MILL HILL SCHOOL IN LONDON WITH IT'S OWN INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE

Visit to Mill Hill school

Being in London for ALPHE conference on secondary education I decided to visit several schools, among others was Mill Hill school an Mill Hill International college as I did not quite understand how comfortable felt international students if they got a pale in the main school and in the international and how the two schools are connected.

• Mill Hill located in North London in the so called Mill Hill Village that will allow students to live and learn in the British capital;
• at 2015 Mill Hill opened the international school with carefully selected teachers and small classes that, according to the representative of the school, whom I met earlier, allows children to adapt quicker to studying abroad;
• international students who enroll in 9th, 10th or 11th grade, can get a place in an independent British school and at the international center. depending on the level of English, but in 12th and 13th grades all classes are all l in the main school.

The school is located in North London, 40 minutes from city centre, accessible by public transport. From the metro or high-speed train you have to go to school by bus and Google maps shows that doesn't matter if you go along the Western branch of the Northern line, on the Eastern branch, or high-speed train, so it is easily accessible. The school organizes a meeting of the child from any London airport at any time of arrival. The school was founded in the late 18th century and until 1975 worked as a school for boys. The main part of the buildings are very historic and beautiful, large area, lots of greenery and places for recreation, but due to the fact it was originally a school for boys all 4 school residences offer accommodation with shared facilities.

The first thing I visited was Mill Hill international school. The territory of the international school is a separate campus, though adjacent to the main school. Until 2015 it was a private day school for girls, so the territory has entire infrastructure, except boarding houses. It has two school buildings with classrooms, science labs, classes for music, drawing, fashion design, technological design, cooking, computer rooms and rooms for self-study. There are sports and playgrounds on the site and tennis courts. Students of Mill Hill international school live and eat on campus of the main school and come to the international school just for the lessons. All extra-curricular and sports activities are held in the main campus together with the British students. At the same time there are no more than 12 students in class in the international center when an average is10, whereas in secondary school the average is 20 students in the class. The road between campuses is a 5-minute walk along a quiet and safe street, which only has houses, some of which occupied by teachers of the school.

there are 20 teachers at the international center all with experience in international schools, so the children feel comfortable to adapt to study in Britain. The school is has a good national mix, no nation is greater than 20%. There are only 6 Russian-speaking students in all school.

Mill Hill International school offers several programs. Here you can take a 1-year program of academic English, where students will also learn math, science and art, but at the end of the year will not need to pass the exams. This is a year of preparation to adapt to the British school and take the stress of taking exams in studying for the first year in new system with insufficient knowledge of English. The most popular program in the school is a one-year IGCSE where students take 5-6 subjects and pass year-end exams. This program is ideal for children with lower level of English who graduated from grade 9 grades at home. Then at age of 16 the child will be able to join their British peers on the two-year A-level program. Of course Mill Hill international school may not offer as many subjects as the main school but still everyone has the opportunity to take core subjects: English, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology, geography, business, art, various types of design and technology, music, sports. Also, for children who begin to learn at 13 or 14 years old, Mill Hill offers the standard two-year GCSE programe, where students must take 10 subjects and exams at the end of the course.To get a place at the main school one needs to pass all the exams on a very high score, only As and Bs are accepted.

Summer camp in Mill Hill school, London

In July and August, on the territory of the international centre of Mill Hill there is an intensive summer camp for children age of 12-17. Kids study 15 hours of English per week and 7, 5 hours of art. In addition, all have 7,5 hours per week afternoon classes and they can choose between sport clubs or preparation for British school, where there are practice lessons of math and science. All summer camp students also live on the main campus of Mill Hill school using all the infrastructure of the school.

Also school offers a short courses during academic year but at least  for 1 trimester and it's better to choose academic English program.

After visiting an international school I went to see main campus of Mill Hill Mount, got inside of a student residence. The school has about the same number of girls and boys, they live in 4 houses of the student residences and are not divided into homes for girls or homes for boys. In all houses stay students of different ages and gender, girls and boys occupy different floors and wings, while they spend time together in the lounges or at a student kitchen where they can prepare own snacks.

My conclusion.

I really liked the school: located in a quiet area of London in beautiful historic buildings, while some buildings are very modern. There are large green areas, lots of sport facilities, there are benefits of the center for international education.In my opinion some might not like that there are not amenities in the rooms which is quite common for British schools. And academic requirements for admission are very high, especially for entrance at A-level.