/negative information about the intensive summer CELTA program offered by Saxoncourt/Shane Language school or generally about these schools.
I've tried to google the aforementioned schools but couldn't find any tangible information.
I am about to enrol on the CELTA program and any piece of advice/information would be highly appreciated.