Terms

Definitions

1. A ‘course’ is defined as a period of time on a single course type as described in our current brochure – for example, the Intensive General English course or the Business English 30+ course.

The ‘minimum period’ is the minimum booking length possible for the course (for example 1 week for General English 30+).  For the purposes of cancellation, the minimum period on the Intensive General English and English for University courses is 6 weeks, or the period originally booked, whichever is shorter. In the case of Individual Tuition each week is regarded as both ‘a course’ and the ‘minimum period’.

2. A booking can consist of either a single course or a combination of courses.

Making a booking

3. When you make a booking, you must pay:

• a non-refundable registration fee of £60 (or £30 if you book online through our web site at http://londonschool.force.com/)
• a course deposit of £500
• If you want accommodation, you must also pay:
  • a non-refundable accommodation placement fee of £60
  • an accommodation deposit of £150 if you choose homestay accommodation

4. You must pay your deposit within 5 days of making your booking, and the rest of your fees in full 30 days before the first course starts. If you are making a booking less than 30 days before the start of your course, you must pay full fees immediately.  If you make any changes after your booking has been confirmed you will be charged £30.

Extending your booking

5. It is usually possible to extend your booking while you are here. The extra fees you pay will be based on the length of your original booking. For example, if you originally booked 18 weeks on the Intensive General course and extend by 4 weeks, you will pay for these 4 weeks at the 18-week rate. You must pay a deposit, or full fees, in order to guarantee a place.

Cancelling or postponing a course before you start it

Important note: You must be insured to avoid losing fees. View our insurance page for more information

6. If you want to cancel a course, you must do so in writing. You may cancel on the following conditions:

• more than 15 working days’ (Monday–Friday) notice before the course begins: no penalty
• 6 working days to 15 working days’ notice before the course begins: 50% penalty
• less than 6 working days’ notice before the course begins: 100% penalty.

Each minimum period is regarded as a separate course. (See paragraph 1 above).

7. If you want to postpone a course, you must do so in writing. You may postpone on the following conditions:

• you must pay the full course fees by the original starting date of the course booked, and
• you must take the postponed course within 3 months of the original starting date.

If you postpone a booking, we will give you a credit towards the postponed booking as follows:

• 6 working days’ notice or more before the course begins: 100% credit of course fees paid
• less than 6 working days’ notice before the course begins: 50% credit of course fees paid.

A postponed booking cannot be postponed again or cancelled.  

If you postpone Individual Tuition (including combination courses) with less than 3 working days’ notice, you will not receive any credit of your fees.

Please note that it is your responsibility to arrange suitable insurance to avoid losing fees in the event of unavoidable cancellation or postponement.
Note that our terms apply even in the case of unforseeable ‘force majeure’ events, which may not be covered by insurance.

8. If you cancel your booking because of a visa refusal, we will refund any fees that you have paid if you send us a copy of the visa refusal letter issued by the British Embassy/Consulate. You must do this at least 5 working days before your course is due to start. If you notify us later, we reserve the right to charge you in line with our normal cancellation terms. If you cancel less than 5 working days before your arrival date, and homestay has been arranged, you must pay for 1 week’s accommodation, and the accommodation placement fee, even if your cancellation is caused by a visa refusal. Please note that it is your responsibility to apply for your visa in good time.

Shortening a booking after you have started

'Intensive General English (IGE) and 'English for University' (EFU) courses.

9. If your Intensive General English course is shorter than 13 weeks, you cannot shorten your stay part of the way through it.

10. If your IGE or EFU course lasts more than 12 weeks, you may shorten your stay part-way through if:

• you give us 15 working days’ notice of a change
• you pay for at least 12 weeks, and pay for the weeks you have taken (including the period of notice if appropriate) at the rate appropriate for a booking of that length
• you pay a cancellation penalty equal to half the difference between your original fees and the revised fees.

If you extend your course, you cannot cancel part-way through the extension.

11. If you shorten an Intensive General English or English for University course but at the same time book and pay for an extra course or courses (for example, if you shorten your Intensive General English course in order to move onto an IELTS course), we will reduce the penalty by 20% of the difference between the extra fees you will now spend and the revised fees as defined in paragraph 10. This credit can only be used to reduce the penalty; if it is greater than the penalty, we will not return any money to you.

Other courses

12. Each Minimum Period (as defined in paragraph 1) is regarded as a separate course. The rules in paragraphs 6 and 7 relating to cancellation apply whether you cancel before you arrive or while you are here.

13. The cancellation conditions in paragraphs 6-12 above apply in all circumstances except a visa refusal (see paragraph 8). We therefore strongly recommend that you take out insurance in case you are unable to start or finish your course for reasons outside your control, such as illness. See separate notes about insurance.

Changing your booking

Any changes to bookings once they have been confirmed will incur a charge of £30.  The only exception is for course extensions made after arrival.

14. If you give us less than 15 working days’ notice, you may be able to change a course booking, but this is at our discretion.

15. If you change from a more expensive course to a cheaper one with less than 15 working days’ notice, we will not give you any refund, either in cash or in extra lessons.

16. If you change from a cheaper group course to a more expensive group course, you will have to pay extra, but we will always give you a credit of the fees you have paid.

17. If you change from a group course to Individual Tuition or to a Combination course with less than 15 working days’ notice, the Individual Tuition must be at least 15 hours per week. In this case we will give you credit of 100% of your weekly group course fee per week of Individual Tuition.

18. If you change your course after you have started in the school, you must pay a rebooking fee of £30 for every change, unless we have advised you to move between the 'Intensive General English' course and 'English for University'.

Examination courses

19. You must pay your examination fees at the same time as your course fees. Examination booking dates depend on the examination authority. If you book late, you may have to pay an extra fee. The fees quoted for examination courses do not include the fees for the examination itself. The examination may take place either during the last week of the course or after the course has finished.

Holidays

20. If your courses at the school last for 12 weeks or more, you may take a holiday on the following conditions:

• Your holiday must consist of whole weeks, must last at least 2 weeks, and must not normally exceed 4 weeks.
• Total holidays must not normally exceed 20% of your total course.
• You must give us at least 15 working days’ notice of taking a holiday.
• In July and August you must start and finish your holiday on the published course dates (see our website for more details).
• We will not give you a refund for holiday weeks, but you may extend your stay by the same number of weeks.
• If as a result of taking a holiday your course is extended into July or August, you will have to pay a summer supplement (please see our website for more details). If you take holiday in weeks for which you have paid a summer supplement, we will refund it.
• If as a result of taking a holiday your course extends into 2016, you will have to pay 2016 fees.
• If you later cancel part of your course (see paragraph 10), holiday weeks will be lost and weeks during which you were on holiday will be counted as course weeks for the purpose of calculating fees and penalties.

21. The school is closed on some public holidays and open on others.  Please see our current Dates and Fees for details.  If you make a booking that means you will miss more than 5% of your course(s) at Westcroft Square because the school is closed while you are here, we will adjust your fees to reflect the time that you will lose.  Course fees will be adjusted to reflect the hours lost on Holland Park Gardens courses over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend.

Your level of English

22. It is your responsibility to check the level of English you need for the course you wish to take (please see our brochure, website or current Dates and Fees). We strongly recommend that you complete our free online English test. If you are uncertain about your level, please contact the school, we will be happy to advise you.

23. If your level of English is unsuitable for the course you have booked, we reserve the right to move you to a more suitable one, or to refuse you admission to the school. If we move you to a more expensive course as a result, you will have to pay the difference. If we move you to a cheaper course, you will not receive any refund.

24. If your level is too low to join a group course, we may offer you a programme of Individual Tuition at our current rates, subject to availability. Because this will be more expensive, you can choose either to pay extra and maintain the full length of your booking, or to pay the original fees and shorten your studies. If your total time with us becomes shorter, we will calculate your fees based on the new course length.

Homestay accommodation

25. Homestay accommodation is only available while you are taking a course in the school, including any time necessary to take an exam connected with your course, and in multiples of whole weeks.

26. Homestay accommodation is booked from the day before your course starts to the day after it ends. If you want to arrive earlier, or leave later, we will try to arrange this at a rate of £50 per night (bed and breakfast) but we may have to offer you an alternative such as a hotel for the extra nights.

27. If you cancel your homestay with less than 6 working days' notice, you will have to pay a cancellation charge of 1 week’s rent.

28. The accommodation placement fee is non-refundable if we have arranged your accommodation, whenever you cancel.

29. If you want to leave homestay accommodation while you are in the school, you must give 6 working days' notice or pay 1 week’s rent instead. If you leave homestay accommodation because you are unhappy there, we will not ask you to pay this as long as your decision to leave is reasonable.

30. You may pay for your accommodation monthly.  In this case you must pay one week in advance of each month.

31. We recommend that you reserve accommodation for the whole time you are in the school. If you reserve accommodation for a shorter period than your course, and then wish to extend it, you must give us at least 3 weeks’ notice. We will do our best to extend it, but we cannot guarantee to do so. If you give us less than 3 weeks’ notice, and it is necessary to move you to a new homestay, you will have to pay a supplementary accommodation placement fee of £60.

32. If you take a holiday break during a long course, you may be able to remain in your homestay, but this is not guaranteed. If you wish to leave your homestay at this time, you must give us at least 1 week's notice. We will try to arrange for you to return to the same accommodation, but we cannot guarantee to do so and if you need a new homestay you will need to pay a new accommodation fee of £60.

33. You are liable to pay for any damage that you cause at your accommodation.

34. The school’s accommodation service acts as an agent in introducing you to your homestay host. The contract is between you and your host.

General

35. If you take a course that starts in one year and finishes in the next, we will calculate your fees and accommodation payments according to the fees for the different years. For example, if your course starts in 2018 and extends into 2019, you will pay 2018 prices for the part in 2018 and 2019 prices for the part in 2019.

36. You must pay all your course fees even if you arrive late. You must also pay all your course fees if you leave early or miss lessons, unless you cancel according to paragraph 10 or take holiday according to paragraph 20.

37. We reserve the right to exclude you in the event of late arrival of more than one day without prior agreement, attend irregularly or behave unacceptably. In this case you will have to pay all your course fees plus any additional costs incurred. If your attendance falls below 80% without the prior agreement of a senior courses manager, you will not be issued with an end of course certificate.

38. We try to run all advertised courses, but we reserve the right to cancel courses where this is unavoidable. In this case we will always offer you an alternative, but if you choose not to accept it, we will refund you all fees paid.

39. If you have come to us through an agent, their Terms of Contract may apply to you, but we reserve the right to apply our own Terms.

40. In order to fulfil our obligations to you and, in some cases, to the British authorities, it is necessary for us to see and copy your passport (and visa if appropriate), to have contact details for you in London (including a mobile phone number if you have one), and to have details of your next of kin in your own country. You therefore agree to provide these and tell us if they change during your stay.

41. We reserve the right to hold our courses at either London centre or at a suitable offsite location, irrespective of the published location. Although we will always try to respect the stated maximum class size, we reserve the right to exceed it by one.

42. If a situation arises that has not been covered by these Terms, we reserve the right to take any fair and reasonable action that we think appropriate.