"Didn't meet expectations"

While the social aspects of this program was wonderful, the academic part was not at all what was described. Our daughter signed up for a course in Sustainable Engineering, and they changed the instructor and the course at the last minute without ever letting us know. She found the changed course material (general course on sustainability) uninteresting and sub-par. We paid the high tuition expecting quality academic programming as well as social events, and were sorely disappointed. Even for the social events, our daughter found the organized events very lacking. While they organized one trip to Windsor Castle, that was the extent of the organized tours of the surrounding areas. We would not recommend this program to any parents hoping for a quality academic program, especially for students in high school.

"It was amazing and really fun"

It was beautiful being in your college and I would definitely recommend it. The experience was amazing and I made some really good friends. The activities were really creative and I really liked it, and mostly I really liked the order that they managed to get by only saying 1,2,3. The place was fabulous and the house parents were really inclusive. I also liked the meals and the thing that they tried to do also some meals of other countries. Being there was really fun and I really enjoyed it.

"Wonderful time at Winchester"

Julius had a wonderful week at Winchester College. He has expressed to me that he has learnt a lot and enjoyed spending time with new friends. Portsmouth trip was definitely a highlight to the week and was lucky enough to have beautiful weather! Taking this opportunity to thank you Tom and Philip, as well as house parent Charlotte for taking care of Julius! We will definitely come back again!

"Overall good with some disappointments"

Overall my daughters had a good experience . The course coordinators were very friendly and helpful . The material provided for Economics was good.

What we didn’t appreciate was the frequent shopping trips . They were taken for shopping almost everyday . Also the food quality was very poor and they got very little veg options .
Also we were not informed in advance that the kids were going to put up in a taxi alone to travel from Cambridge to London . Inspite of messaging and making several calls to the course director we didn’t get any response The chaperone who helped them at the airport was very nice though.

"more a cultural course than engineering"

Hi, Hello, my daughter was generally satisfied with the course, but disappointed with the level of the engineering course. she didn't really learn anything new, because the course was taught by a person who didn't seem to know much about it. in addition, there was only one lecturer for the whole two weeks, and my daughter wanted to meet different lecturer. that was a pity.,,
generally she was happy because the tutors took great care of them... I think it was more cultural course than engineering

"Thank you"

1. great experience academically and socially
2. great room and surroundings
3. great to get copies of the tutor's daily emails to students

1. not so great that 16 year olds are being made to write "punishment lines" if they 'violate' a rule such as being 1 minute late for curfew due to removing laundry from the machine, or a traffic error
2. not so great that student was reprimanded about a private conversation in their room which course leaders standing outside happened to hear

Overall, my expectations as a parent were met, yes the food was probably poor for what I paid, and my daughter had a wonderful 2 weeks.

thank you for that and for the opportunity to write this feedback in a transparent way.

"Intro to Science Winchester - disappointment"

My daughter 12yrs old (Year 7 going into 9) attended the 8-12 Intro to Science course in Winchester with her best friend.
Despite being promised it would be challenging and adapted to the significant age gap she sat with 8-9 year olds throughout her stay there listening about Astronomy only over 3 days that she had learned in year 5. This was pointed by me and another mother on day one but no one acted on it. it was then obvious to me it would be impossible to have age adapted teaching as the children confirmed there was only ONE tutor only for that Science course.
At check in only ONE computer was available to check in all the kids (despite several lovely and smiling tutor girls around) making the process take ages.
Maybe there was clearly a staffing/organisation issue compared to other competitors.

The Winchester course while in a gorgeous historic setting felt a times claustrophobic and with poorly organised off classroom activities. Food quality was reported to be very poor with sausages/ketchup the menu at 6.45am. Hardly any fruit & veg ever taken by kids.

The afternoon activities involved sitting for hours on lawn games on the grass with no exciting sports for mind challenging games. Maybe it was an issue of my daughter being too old for it - but when I had asked if she could attend the older age course I was told now.

Staff was kind and welcoming when they met children (Freya super nice) but when on the phone with kids that week I noted they did not pay much attention (or warned parents) of children uncomfortable or crying. According to what I was told on the sleeping quarters of 8 girls (!!) a total of 7 were crying the first day and a girl spent the entire night crying that week.
I hope they get these issues sorted as the emails were organised and welcoming when selecting the course and staff was open to feedback from parents when this was discussed on site.

Good luck!

"It was a great experience overall but…"

It was a great experience overall but the accommodation of the campus made it a four star as there were like three other groups apart from us also there otherwise it was good also I thoroughly enjoyed the food

"But I loved the food that I ate… was good but could you please make sure that the towels don’t shed with the blue fur."

I loved the food that I ate throughout the week, it was very nice and I loved my dorm mates, we had a very good time. I also enjoyed my house parents and all the course coordinators because they were very nice.

"The best"

I met amazing people from there from all over the world and all I hope is to meet them again someday. The course was amazing, and the fact that the tutors explained the future aspects of the topics that I have studied was extremely helpful. I am looking forward to next year’s summer course and I hope to see every people that I miss right now. not only the students but the tutors and the coordinators and other directors were also friendly and provided memorable memories.