Chester College International School

I decided to come to Chester College after taking part in their Spanish summer camp a few summers in a row. I had an amazing year and loved Santiago! I studied 10th grade there as I decided I wanted to improve my Spanish. The classes were really small so I got a lot of help, and I had a Spanish lesson every day so I could improve really quickly. When my level was good enough, I started getting other subjects through Spanish as well like Maths and Science. The teachers are all really nice and give you lots of support if you don't know something. They also helped me to think about my university choices and what career I might be interested in. I liked living in the residence - I shared a room with a Spanish girl and the monitor was really nice - she was from Spain too. At the weekend we went on trips and went to the beach in the summer. The food was really nice too! I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to study abroad and do well in all their normal subjects but also get fluent in Spanish and experience living in another culture.

I studied Grade 11 in Chester College International School - a few ago already! Looking back, it was a wonderful decision. From an academic point of view, the recognition of credits was really easy and the transition to my school in the UK was very easy. I reached a proficient level of Spanish by the end of the school year - a language I now use for work and travel all the time. Apart from Spanish, I took a number of solid Science subjects, as well as a range of other Arts ones, including German as a second language. The cultural experience was also definitely a highlight - Santiago is small, safe and beautiful. I stayed in the school residence during the week (which I shared with a group of Spanish and international students) and would go to a host family during the week-ends (that was my choice back then - I could have had the option to stay in the boarding school during the week-ends as well). I am still in touch with my host parents. It was a wonderful exchange overall. I made many new friends I am still in touch with. Can´t wait to go back to Santiago to revisit all those memories.

I loved Santiago! I wanted to choose an area of Spain that was far away from all of the tourists in the Costa del Sol and that's exactly what I got. Santiago is such a beautiful city! The Spanish camp was awesome - the classes were really small so we had lots of help from the teacher and I improved loads over the month. We also did lots of our lessons offsite - going to the local market to learn the names of the food an practicing ordering drinks for real in a cafe was lots of fun. At the site (Chester College) the Spanish camp was held at the same time as a big English camp for Spanish students, so I made lots of friends from Spain which was cool and it helped me with my Spanish as I could practice with them (some of them were my roommates too). At the end of the camp we all put on a big theater production to showcase our work which was fun, I think it helped to have something to work towards. We went on about 3 trips a week - often to beaches or nice countryside. The beaches were so beautiful! Also I hate the extreme heat, and in Santiago it was a really nice temperature (about 25-30ºC) which was perfect for me. I would definitely recommend this camp. Oh and the food was delicious too!