The success of the courses has been greatly enhanced by the quality of our English host families, who offer warm hospitality to guests and also time in the evening for relaxed conversation. Families are playing an extremely important role. They are selected and are personally visited in their homes by SOL, to ensure that we only use good, supportive friendly hosts.

The time in the evenings and at weekends is so often underestimated by other institutions, this for many students is the highlight of the course and provides for excellent language development. Students build up their confidence in communicating in English naturally – something that most teachers don’t often have time for! When problems arise, which is rare, they are dealt with on a personal level.

Families provide full board accommodation (including packed lunch on course days and departure), take responsibility for transport between their home and the SOL centre. The accommodation will also provide the necessary privacy for quiet reading and study, though much of the evening time and Sunday will be spent with the family itself. Many families enjoy welcoming more than one student at a time and we have found that when students are placed together they help and encourage each other to use English in a family environment. It is possible to place students from different nationalities together in a family.

Students and teachers are asked to complete a simple information sheet about themselves in order to help us match families and guests as close as possible. These sheets need to be received by us at least 4 weeks before the course begins.