Strictly Speaking
Cactus is a newish company (just three years old) but with experience of running
a ten-week summer programme in the UK for incoming teenage foreign students.
Overseas, the company offers courses in Paris. Montpellier and Biarritz in France,
and Malaga and Salamanca in Spain. Teenagers can join courses all year round,
but there is a range of summer courses lasting one to three weeks specifically
for 11-18 year-olds. The company highlights the importance of pastoral care,
with either an individual or a department looking after the student's welfare
throughout the stay, and ensuring that the selected host family and language
group or level is right for the child.
Host family accommodation is recommended for parents wanting their children to brush up on a language before exam time, because it offers fuller immersion. Where parents are more concerned that the child has a holiday, the suggestion is a student residence 'where there is a wide variety of children from all over the world', and 'perhaps less French or Spanish is spoken'. The company does stress that host families are well vetted. Prices are from £319 per week inclusive of course, materials, full-board and activities. In Spain prices are from £174 per week half-board and not all activities are included.
For more information, log on to www.cactuslanguage.com or call 01273 725200.