We celebrated the Hindu festival of Diwali last week at Novel English, with an exciting new course entitled ‘Wild Beasts and Exotic Lands’. Diwali is the festival of lights, where Hindus celebrate the rescue of the wife of Rama, Sita, by the monkey god, Hanuman. The course began with the arrival of the children, all dressed beautifully in traditionally colourful costumes, and the handing out of traditional Indian coloured glass bangles. There was a welcoming of tea and biscuits as the guests congregated in the cottage. The activities on the first day included a discussion of William Blake’s iconic poem, ‘Tiger, tiger’ and writing out the poem with illustrations; cutting out teak leaf-shaped patterns to paint a tiger’s head on; a huge lunch with traditional Indian dishes, and drinks of guava and mango juice mixed with coconut water. The weather was perfect which meant that the reading of the story of Rama and Sita was conducted out in the garden on the picnic bench, and the children took part in acting and improvising bits from the story. This was followed by drinks of hot chocolate with Indian sweet meals (hugely popular at Hindu festival seasons!)

There was a successful artwork session accomplished with coloured rice patterns, candles and exotic fruit, and a discussion on poetic ways to describe them (colours, shapes, textures etc!) Of course, this was followed by the famous Novel English campfire, with more hot chocolate and a warming meal of coriander and carrot soup with homemade bread rolls.

If you would like to see some photos of the course activities, please have a look on our Facebook page!

As usual, we at Novel English would like to thank everyone who took part in the course! Happy Diwali!

To celebrate the coming of Advent, Novel English will be putting on a special festive course at the beginning of December: ‘Angels in Literature’. Do get in touch for more information!

Next month is the Indian festival of Diwali, a celebration of light when Hanuman rescued Sita, the wife of Rama, from the demon king Ravana. Novel English is holding a special mini-course celebrating Diwali. During the course, ‘Wild Beasts and Exotic Lands’, we will be looking at classic Indian writing, such as Ruskin Bond, and of course creating light displays with traditional candles and coloured rice decorations. Do get in touch (via e-mail or phone) for more information if you are interested!

During the October half-term, Novel English is planning on getting witchy and gruesome with a course focusing on Shakespeare’s ‘unlucky’ play, Macbeth! The course will run on the 26th-30th of October and will incorporate themes of witches, dark magic, betrayal and murder-most-foul! A deliciously spooky time will be had in time for Samhain (or Halloween).

National Poetry Day is coming up, and to celebrate Novel English is running a special poetry course this weekend! (Friday 9th-Sunday 11th). If you are interested in reading, writing and learning about poetry do get in touch via our website or phone! We’d love for you to join us!

We are now organising a range of weekend courses at Novel English to fit in with the new school year.

These will include:

1. A Poetry Course (including poetry from Ted Hughes)-  associated with rock pools and beach themes, exploring alliteration, similes, metaphors and poetic inspirations.
2. A Diwali celebration- with readings from Rudyard Kipling and Ruskin Bond, a feast of homemade curry and of course traditional Indian light decorations
3. A traditional seaside course, with themes based on treasure hunting, pirates and smuggling (texts that will be used include Treasure Island)

We do hope you will get in touch via our e-mail or phone if you are interested in attending any of these special mini-courses!

Now that autumn feels as though it is on its way (and winter will be nudging its toes around the door just after that!), we have decided to make the Novel English dormitory a bit more cosy and swop the colourful camp beds with bunks! This new arrangement will be perfect for courses that are coming up in the next few months, especially the October half-term Gothic Genre course with its witchy themes and ample opportunity for ghost stories!

Courses that are set to run during the autumn/winter season 2015 at Novel English:

• October half-term week: Famous Writers Course: Gothic Genre (including the works of Mary Shelley and Edgar Allen Poe)
• Winter Holidays: The Ghost Genre (Beside the Fireside with Victorian and Contemporary Novels)

Once Upon A Time… (The Brothers Grimm, Philip Pullman, The Nutcracker and E.T.A Hoffman)

Recently we received some exciting news from one of the students who came to have individual English tuition at an advanced level last summer. The news is so good that we had to share it on the blog:

‘This year I had short holidays because… I ENTERED THE SELECTIVE UNIVERSITY I WANTED TO ENTER!!! I’m so happy, thanks for your participation in that great success! Out of almost five thousand students who applied for Sciences Po Paris University, only four hundred could enter. I am glad to share this information with you!’ Azur.

We would like to congratulate Azur on his acceptance to the university of his choice and to wish him all the best for the future. Well done!

Our Holistic English summer course began right after the Fantastical Worlds course had finished and was a fun and hectic ten days which embraced all weathers: hot, sunny, rainy, misty, foggy, drizzly and windy! The changeable weather became a good opportunity for our guests to learn a lot of English weather vocabulary! The course highlights included an afternoon on the farm, seeing three month old calves, chickens, coy fish leaping in the pond, ducks and horses, and sampling homemade traditional farmhouse fruitcake; visiting The Cornish Seal Sanctuary, with wonderful sightings of Atlantic sea-lions, common seals, grey seals, Californian sea-lions, as well as otters and penguins; a day of rock-pooling at Kennack Sands, observing all manner of sea creatures; reading and acting out the story of George and the Dragon and painting dragon pictures; visiting the Mullion Trenance Chocolate Factory, where chocolates were sampled and purchased; visiting Land’s End and having a chance of picnicking at Logan Rock; and plenty of cream-teas and tea parties on the Trelugga picnic bench.

The children’s mum, Simona, enjoyed her seven day English course, having a chance to read extracts from English Classics such as Pride and Prejudice and Brideshead Revisited and discussing interesting topical news from The Independent and The Observer newspapers.

Here are a few quotes from what the visiting family wrote in our visitors book:

“I liked to play catch with the pets and go to the seals and the otters and to the farm too. I have very improved my English.” – Isabella, 12 years old, beginner level

“I like the beach we have visited. I love tea-time at Deborah’s house. I have improved my English.” – Lorenzo, 9 years old, beginner level

“I thank you for your friendly welcome to your house- I like your lesson’s programme for the children and I am happy the had this experience in your house in this special place! I wish you all the best for your project in the future!” – Simona, intermediate level